historygeek

I go to SLU for my undergrad-- I graduate this year, actually. I'd love to talk to you about it!

Eh, it was an accident. ,

Reach out to professors at the schools that you listed. They’ll be your best resource. We also don’t know your specific research interests, do it would be impossible to tell you. If I were you I would plan on starting to learn a classical language, especially Latin. My faculty mentor is a medieval/early modernist and when I considered doing medieval history, he told me that schools- especially good ones -would rather have someone with Latin training then someone without.

Would anyone be interested in another SOP swap?

I loved the Magoosh Vocabulary Builder + the Kaplan flashcards! I bought the hard copies of the flashcards.

Thank you! In general, I’m a pretty strong writer, which definitely helped. To practice, I did the full-length ETS PowerPrep tests. At the end, they give you some sample scored essays, which I tried to model my essays on. ETS also offers an essay scorer. It’s $20, but worth it, imo. On the actual test, I read the prompt and took a minute or so to think. I definitely recommend just starting to write, keeping grammar in mind. You can always edit. As I was writing, I got new ideas, so that helped. Good luck!

Thank you!

I know that, of everything, your AW score matters the least. But, I got my official scores today and I got a 5.5 (98th percentile) on the writing! I was kind of bummed about my scores (especially my verbal), but I feel really, really good now!

For hard copies, I have this huge binder for my thesis notes. I divided it using tab dividers: secondary sources, newspapers, newsletters, pictures, oral histories, etc. Then I organize them chronologically. I do have a sheet in the front pocket of my binder to tell me what I have and where. For digital copies, I have a folder, and then have a similar system. Different folders for each type, then organize chronologically. I also have an Excel sheet as a directory.

If I could give some input in this: In the first few years of my undergrad, I literally had no idea what I wanted to focus on. Modern American history? Medieval Russian history? Classical Rome? The Prague Spring? I changed my major about seven times (always keeping history, though), so much so that the Arts & Sciences advising office at my school pretty much gives me a "add/drop major" sheet every time I walk in. During my second year of undergrad, I studied abroad for a year in Rome and took a 19th and 20th Century Italy class. When I got back to the US, I went to my favorite neighborhood in St. Louis and read a book about it. I realized that the history of Italy and Italian-America were incredibly diverged from each other, and I wanted to figure out why. I started an internship at this small museum in the neighborhood, and decided to write an honors thesis about how the neighborhood kept its identity. In my primary source research and listening to the stories told by the women in the neighborhood, I became interested in the female immigrant experience beyond labor. Being the descendant of immigrant women, I decided to apply my research to the immigrant experiences that I grew up with. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sometimes your experiences are key in informing your research interests!

From what I've seen, a degree in history isn't necessarily a requirement, but they prefer if you have a solid background in history classes. You say that you want to be a history and law professor/academic. Do you have a specific research project in mind? History of law is broad: are you interested in American patent law? British civil law? The implementation of law in imperial China? Saying "I want to study the history of law" isn't going to help you out when you're looking for potential advisors or schools that are a good fit, and just putting that you're interested in the history of law probably won't help you out on your SOPs. I think a good way to prepare is to first find a topic that you're interested in, and do as much reading as you possibly can on your topic to give yourself a good footing. Good luck!

Send the first scores. AW isn’t looked at as heavily as the quant or verbal. Best of luck to you!

I got a 160V and a 142Q. I was nervous about it, so reached out to my top choice programs (Harvard and Columbia). Both said the same thing: don’t worry about it. Worry about LORs, SOPs, and your writing sample.

It was fine! I didn’t meet my goal but I contacted my top choice programs, who said not to worry about it. I think it’d be pointless to retake it

Let the games begin!

Hi everyone! Instead of posting a new topic for every SOP, I decided to make a master post. If anyone would be willing to read my SOPs and give feedback, I would really appreciate it! Harvard - PhD Columbia - PhD Rutgers - PhD UCLA - PhD NYU - PhD George Washington - SOP Indiana - PhD UC Davis - PhD Michigan - PhD

That's relieving -- I got a 160 on the verbal, and I'm not sure what my writing score is yet.

Yeah, I’m not gonna sweat my score too much. My POI at Harvard said it’s the least important part of the application, so much so that they’ve considered dropping the requirement.

IT’S DONE! I finally got the GRE over with. I’m not the happiest with my score, but I feel as though it’s good enough to not get my applications automatically thrown out... anyways, time to try to relax and read a bit the rest of the summer!

Good luck to you!

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure I want to take it again unless absolutely necessary. I emailed my top choices to make sure my score was okay. As long as they confirm that it is, I’m not going to put in the time or the effort! From what I’ve seen, history GRE scores don’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things. I know I can get my writing sample + SOPs to an incredible level, and I know I have three very strong LORs. I’m not gonna sweat it too much, I don’t think.

update: my faculty mentor said with the rest of my application it should be okay!

Just took my GRE. 160V. Should I retake it? Or just worry about the other parts of my application?

Hi everyone. I just took the GRE and it went not as well as expected. I got a 160v (86th percentile), 142Q. Should I retake it?

Not your field, but I’ve known of people who have gotten 140-ish on the quant and gotten into an Ivy League for history.