historyofsloths

Sorry, I should have said that the two you mentioned are hyper-focused on the Master's program, not that the History program itself doesn't have public history doctoral students. Honestly, you'll probably get the answers you need when you visit and I hope it helps with your decision!

@MtrlHstryGrl So Temple's public history program, run by those two, is only geared towards completing a Master's and the aim of their program is to train people to work for museums/centers/etc that struggle to gain attention/funding. Their program is designed to help the small house museums of the world that get passed over, not your Natural History Museums or popular historic landmarks (think Independence Hall). Temple's History PhD program is really geared towards military history and the trans-Atlantic 17th-18th centuries. Also, Temple does not provide funding for all of their History PhD students and their criteria is based on your GRE scores and GPA (though this may have changed, but speaking as a current Temple student and friend of several current and former Temple History PhDs, that's how they did/didn't receive funding).

Don't forget, your committee for your dissertation (if you're going for a PhD) can be interdisciplinary. So while you may be in the Political Science department, you can have historians from the History Department that fit your subfied/area of research on the committee as well. I applied for History programs but two of the people I listed are from different departments (Sociology and Religion), so it's not as if you'll be completely shut off from the History world.

I keep seeing other people posting about receiving emails from the programs they applied to letting them know that they'll be reviewing applications soon. Haven't even gotten an email like that yet. And it looks like the majority of acceptances for my programs go out the first week in February. I think I'll take your advice @telkanuru and just drink my way through January.

That's awesome! I'm actually applying to the Public History program at Temple (currently my undergrad institution) so I look forward to hearing how it all works out with the Forum!

Thanks for the info and the advice. I've already received some invaluable information from @psstein about one of the programs I'm applying to. If I do get offers, I think I'll create a new phase to the grad school process to make sure I'm getting the truth from the programs.

Thanks for your answer! Some of the websites do talk about what happens after year five (that they'll offer additional funding up to year 7) but many remain pretty mum on the topic. I'll keep that in mind. And thanks, just sent one!

@hojoojoh Oh you know, just creating pinterest boards/Amazon wishlists of supplies and accessories I'd want to get to build my own home office. You totally got this! Where all are you applying?

Can I ask, what's your definition of sketchy funding? I feel like that's the next step in this game: identifying the packages that the programs are offering.

Completely agree, I feel like you could easily start the process analyzing all of the schools that have your broad subfield in history, but by the end you should reasonably have 5 or 6 at most. That's also including other factors such as location, funding, how strong the program actually is, etc. I know I started with 13 and sussed it down to 6, with at least one being a complete gamble.

Sorry, I'm a dumbass and clicked on the wrong subgroup! Carry on!

I submitted 3/6 of my applications. The other three aren't due until the 15th, so I have some time to keep working on my SoPs and my Writing Sample. I'm with the other commenters, it's just a typo! I know someone who's very first sentence in their SoP started with a very obvious typo and she was accepted into all three of her programs. You got this!