qbtacoma

I'm doing 19th/20th century US with a focus on public health, race, and immigration. In no particular order: Michigan Wisconsin British Columbia Washington Brown Columbia GRE: 720 V 660 Q 5.5 AW Overall GPA 3.72, Major 3.86 Good luck to all!

One trick I used is to sit in front of a mirror during the interview. I made myself sit up straight, smile, and look engaged, and I think that came through in my voice. If you are really nervous staring at yourself might make things worse, but it turned out okay for me. Maybe do a practice run while talking with your friends on the phone or something. Best of luck!

I sent thank you notes as soon as my recommenders agreed to write letters for me, as well as some homemade baked goods. I didn't go out of my way to thank them specifically after submitting the letters, but we've corresponded on things like program deadlines and I thank them in each of those emails. I think sending a card with a coffeeshop gift card ($5 or $10) or something in it is a good idea. It's not like they are expecting us to pony up anything big.

Hi Inky, It sounds like you're in a great position to apply to grad school on a personal as well as professional level. I don't think your age is at all a drawback - you've got a lot of experience with your studio. One thing that older students have mentioned to me is that getting into the groove of school again after taking a break for so long is really difficult at first due to relearning the way things need to get done. But grad school is new to all of us, too! I think your reasons for wanting a degree are solid - go for it!

Eek! Yes, I will.

Question. It has recently come to my attention that perhaps ETS messed up as some schools don't have my GRE scores. How bad is this? I thought I was done...

Yes, I too didn't realize until late in college how common cheating is. After hearing about this I resolved instantly to be an incredible hard@ss about cheating in my future classes - with an open door, so students do have the chance to learn about what plagiarism and cheating are, but there's absolutely no excuse. Just thinking about the money involved is enough. I received so much scholarship money - other people I have never met were willing to invest in my education, and I kept that trust by doing my own work. Just think of how many honest students didn't get to go to that school because some cheaters ate up their scholarship money. Argh! And the worst thing about it is the students had the absolute gall to say "we're paying for this degree so YOU should apologize to US for not letting us get away with it." Makes me want to box some ears. (Not really.)

I'm applying to 7 programs - one is an interdisciplinary program that I decided "what the heck" on Sunday. I really couldn't say what my chances are at these places, though two are Ivies (so...hard to get into?) and the others are all very strong in both my field and in the things I want to study. Except for one school that I'm meh about, it would be really tough to pick between the programs. I will probably use the same strategy I did in undergrad: see where I get the best financial deal and make that my choice. It worked out great for me then.

bhikhaari, you were really smart to get everything in before Thanksgiving week! I finished all of my applications with a December 1 deadline by last Tuesday, but I couldn't honestly expect anyone to confirm receipt of the mailed materials before tomorrow. I did decide last minute to apply to one more program with a December 1 deadline and I just got my documents in to them, but some of my recommenders are dragging their feet. I've got two more schools to go - one with a December 15 deadline, and one for January 14. I'll probably finish them both by December 10.

I also dream about accidentally misspelling a professor's name in my application. This is pretty much an automatic rejection, right? Personally I couldn't see myself giving any slack to a student who did that to me, so I check the spelling about four times for every name I write.

Though this isn't quite what you're going for (and it may not even work for you given that my field is history), what I've done is have a paragraph on general features of the school I like. (For example, only some schools I'm applying to support undergraduate research projects financially, and I mention that I like this because I think it is important that universities treat their undergrads as potential scholars.) Then I wove mentions of other professors whose classes, while perhaps outside my region/period, I would like to take. That way I only need to change those sentences and the main paragraph on the school. So it goes something like: [X university has A, B, and C features I like] Primary interest, which clearly matches those of [potential advisor] Secondary interests that support my primary interest [related professors whose classes I am excited to take] [Restate paragraph 1] I, too, would worry about putting all my eggs in one basket regarding potential advisors. Having a second choice lab - at least research you can tolerate even though you want to do this other very specific thing - for each school would be not only good for yourself, but you can put in the "fit" paragraph. Say what other things you like about a university beyond the advisor, because there must be something. Are there opportunities for, say, research abroad? Did one of the professors seem particularly enthused to work with you? Put those in.

I am taking a break from my application to Wisconsin right now.

I keep dreaming that I accidentally sent off SOPs to the wrong schools. Then I jerk awake.

You can put a footnote at the end of the first paraphrased sentence which says something like "X and y topics on pages 1-3 from [source]." Or, alternatively, you can put it at the end of the paraphrased information, e.g. "Above discussion derived from [source]." This is to prevent the constant use of footnotes that just say ibid.

Thank you very much!

Hi all, I've been lurking for a few months now but only recently felt the need to add a new question. While chatting recently with a history professor at Michigan, she suggested, based on my interests, that I should apply to Michigan's American Culture graduate program. I've checked it out and all the history professors I want to work with are teaching in that school also. Plus the content and interdisciplinary nature of the program is interesting as well, and I'm sure I would be well supported in writing a historical dissertation within that program. However, if my Ph.D is in any field other than history, will that hurt my chances of getting a job teaching history later? Do universities only want to see degrees from history departments, or do they look at the work produced? Or do they often to treat specific cultural studies programs as equivalent to history? Basically at this point, since deadlines are coming up fast, I want to know whether I should bother to consider a last-minute extra application to this program, or whether that would be a waste of my time/put me at a disadvantage later. Thanks!