TheHessianHistorian

Actually, I think German ancestry is MUCH easier to research than American ancestry. The Germans meticulously recorded every birth, baptism, confirmation, marriage, and death in each village in a church book. Assuming the village church book hasn't been destroyed in a war or disaster (and surprisingly, most haven't been), you can usually take any given German line of ancestry back to the 1600s (few church books survive from before the Thirty Years' War, but a handful do). You might invest in a subscription to www.Archion.de. They are in the process of putting all the evangelisch (Evangelical, aka Protestant) church books online in digital format. A 1-month subscription is something like 19 Euros, which usually translates to a little over $20. Well worth it for us genealogists!

As a specialist in early modern German social history, I sometimes wonder how my subdisciplines are fairing in the history field right now. What would you say are some particularly "hot" specialties in history right now? How about some particularly "not hot" specialties? I've heard from some folks that history of mass incarceration is a burgeoning subject, while general American history is kind of oversaturated and dry right now. What are other people hearing?

Point taken, but the aforementioned schools I am applying to are for a Master's degree, not a Ph.D. And I highly disagree with you that Vanderbilt's doctoral program is not worth attending. It is a very highly ranked and resource-rich program, especially for early modern Germanists like myself. I am applying to the doctoral programs at Princeton, UNC, UI-Urbana, Vanderbilt, WUSTL, and UC-Davis.

I don't know... I think the difference between $500, $1000, or $1500 in application costs is negligible considering that grad school is a several-year commitment. If applying to a few more schools is able to help you find that acceptance offer with an extra $5,000/year in funding (heck, even an extra $500/year in funding, since we're talking several years here), it's worth it to throw a few more applications in the mix.

My mentors have consistently told me that the goal, when applying to graduate programs in history, is to apply to 10-20 schools. Above 20 might be overkill, but you probably want to aim for 15 schools, give or take, to make sure you find the very best funding offering that you possibly can.

I was skeptical, but I turned my 32-page senior thesis from a left-justified into a justified document and it did somehow shave off about 5 lines. Not much change, but it somehow does make a bit of a difference. I am thinking that justifying the document squeezes the spaces between words a little smaller on some lines, and that must be where the saved space comes in.

I'm a history major, and I can attest that I got 3 quant sections.

Neat! Hope you are able to get into your top choice! I applied to study under Jacob Baum at Texas Tech (which charges $0 to apply) and Roy Vice at Wright State (only $40 to apply). If cost of application is an issue, you might look into those schools. The deadline to apply to Texas Tech isn't until January 15th and Wright State isn't until March 1st (w/ funding) or April 15th (w/o funding). Also, I haven't applied to Southeast Missouri State University yet (they are kind of my ultimate safety school that I will apply to if I start getting a bunch of rejections in February), but they have Prof. Vicky McAlister and their application fee is only $30. You might keep SMSU in mind, since their deadline isn't until March 1st. I ran into the sabbatical issue a couple of times--Luebke at Oregon, and Sreenivasan at Brandeis--but they both said it could be worked around so I'm crossing my fingers also. I think my top choice is probably Vanderbilt, but I would be happy getting into any of the programs I applied to.

Yes, I can corroborate that. In fact, it is preferable to contact multiple professors in the same program. That shows them that you are a good fit for the department as a whole, and not just one faculty member. If anything should happen to your primary advisor (death, relocation, sabbatical, etc.), you want to make sure there is another potential advisor in the department who could take you on to their advisee load. Some of the grad school applications I did this year even specifically asked me to name multiple professors in their department who I communicated with before submitting my application.

Sounds like that professor did you a favor. You wouldn't have wanted a letter of recommendation from her anyway, if she did not see eye to eye with you. Her denial has opened the door for you to get a much more valuable LOR from a different professor with whom you have a better relationship.

