virmundi

I didn't receive a request for an interview from Yale for an interview until yesterday morning -- a couple of days after it seems like other posters here received their notifications -- so I am guessing that there may still be a few e-mails to go out to potentials... this may be field or professor specific, perhaps? (I'm not an Americanist . . .)... Best of luck to everyone.

Chime! Chime! ;-)

I think that it would probably be a good relationship-building move to have the chapter in the edited collection, since you want to do a Post-Doc with this individual. May I suggest, however, that you might get a more informed cross-section of the academic community if you post this same question over at the Chronicle of Higher Education forums? The address is "www.chronicle.com/forums" and it is frequented by academics in all stages of their career, whereas these boards tend to cater more to those of us in the earlier stages. Not to knock the range of responses you'll get here -- at all. I just think that you might find that the depth of experience in negotiating these kinds of tough choices is richer over there! In any event, good luck to you.

Yes: It depends on what you mean by "goodbye to fun"... I came to graduate school after deciding to leave a highly successful (but unsatisfying -- to say the least) corporate career in a completely unrelated field. After spending upwards of 10 years working in a corporate environment, the adjustment to graduate school has not been particularly difficult. The trick is to work when you are working, and not work when you are not. It sounds simple and obvious, but I see students all around me who are incapable of doing this. They are "working" all day long, but that work often consists of water-cooler talk, checking their facebook page, and so on. Their productive time ends up being far less than the time that they spend in the office, so to speak. I have found that most of the time, I am able to get everything that I want and need to get done completed by working roughly 50-60 hours a week, with 50 being far more in line than 60. At the end of semesters with grading, writing, researching and everything else, this generally ramps up to around 75-90 hours for a week or two, but then after the semester ends and grades are all turned in, I get to tune it down to 10-15 hours for at least a few weeks while I recuperate and regain my sanity. Obviously, there is going to be substantial variations in workload between fields and different programs. What I have found overall, however, is that graduate school require significantly more discipline than undergrad, and a lot of people whose primary experiences have been undergraduate education and jobs that require you to invest your time, but not necessarily a substantial amount of yourself, find this to be a difficult transition. In any event, I have a wife, children, a house that requires upkeep, friends and so on. There is no doubt that I have to be far more structured with my time, and that I can't always go out and have fun with my family or friends when they want to do things, but I have a rich and balanced life that is fulfilling and enjoyable. The first year is probably going to be extremely intense and difficult -- it was for me anyway -- but even then there was time for friends, a drink here and there, a movie, etc.

In my humble opinion, there is no contest here. Your school is offering you an amazing opportunity to further your professionalization process. If you choose to decline this opportunity, you may inadvertently send a message that you are not as serious as other students, and you make not be offered these opportunities in the future, or at least not have first crack at them. As this semester of classes ends, and I find myself staring down the barrel of a ridiculous amount of work remaining to finish, I can relate to your desire to soak in much needed friend and family time. Keep in mind, however, that you have not yet built a working relationship with your new institution, and showing up to take advantage of this research opportunity will give you a fantastic opportunity to make a lasting first impression, which as you note, may well impact positively your research and your future ability to secure funding. Try to focus on what your ultimate goal is -- if you are looking to get a Ph.D. and get a tenure-track job, then you'll be in for a really long haul. You'll need to find ways to balance your work with leisure to avoid going insane. At the same time, you'll also have to ensure that you take advantage of special opportunities when they come your way, as you can never predict when they will come around again, if ever. It's a tough compromise, and I wish you the best of luck in negotiating the pros and cons!

Given the programs that the OP was accepted into, I have to doubt whether the intention was to be churlish or otherwise resentful. I suspect that compared to the generous funding packages that generally accompany acceptances from schools like Princeton, UNC's funding offer did seem a bit like garbage. Eurocentric's list of A-list acceptances is probably just coloring his/her perceptions a little.

