egg-bean-crumpet

Gilded Age and Progressive Era America, focusing on working class social history, immigration and urban history

This is good advice, thank you very much!

Hi all, I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for me. I'm applying to history Ph.D. programs, and decided to also apply to one funded MA program (that also has a PhD program). However, when I contacted profs at the MA school, they let me know that they give precedence to applicants interested in the PhD. Since I'm ultimately interested in pursuing a Ph.D., just not at this school, I'm wondering if I should just make it clear in my SOP that my goal is to complete doctoral work, or if I should attempt to switch my application from MA to PhD. My main reason for applying to the MA school is that my current research interests are focused on the city in which the MA school is located, but I would like to earn a Ph.D. at a school with a stronger national reputation. My recommenders have already submitted their letters to this school in support of my application to the MA program, so the main barrier to switching my target degree on the application would be logistical. Hope this makes sense. My instinct is to tactfully ask a professor at the MA school with whom I am in contact for his assessment, in order to just let him know what the deal is (i.e. leave off any mention of the school's reputation and indicate that I'm now considering the benefits of staying at MA school for doctoral work). I suspect that the school is just looking for serious students who are actually interested in putting in the time and effort that a graduate program requires, as opposed to those who are just seeking to spend another couple of years in school for the heck of it, so my problem hopefully won't be all that significant.

Thanks, I suspected as much but am grateful to read about someone else's experience.

History PhD applicant here, though I believe the answer to this question would be the same for multiple fields: Is it necessary to submit the electronic application, which includes a Personal Statement, Writing Sample, etc, before sending official transcripts and GRE scores? One school, JHU, asks that the electronic application be sent before transcripts and LORs and such arrive, but I'm wondering if this is true across the board. I want to send transcripts in sooner than later, but worry that my written materials won't be ready for a couple of weeks yet.

I'm a 19th Century/Progressive era Americanist, so not quite your field, but judging from the schools in your sig. there's quite a bit of overlap between our target schools lists.