I've got you beat. I started my first Bachelor's degree in the fall of 2003 and didn't finish it until the fall of 2015. With several changes of my major, a few school transfers, some interstate migration, a heaping helping of youthful irresponsibility, and a 5-year break from school thrown into the middle, I limped to the finish line with a 2.33 GPA. Along the way, I discovered my love of history and gradually determined that writing, researching, and teaching history at the university level was what I would do with my life. Once I finished my first Bachelor's degree (in Liberal Studies), I went straight back and re-enrolled in a second Bachelor's degree program (in History), which I am on track to have completed in 2 years, and with a 3.8 GPA. I also stressed out a lot about my abysmal academic record in my first B.A. program, and I contacted numerous history departments and POIs at target schools. Every single one of them said that they focus much more on the 2 most recent years of your college record and on the classes that directly pertain to your major. They all advised me to focus on having a great writing sample, statement of purpose, GRE scores, and letters of recommendation, and that the poor performance in my first B.A. program would not bar me from being accepted. So, what I did was contact my university's history department lead and ask if he would supervise me in a very ambitious honors thesis, which he agreed to do. It involved me translating and cataloging all the vital records in a German village for 3 centuries, and then analyzing them. The thesis is now being prepared for publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal. Turabian's "Manual for Writers" was a big help in constructing my thesis. I also relied heavily on Asher's "Graduate Admissions Essays" to craft a stellar SOP. I studied, studied, studied for the GRE and got good scores. And I spent lots of time conversing with my three favorite history instructors and cultivating relationships that would lead to great LORs. Lastly, I spent a year saving up $2,000 with which to apply to up to 20 graduate programs (I ultimately decided on 16), just to hedge my bets. Even though my performance in my first Bachelor's degree is way worse than yours, I am pretty confident that I will get in to at least one good graduate program, with funding.

Thanks for the suggestions! I did contact Thomas Robisheaux, but he is retiring this year and says they are not going to bring on someone with his specialties for another couple years. So, Duke might be a possibility for my PhD program after I finish my Master's degree, if they get a good early modern Germanist replacement. I ran into the same problem with retiring professors when looking at applying to Cornell (Isabel Hull), Ohio State (Geoff Parker), Syracuse U (Fred Marquardt), UCLA (David Sabean), and UW-Milwaukee (Merry Wiesner-Hanks). This just seems to be the year for early modern Germany experts to retire! As for Penn, I do like Thomas Max Safley's work. I think I decided against Penn because there wasn't really any other faculty member that I felt would be a good mentor for an early modern Germanist if Safley should ever disappear. The main POIs that I connected with at the other programs are: Sean Dunwoody - Binghamton University Govind Sreenivasan - Brandeis University Vera Lind - Northern Illinois University Yair Mintzker - Princeton University Jacob Baum - Texas Tech University Daniel Riches - University of Alabama Beth Plummer - University of Arizona Kathy Stuart - University of California Davis Craig Koslofsky - University of Illinois Urbana Terence McIntoish - University of North Carolina Chapel Hill David Luebke - University of Oregon Joel Harrington - Vanderbilt University Christine Johnson - Washington University in St. Louis Marion Gray - Western Michigan University Roy Vice - Wright State University Carlos Eire - Yale University

They don't have any faculty who are studying what I want to study (early modern German social history).

Earned my first BA in Liberal Studies from Wright State University several years ago. Now finishing up a second BA, in History, from Southern New Hampshire University. Applying to graduate programs (MA where available, otherwise PhD) at Binghamton University, Brandeis University, Northern Illinois University, Princeton University, Texas Tech, University of Alabama, University of Arizona, University of California-Davis, University of Illinois-Urbana, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of Oregon, Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St. Louis, Western Michigan University, Wright State University, and Yale University. Specialty is early modern German history, especially social history, cultural history, daily life, peasantry, marginalized people, gender/sexuality, religion, and economics.

Yes, great GRE scores can absolutely help make up for a low GPA. You also want your letters of recommendation, statement of purpose (see Donald Asher's book, "Graduate Admissions Essays"), and writing sample (see Kate Turabian's book, "A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations") to be stellar as well. The advice that I received from my mentors was to apply to a mix of both Master's programs and PhD programs. Almost all PhD programs will allow you to scoop up a Master's degree in your second year along the way. Most professors I've spoken with have recommended that I apply to between 10-20 programs, so I chose 16. It's expensive (cost me about $1500 to apply to all), but this is a several year proposition, so making sure you get the very best school you can possibly get into, with the best waiver/stipend/assistantship/fellowship/etc. is totally worth it in the long run.

Yes, this is correct. You will need to include a brief explanation in your statement of purpose explaining why your cumulative GPA was so low. Focus on making sure all the other parts of your application are stellar, to make up for the low GPA. GRE scores, letters of recommendation, writing sample, etc. should all "wow". Lastly, you should be contacting the program coordinator and potential professors that you would like to work with at the schools you're interested in. If you develop a preliminary relationship with people from the department, they may be more likely to overlook your GPA.

