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Fall '19

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  1. Upvote
    Fall '19 reacted to samman1994 in Venting Thread- Vent about anything.   
    Leaving for my PhD has become the most bittersweet moment in my life. On one hand everyone is happy I got in and excited for me to start this journey (including myself), saying congratulations and asking all kinds of questions about how it'll be and helping me find a place to live. On the other hand everyone is also sad, especially my family, close friends, and girlfriend. Sometimes crying about missing me, and how they won't see me for 4-5 years (outside of my occasional visits). A discussion about my PhD can basically go from happy to sad in a blink of an eye, one second we're all talking excitedly on a place I found or classes I'd be taking, next second they're crying that I'll be leaving. I always thought it would become this great exciting thing (and it is), but I never considered the sad portion of me leaving everyone behind and how difficult it would be. It just really sucks at time. 
  2. Upvote
    Fall '19 reacted to Sigaba in How strong is my application really?   
    FWIW, a number of graduate students who have gone through the process, some multiple times, have provided guidance in this thread and others that differ from the information quoted below.
    The writing sample. There are a variety of opinions on using one's best work versus using one that best reflects one's likely research interests as a graduate student.There are posts on this BB in which graduate students find that writing samples proved less critical to the decision than other factors, not the least because some members of admissions committees don't have time to read the samples carefully. If you only have yourself and one adviser to scrub your sample, you may be in for some tough sledding. Advisers are busy and after a while, it's ever harder to find glitches in one's own work.
    The statement of purpose. A cover letter and a SOP are entirely different documents. A number of established members have provided guidance about displays of passion in SOPs. Not a few recommend professionalism as a superior trait for SOPs. YMMV.
    Letters of recommendation "aren't as important as the latter two".   If you don't think LORs are as important as other components of your application, you're imposing on yourself a considerable disadvantage. You need to establish genuine relationships with professional academic historians or advanced graduate students in your department who respect your work and believe that you will be able to contribute to the profession. You will be competing for admission against undergraduates and graduates who have taken multiple courses with POIs.
    The best "benefit" of being a graduate student in history is that you will have the opportunity to be trained to be a professional academic historian. If you're doing it for a "free ride," you may get eaten alive by true believers in your cohort.
    LANGUAGE SKILLS If you're not an Americanist, how far along are you in your mastery of multiple languages? Are you on track to pass language exams so you can do archival research abroad for your dissertation? Or will you need to bust hump to catch up your first two years in a program?
    Test scores, GPA. Some programs have minimum thresholds for GRE scores and GPA. If you're applying to such a program, what is more important, your writing sample or keeping your grades up? If your practice test scores put you on a bubble, what's your priority going to be?
    Academic pedigree  Bottom line, bias exists in the House of Klio. If you majored in history and your high school is Happyland Preparatory Academy, and your UGI is Happyland University, your pedigree gives you a competitive advantage when applying to Happyland College of the Canyon. If you have this ace to play, play it with a little swagger, an appropriate amount of humility, and without shame. (What ever you do, don't go Kanye. It's a small world.)
    All components of your applications are important. The challenge aspiring graduate students in history face is deciding which components are most important for a particular application, how to change what can be changed the most in a limited amount of time and being at peace with the choices they make. 
     
  3. Like
    Fall '19 reacted to Sigaba in Recovering from Burnout while still preparing for a PhD program   
    I recommend that you focus on resting up. Your posts radiate exhaustion.
     Follow @rising_star's guidance for at least the first six weeks of your summer. Don't do a damn thing related to graduate school. Not a damn thing. (No, not even that.) 
    Then slowly build moment for a few weeks, and then plan for at least one long weekend during which you do again don't do a damn thing related to graduate school.
    Don't get me wrong. At least once during your first year, you'll curse r_s and me. Those a-holes done me wrong, you'll drawl. And that's okay, because without resting up now, the inevitably miserable first year will be even more taxing.
  4. Upvote
    Fall '19 reacted to Stephanie022594 in Low GPA... Is there hope for me?   
    I had a friend who had 3 C's and got into grad school because of her experience and LOR. Don't give up.
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