A lot of us DO have an idea of have paranoid and anxious you are, having been through the process ourselves. There is no point in my telling you to "relax" -- I couldn't either. But do take consolation from the fact that a lot of us HAVE been where you are and weren't the overachievers with the perfect everything and zillion publications either, and still got accepted into a good program. Enjoy your conferences -- if you are already presenting papers, then you are ahead of the game.

Absolutely spot on, StrangeLight -- including the smiley at the beginning of your post.

Hi, Jerry! "Vagantes" travels around each year (actually, "vagantes" means "roaming people"). Next year it is in Albuquerque and I believe Pittsburgh the year after that. Just google "Vagantes Conference" and you'll find their web page pretty quick. Presenting at conferences is a stretch for most undergraduates, although there are certainly undergrads who do so. It is probably not all that common -- it wasn't at my undergrad university at all. It is, however, not unexpected for an MA student to present at least once or twice during their program at graduate student conferences (such as "Vagantes"). This shows a degree of professionalization that is desirable. I think that publishing in an undergraduate history journal is just fine and deserves a line on your CV. As an undergraduate, I was able to get an article published by our university's graduate student journal -- it wasn't much of a paper, but it *was* a publication selected by an editorial board of graduate students, so it counts! Again, this sort of achievement shows, if nothing else, that you are making moves toward professionalization. Also, Jerry, don't be so sure that there aren't any US M.A. programs that will help you to prepare for a PHD! Is the problem that your subfield speciality is so narrow that you haven't been able to find any scholars in the U.S. who are doing work that you are interested in? You *really* can't find ANY MA programs that do what you want to do? What about MA/PHD programs? Are you sure that you've exhausted the choices? Will your research involve the UK? Or some other European country? There are, obviously, huge advantages to doing a program close to your research archives! Nevertheless, you are correct that funding is an absolute priority! Cheers

This is good advice, but it may not be tenable for you, depending on the language requirements of your porgram and the offering of the program in which you are ultimately enrolled. For instance, my university has a graduate-level course enabling students to do roughly 2-3 undergraduate Latin semesters in a single semester, but it has no corresponding courses in the Romance or Germanic languages. They do, however, offer accelerated coursework at the freshman and sophomore level in German, and at the freshman level in French. Nonetheless Ticklemepink's advice is absolutely spot on -- DO use your summers to do intensive language work, combined with archival research (at the PHD level, obviously this will be critical, but at the MA level it will be important as well to show that you are "professionalizing" yourself). Additionally, and at an idealized level, you'll want to be marginally familiar with some of the sites around where your archival research will be centered. As ridiculous as it might seem, the benefit of being able to shoot the breeze with your advisor about "that little wine bistro around the corner from the BN" is going to serve you well and will help your advisor to see you not only as a student, but as a young colleague. Returning to languages, Ticklemepink is entirely correct that learning a new language AND doing MA coursework is going to be difficult, but keeping in mind the attenuated length of an MA program, you may need to pick up at least some language coursework alongside your regular work load. It is extremely difficult - I had to do it - but my program allowed me to take these as pass/fail, and in fact, you may even go into a program where a kindly instructor will allow you to simply "sit in" and do the work without actually having to enroll and pay for the class (this was not the case for me, but friends in other programs have managed to get this supreme kindness). In any event, summer intensive work will benefit greatly if you can get at least the basic structures of grammar and some pronunciation and vocabulary. Ideally, you'll enter the summer able to focus on beginning to learn to really participate, however haltingly, in an academic discourse, certainly in reading, but also in speaking if at all possible. All of the above is, of course, only intended as advice. You will want to weigh between ticklemepink's VERY good advice, and my advice, which I can only vouch for as having succeeded (thus far!) for me and a few of my friends. Getting into the elite programs is probably going to be extremely difficult, so the more drive you can show -- without killing yourself or burning out -- the better! Meanwhile, be sure to look at opportunities to professionalize, such as the "Vagantes" conference (too late to present this year, but keep it in mind for next time 'round!), and when you are deciding which MA program to get into, try to figure out which MA programs serve as feeder schools for PHD programs, and which ones tend to be focused on the MA as a terminal, professional degree (for teachers, museum employees, etc.). The feeder programs will tend to have at least SOME funded MA students (you'll want to try and be one of them -- humanities PHD + significant debt = career suicide unless you are well off!), and at least SOME funding to help students defray the costs of travelling to conferences and doing archival research. Once again, I wish you the best of luck, and wish to emphasize once more that while only you can determine in the end what will work for you, you should get as wide a range of advice as you possibly can! Also -- heheheh, I promise this really is the last bit of advice -- look at Gregory Semenza's Graduate Study for the Twenty-First Century. It is geared specifically toward the humanities, and is one of the best works out there right now. Take care.