Yes, if you show extreme improvement, Master's programs will consider you as an applicant, even if your ultimate GPA is lower than what they say they'll accept. I have a similar track record. I also started my first B.A. (in Liberal Studies) in 2003 and finished with a 2.3 GPA (although my poor performance was due to nothing more than youthful immaturity and irresponsibility, no mental illness). I decided I wanted to go to graduate school for history, so I started a new Bachelor's degree (in History) in 2016, and am now wrapping up that degree with a 3.7 GPA. However, because the second degree involved so few classes compared to the first degree, my "cumulative" GPA (combining every undergraduate college course I've ever taken, across both degrees) is still 2.8. Some Master's programs no longer have a GPA requirement at all. There are some Master's programs, however, that have a requirement (usually 3.0) for cumulative undergrad GPA. I contacted several of these Master's programs and asked if they would still consider my application in light of the recent GPA improvement. Every single program said that yes, they would waive the GPA requirement for me in light of my personal growth. So, if I were you, I would 1). find out if the programs you want to apply to even have a GPA requirement, 2). contact your potential programs who have a GPA requirement and ask them if they will consider your application in light of your improvement, and 3). include a brief explanation (i.e., one sentence, and then pivot to positives) of your poor earlier grades in your statement(s) of purpose documents when you apply.

Yes, it is basically a passive rejection, but you have nothing to lose from contacting the school. What I would really recommend is contacting your POI at that school and asking them to look into the status of your application for you. I have heard of applicants being un-waitlisted and accepted after a professor takes a look at the application personally and inquires with the admissions committee where they're at in accepting the student.

I submitted my Princeton application a few weeks ago. On my Applyweb, I do see a checklist button ("View Checklist"). I'm not sure if the lack of a checklist button means your application was not accepted. I would email the graduate program director if I were you to be sure. Public schools usually have strict legal guidelines as to whether they can accept late applications or not, but private schools will often flex if you just give them an email or phone call and ask.

Every undergraduate student should do this, regardless of whether they think they want to go to grad school or not. I didn't do these things in my first undergraduate degree because I thought there was no way I would ever want to go to graduate school. Turns out it's possible for people's minds to change after a few years out of school! When I ended up deciding I wanted to do a graduate degree, all I had to show was a weak undergraduate degree with a low GPA, no extras, no relationships with professors, etc. I had to go back for another 2 years to pick up a second Bachelor's degree to do it right. Now I'm finally ready to apply to graduate programs.

I'm 31 years old and applying to a mixture of Master's and Ph.D. programs in the field of history. Finishing up a second Bachelor's degree, with expected completion in Spring 2018. (Earned my first B.A. in Liberal Studies a decade ago when I was a very irresponsible kid and finished with a 2.33 GPA. Now doing a B.A. in History and earning a 3.7 GPA.) I am not married and I do not have any kids yet, so that frees me up to apply anywhere in the country. I have applied to 16 schools, spread out across the United States. I could end up anywhere--East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, Deep South, New England, etc. I currently have a decent full-time job (about as decent as it gets for an educated worker in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest), but history is my passion so I am willing to take a bit of a pay cut to pursue grad school. Once I get some acceptances, a big factor I will use in deciding where to enroll will be what their funding offerings look like. I am gunning for a full ride tuition waiver and hopefully an assistantship to provide me with a living stipend. I might just go with the school that offers me the most $. Would really like for school to be my "job" for the next few years. I will still have a virtual side business that I run, which can supplement any income that I earn from working for the school (as a teaching assistant, research assistant, etc.) during my degree program.

It is a lot of money, yes. Only a couple (Yale and UC-Davis) have application fees over $100, though. Most programs have application fees in the $50-70 range. Two of the programs I applied to have zero application fees (Vanderbilt and Texas Tech). It also does cost $27 per school to send your GRE scores, but keep in mind that when you get done taking your GRE, you can send your GRE scores to 4 schools for free. Also, schools only require you to upload unofficial transcripts, and you don't have to have official transcripts sent to the school until after you're accepted. My entire application season cost came out to $1,569. It's a hefty chunk of change, but when you think of it in terms of finding the very best program with the very best funding offering, it's so worth it. This is a several-year proposition. If it makes the difference between ending up at a school with a $10,000 stipend and a 2/3rds tuition waiver versus ending up at a school with a $30,000 stipend and a full tuition waiver, spending a measly $1500 is so worth it. You just have to make sure that money is set aside. I spent 1 year before application season setting aside $125-150 of my paycheck every month into a separate bank account solely for grad school applications because I knew I wanted to go all out and apply to over a dozen programs.

The advice my advisor gave me was to apply to 10-20 programs, with several of them being programs you could be really excited about. That way, you're bound to get into at least one of your favorites, and you won't have to deal with crushed expectations.

I am applying in the humanities, so I guess I am lucky in the sense that I do not have to worry about any interviews, but unlucky in the sense that I have to wait longer to get an inkling as to whether or not I'm going to be accepted or rejected. Best of luck to you all!

My third recommender finally turned in the letters for all of the schools tonight. Two of them were past the deadline (one was 7 days overdue, one was 4 days overdue). All of them (late or not) seem to have been accepted successfully by the application systems. I think I'm okay. Phew!