cladthecrab

I just heard back from University of Maryland this week and got bumped up from the waitlist to actually having an offer in-hand! Very excited and hope any other waitlisted folks out there hear good things soon.

Hi there! The main types of research experience I've seen among my MA cohort are independent studies and senior theses. The independent study is great since it gives you an opportunity to work with faculty you like on a project, usually a paper. Some folks also take edited papers from classes (methods classes, or just higher div classes) and present at either undergrad conferences or smaller grad conferences that accept undergrad papers. If you're having trouble finding something or need money to go, it's worth asking around your dept to see if there are funding sources for that. I'd also recommend an internship if you can snag them. They're not research in the traditional sense, but experience in a museum or archive can build relevant skills and show your interest in fields related to history. I think of all of us coming into my cohort, maybe only a couple didn't have previous internship experience, and we were the first post-COVID cohort so we'd essentially lost a year and a half to do that.

Sorry to hear this. I wonder why they didn't send out a decision sooner. I've been waiting to hear about them too and didn't want to email them, but I may go ahead and do it after seeing this. Best of luck on your other app!

Should I take it as a bad sign if a couple acceptances have been posted to one of my schools and I haven't heard back yet? It looks like acceptances have started to go out last week and this makes me extremely nervous!

I got my UVA rejection yesterday via the portal. Not surprising (I'm a 19th century Americanist so I knew it was a long shot) but it came right after getting some bad medical news, so not the best time to hear.

It may make some difference that I graduated from my BA during the pandemic, but I was told by a couple of my undergrad faculty that performing well in an MA program could boost chances of getting into a PhD program. I haven't heard back from my programs yet so I can't speak to whether that worked, but I do think it helped to make my profile stronger. Two years of study was sufficient time to get some grad conference presentations, a pub, a thesis that serves as proof of concept for my proposed research, and a writing sample from a grad seminar that was much stronger than anything I produced as an undergraduate, despite having research experience when I applied to my MA. My program was funded, so that likely colors my perception, but all that is to say that you may still find some value in an MA program if you're struggling to get admissions with the BA alone.

Thanks for this info, everyone! I guess I live to hope another day lol. Oh very cool! If you don't mind my asking, what's your field?

Any word on UVA or University of Maryland? My advisor recently asked and it makes me wonder if it's time to be concerned yet!

I didn't think that waiting for decisions this year would feel as drawn out as they did for MA apps, since I'm actively writing my thesis, but I'm already feeling restless about it! Is there anything productive I can do while waiting to hear back, or is it just sit and wait?

After getting a positive response from a PI, I think I'm going to apply to a couple of my first choices this year, then if that doesn't work, go full-force next year when I've finished my MA. Working on my SoP, and a couple of questions: -One program wants a section talking about personal background, contributing to diversity on campus, serving under-served communities with the degree. How personal/impersonal do I go here? They ask about first-gen status in that section, if that makes any difference. -How heavy should I be going in historiography? I have a section where I mention a few authors in the context of coursework that influenced my MA work, and in my section about "fit" I mention that PI has influenced my view of [aspect of my research] but I don't know if there's a better way to do it.

I see that it's come up in this thread to an extent, but is the landscape any less bleak for those applying for things like public sector, non-profit, or consulting jobs, or does the PhD just make one over-qualified in those fields? I'm finishing my MA this year and it has occurred to me that I'd love another several years to dig deeper into my thesis topic, and the stipend income hasn't been bad living for me (mostly), but my fear (particularly as someone who has no interest in being a professor) is whether there will be enough jobs at the end of that tunnel.

I started with some internship experience as an undergrad, but now (MA year 2) I volunteer for a local org when health permits. Small museums are nearly always in need of volunteers, and it can be great to use your skills outside of an academic setting. I think this has helped me to keep a balance between my "academic" voice and my ability to communicate with the communities I'd like to serve. The structure of my program is prohibitive to super heavy organizational involvement, so my main focus is treasurer for our HGSA. Like a lot of HGSAs, we have a conference, so it's great experience with working through funding applications and budgeting for events, which I'm hoping will translate well into aptitude with grant applications post-MA. Conferences and pubs could be worth your time. A lot of grad conferences are pretty low-stakes and CFPs go out year-round to departments and on H-Net. I did one of those last year, plan to do one this year, and have been looking into opportunities to publish in blogs or small journals to get work distributed. You could always work with a prof to find a home for something if you write a really solid seminar paper.

Hi there, everyone! I hope application seasons are going well during this insane year. I'm still waiting for information for some of my programs, but I've received funding offers from two MA programs in my region, not something I expected to happen since my GPA isn't great and I didn't take the GRE. At this level, are there questions that might be valuable to ask the program and my PIs post-acceptance to weigh the programs? My plans post-graduation currently do not involve academia, and I don't have a strong preference, so I want to make sure I have as much information as possible to get the most out of the experience.

-What makes for a good SoP introduction? This is the section I worry most about, since it will ideally set the tone for everything that follows and since I'm not sure how to approach it. -Should I mention my job in my SoP? I've been the undergrad version of an assistant for a while now, and while my advisor is not a historian (classics), I got to do some useful things in that job and it played a big role in me deciding to continue my education rather than going for a job post-BA. However, I don't want to clutter my application if it isn't worth mentioning. -Lastly, do we have any sense of how (if at all) COVID will influence applications and admissions for 2021?

That is concerning. Do you think it would mitigate that at all if I were able to explain why my performance isn't better? I have a feeling it's a crap shoot, but I guess time will tell.