Hi Jerry! First of all -- if you have remembered your GRE scores properly, they are actually quite mediocre -- which isn't necessarily a big deal, as a lot of programs will be a lot more concerned with the quality of your writing sample, statement of purpose, and letters of recommendation! If you absolutely can't retake it and get those verbal scores up a bit, then make sure that your written materials are bar-none excellent! As far as your writing sample is concerned, it is far better to submit an essay that is not directly related to your research interests, but is a fantastic and polished piece of writing, than to submit a longer piece that you have to pare down to get within the limits and isn't very good. Whatever piece you decide to submit, be sure to solicit as much feedback as possible from all intelligent people whom you can get hold so that you can make sure that your sample is as absolutely crystal clear and elegant as you can make it! I wouldn't hesitate to submit more than 3 letters of recommendation. My program required three and allowed for more. I asked for -- and got -- five letters of recommendation from my alma mater. The five scholars who wrote letters for me all had sterling reputations in their fields of study and were able to comment on differing aspects of my abilities. If you can get 4 fantastic letters of recommendation, then absolutely go for it! Just be certain that the letter writers actually will be unequivocal in their support. A letter that is overly generic or mild in its praise of you can cause as much damage to your application as an awful letter. To be entirely honest, I think that the biggest hurdle to your application might be languages. A lot of medieval PhD programs here in the U.S. require that you be capable of reading literately in Latin, French, and German by the end of your coursework in addition to whatever other research languages that you happen to require for your own work. You will absolutely want to be clear about what programs require from a language perspective, and if you can begin studying Latin before next summer, than I would absolutely emphasize the importance of doing so. There are several good texts that you can use for self-study, including Moreland & Fleischer's classic text, or Wheelock's (Moreland & Fleischer are a quicker avenue, however). Be aware, however, that advising committees have been known, at least in my program, to display extreme skepticism around claims of autodidactic language-learning. I would also like to suggest that you consider applying to more programs, and that you apply to a broader range. Stanford, Notre-Dame, Yale, and University of Chicago are all fantastic programs with some of the finest scholars in Medieval history -- no doubt about it. However, there are many other fine medievalists in the U.S., and you'll likely want to hedge your bets by applying to other programs that might not be as prestigious, but perhaps are also fits for your research interests. Many times, the reputation of the school itself is not as important as the reputation of the scholars that you are working with. In any event -- please take all of the above for what it is worth -- advice from a fellow student who has also been through the rigamarole of applying, but by no means an "expert"! Get advice from your professors and consider contacting programs and professors at the schools you are interested in. Best of luck.

Terrific advice, Ticklemepink... to which I would add that unless you happen to be independently wealthy, you should avoid at all costs going into debt for graduate school in the humanities. Getting a tenure-track position in and of itself is extremely difficult and shows no prospects of improving. If you are one of the lucky, you'll have the prospect of a lifetime of mediocre pay. Going into significant debt (and I would argue that $35,000 + living expenses is very significant) can be a crippling burden to have to bear. If nothing else, please speak with professors whom you trust intimately and who will give you blunt advice regarding these financial matters. Also, talk to young professors. The job market/financial picture has changed a lot even in the last 15 years, so try to gauge your options by speaking with professors who're in the beginning stages of their careers. Good luck!

