Sgt. Pepper

[quote name="Louiselab

BU and UVA

You can... Apply to be someone's research assistant at a local historical society. (I did this.) Volunteer in an archive to process documents, which is great experience with primary sources and learning how they're organized, etc. (I did this, too, as a profession.) Pick a topic and start researching. An undergrad paper, something that interests you... Look at what local archives/repositories have on hand and see if anything grabs your interest and start researching. (I did this, too, and having your own primary source research experience and examples is what helped me get jobs 1 and 2. People hiring you as a research assistant like to see that you can be creative, resourceful, and find copious amounts of related documents on a topic.)

True. I work everyday except Saturday, so either way I'm getting screwed and losing a large chunk of my weekly income... it makes me so sad.

They're having it during the week!? That's sooo gauche. I mean really, requiring everyone to take off from work to schlep out to Jersey? tsk tsk, Rutgers, that's very inconsiderate.

I had one visit a week ago, and met with some faculty and it did not go well. Not well at all. In fact, I was told by one I had stupid questions. Um, yeah. I used some of the AHA questions I thought were pertinent and was pretty okay with using them since it is one of the largest professional organizations, so they gotta know something, right? She also had no interest in discussing my current or future research interests. Sooo... When you go and visit and and there's the appointed "individual faculty meetings" time, what exactly do you guys talk about with them? What do you ask? I am nervous about an upcoming visit because I feel like I did something wrong by asking about the adviser-advisee rapport, what her advising style was like, etc since she told me these were stupid and inconsequential questions. I'm pretty good at figuring stuff out myself, since I already downloaded and read the graduate student handbook and guidelines from the department, but I get the feeling other people have had more in depth conversations with potential advisers upon acceptance. (Mine at this school are already selected and I know who they are.)

You mean that doesn't work?