runaway

Annieca, just look on the bright side-- you're read the letter! Any of us could be in your shoes too and have no idea about it. As for making strong historical arguments, you have your writing sample to directly disprove that statement. Don't despair too much!

I'm momentarily thrilled and in disbelief to be done, but I'm already a bundle full of nerves about my applications. I just want to fast forward to February/March!

You self-reported a lower GPA than what's on your transcripts, so I can't see this reflecting poorly on you. It was clearly a mistake, not an attempt to fudge the numbers.

This was highly competitive, but I'm going into this whole thing expecting highly competitive to be the usual. The difference between internship and PhD applicants, of course, is that applicants are a bit more self-selective when signing up for something that takes 7 years vs a few months. But it's a popular/trendy field right now and the job market is still recovering, so I'm expecting high applicant numbers this cycle. (Note that this is purely speculation, and (like you said) preparing for the worst. I don't have any inside scoop!)

That's nothing! I recently applied to an *internship* that had over 500 applicants.

@SheisStellar: I'm sorry that some of these posts came across as condescending, but remember that all of us were in your position once, too. And, by and large, we began to find direction by doing the grunt work ourselves. You might notice that posts such as the one fullofpink recommends often are followed by comments like "If you're interested in X at Y University, have you considered A at B University, too?" What books sparked your interest in your subfield? Start there. Look up that person. Look up the people in their footnotes. Look up their reviewers. Academics have family trees; figure out where you want to fit in on yours, and apply to those schools. (Also, you might want to learn how to spell Berkeley before applying there.)

As an FYI to annieca and others currently applying: It's St Andrews, without any punctuation (not St. Andrews or St. Andrew's). Seems like a silly mistake to call out, but better here than on your application!

I needed this laugh!!

@annieca, aren't the deadlines for St Andrews pretty late? I looked into that program once and it does sound great. (We have similar interests, btw, although I'm interested in politics as background.) I just realized this unintentionally rhymed. I should get off Grad Cafe until these applications have stopped messing with my head.

This is primarily in regards to UK programs, because that's what I'm most familiar with, but might apply throughout the EU. Here, you have to propose a detailed research plan, with a fairly solidified idea, because you jump right in with minimal coursework. The US PhD structure means that your research topic is sort of a rough idea and will likely change along the way. So my understanding is that UK programs evaluate feasibility, background knowledge on topic, etc, and in the US it's about already-present research skills, promise to further develop as a scholar, etc. One mentor of mine advised me to not make it seem my heart was set on a specific topic (when applying in the US) as some programs might see that as missed chance to mold you as a scholar from the beginning. But in terms of a person being qualified, I think these differences might matter more in terms of fit than actual qualification.

It suggests you omit images if you need to get the file down to size. It's not a request.

Should have clarified my thought-- for people who happen to be eligible for FLAS, the regions that schools have funding for vary. I know one school I'm applying to has FLAS funding, but not for my region. So this could play into the fit of a school, or at least have some practical implication on your funding opportunities. Sorry for being so unclear. Finishing these apps has my brain fried!

My understanding is that FLAS funding also varies from school to school, so it might be something to consider.

Thanks! This was my impression, so I hope I'm on the right track...

Does anyone here have experience applying for FLAS grants? Am I right that people outside the department will be evaluating it? I realize that I'm repeating quite a bit of my SoP...

I know this is getting down to the wire, but if anyone would still like to swap their essays please PM me!

Note that the advice everyone is responding to is listed under the 'help' section-- it's advice, not hard-and-fast rules. And it diverges from the general wisdom I've gleaned from this board and elsewhere, which is that a ~1000 word statement, double spaced, is typical and acceptable. Yesterday, I started to freak out about cutting down my statement, but finally decided that I might trim my ~1000 word statement slightly, but if it clocks in at 850 words in the end, I'm not worrying about it.

I've always listed the summer courses I took separately, and uploaded the transcript, unless the application specifies 'degree granting institutions.'

This should help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_undergraduate_degree_classification (I had this info corroborated by friends studying in the UK at the time I first applied here, so it's accurate.) I think when I applied to Oxford I called my degree 'Honors' and found space on the application to explain that referred to the fact I had completed an honors thesis within the US system. But in the end they get plenty of US applicants, so I'm sure they'll be able to accurately evaluate you whatever you put down.

Mine just says 'Excerpt from Title', since I used a chapter that has a fairly good introduction built in.

Thanks, guys. That was sort of my gut instinct, but I just keep second-guessing myself on everything!

sorry for the double post, but I need opinions! I was planning to apply to a mix of history and art history programs, but in the end I'm only applying to one program in history. I have two polished writing samples, both art history papers. One is very theory heavy, but is the paper (oddly enough) where I use foreign language and archival sources. The other is far less theoretical, and more historically oriented, but given the topic and my limitations at the time (it was my senior thesis and I wasn't able, or expected, to travel to the relevant archives) it doesn't display my scholarly abilities as well. I don't have time to edit any of my history seminar papers or the like, so these are my options. Thoughts as to what I should submit for my history application?

Do you have a chance to get to know PhD students who are teaching? I went to a SLAC, so my professors always seemed fairly approachable, but after I started making friends who were TAs and PhDs themselves, I realized that any last remnants of intimidation started to go away because, in essence, I had beers and went to the movies, etc, with their future colleagues all the time. Yes, your professors are more experienced and knowledgeable, and might be far further along in their career than anyone near your peer level. But they also like the same popular TV shows and sports teams, might be on facebook, make mistakes... maybe keeping these things in mind might help when talking to them. Or maybe your problem is far deeper, in which case, the earlier posters have good advice.