EnviHist1

Hi Thanks for your message! First of all, congratulations!!! You should be very excited. It sounds like a well-deserved opportunity for your training and career. Your topic sounds very important, and I am happy to hear that you felt supported in your previous traditional training. You are well prepared to make an impact in the field!! ((Also... psst lucky you for getting an early memo about Harvard HoS.... the waiting game is ***crickets***)) These are very great points you bring up. I will certainly be asking a series of questions at the upcoming open houses for these History programs. I know that one program does encourage students to take up to 2 courses in outside departments. I made a good connection with that particular university's data science and earth science departments because I see myself on the fringes of some xdisciplinary methodologies. I hope to determine if the history faculty is encouraging or if they are more weary of my tendency to mix and meld my discipline. If only my program allowed a thematic concentration rather than a geographic concentration...!! Regardless, I am encouraged that any sort of advanced degree will expand my horizons. I just worry that 2 years of traditional US-concentration coursework will distance me from the more specific training that a HoS degree would provide. Perhaps that is why a Masters could have been handy!!! Anyway, I am so happy to hear from you, internet stranger. Cheering you on! 📚

Hello everyone, I've been following Grad Cafe over this application season and have been grateful to find many insights and updates here. Thanks! First time posting anything... Background: BA only (not a history major); no MA; 8 years working in a field related to my historical interests; 2 publications in academic journals I am really keen on a history of science training, but I was rejected from the Hist of Sci PhD programs I applied to (Yale, MIT...and still waiting for Harvard, but that's unlikely..). I also applied to some history programs with secondary science fields and/or strong STS resources– unsurprisingly rejected from Stanford, Brown, and Berkeley. Oh well!! To be expected. However, I am grateful to have been accepted to two traditional history PhD programs (United States concentration with expressed interest in environmental and agricultural history). These programs may or may not be able to provide the STS or history of sci training I truly desire. (side-note: I've also been interviewed at a highly interdisciplinary social science program at Dartmouth, which is definitely *not* a history program, but it could help me achieve my goals). I am a creative and passionate individual who has not typically taken the traditional route. I am weary of the conventional US history programs and am trying to determine if I should try again with the history-of-sci-specific programs next year. Or, maybe I can go forth with the volumes of US historiogprahy and somehow network my way into history of sci circles. I have less experience than many who have been working toward a history of science credentials. How do we feel about taking the traditional history route??? What's your journey been like? Has anyone taken time to improve their credentials to re-apply??? This is my first time applying to grad school after a 9-year gap! I hope everyone is fairing ok during a stressful/exciting/confusing/suspenseful time! Cheers.