Don't let the GRE bother you. Study for it (the Princeton and Kaplan books are, in my experience, great preparatory tools, as is ETS' own free set of preparation materials), and take it. You don't have to be the best, although you'll want to do reasonably well on both the Verbal and analytical writing portions. Do not - absolutely do not - refrain from applying to schools that seem like a good fit to you because they require the GRE. In any event, you will want to put the majority of your effort into securing stellar letters of recommendation from tenured faculty. Additionally, you will want to put together a writing sample that is as flawless as you can possibly make it. Get feedback from anyone with a pulse whose writing and opinion you respect to hone your sample as much as possible. Also, make sure that your statement of purpose is compelling, and you will want to tailor your statement to each individual program to which you apply. One size does *not* fit all. Make sure that your statement speaks specifically to the program that you are applying to and the faculty members with whom you would like to work. If you haven't contacted the faculty at each school with whom you would like to work, you should do this as well. The items that I have mentioned in the second paragraph will have far more impact on your chances of being admitted than your GREs, but you'll want to have at least moderately good GRE scores if you can. Good luck.

One more suggestion -- reach for the stars! Apply to the top programs in the field if there are any scholars there with interests matching yours, and if you can afford to do so. Your "fit" with a particular scholar really will be more important than whether or not you are Mr./Mrs. Perfect Scholar 2009. Make sure that your writing sample and statement of purpose are stellar, and do what you can (granting that there isn't much time left before deadlines) to make sure that you have a grasp of the languages that are required in your field. In particular, if you do not currently have significant skills in your required languages -- an ability to read secondary literature at the very least -- you'll want to spend a few sentences emphasizing in your statement of purpose that you are aware of this fact and that you have a delineated plan of action in place to remedy this very very quickly. I have been told by my advisor, as well as scholars at other schools in my particular field, that typically, they are not interested in "Oh, I learned to read and speak Italian using Rosetta Stone" (using Italian as an example of course) -- they'll want to see time spent in Italy itself, or course work, or some other tangible evidence that you actually read and speak the language. Finally -- best of luck to you!

I voted for 13.3". The 13.3 options are generally more versatile than the smaller laptops in terms of performance and capabilities, but also have the other advantages listed by previous posters. I do not like working on a screen any smaller than 13.3", but obviously, your mileage may vary in that regard. 15.4" is a pretty good size, and my 15" laptop crosses the scales at at 5.5 pounds, but I'll admit that if I'm carrying more than a few books as well, I find myself wishing occasionally I could shave off an extra pound or two during the 20 minute walk to and from my car on campus. I would also recommend that you consider not only screen size, but specific laptop models. I think that there are two important factors to consider in addition to screen size and performance. The first is the potential screen glare of the particular models that you are considering, and the second is the keyboard. You'll want to choose a laptop that has an acceptable level of screen glare (some screens reflect any amount of light with terrible efficiency and give me headaches -- again, your mileage will probably vary here), and you'll want to choose a laptop that has a keyboard that has the right touch and feel. You will be spending countless hours typing on your future laptop, so you'll want to make sure that the keyboard fits your hands well (most are more or less identical, but sometimes they have subtle differences), that the feel of the keys as you type is as favorable as possible, and also that the sound of the keys is not particularly egregious. These might seem like nit-picky things, but I think that they are worth considering since you are making an investment into what will probably be a very important part of your work.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of PHD programs relating to any aspect of European history require a good reading knowledge of both French and German as well as any other languages that are relevant to your field of study. Many of the programs that I've researched for my field will not allow you to substitute other languages for these two languages which, along with English, are often considered essential for the study of European history. This is probably *not* a universal requirement, but it has been consistently a requirement listed on the web pages of every single top program that I have researched, so at the very least, I would make this a consideration as you continue to plan. Also, vis-a-vis your Latin and Greek -- I would tend to agree generally with blukorea that the amount of time that you have spent studying them would not, in and of itself, be likely to get you into top programs. If, however, there are extenuating factors -- if, for instance, you have spent several of those semesters knocking it out of the park on texts that even trained PhDs might have trouble with -- then you would want to be sure that your recommenders know to make this clear, and that you also make this clear in your letters of recommendation. In any event, you will absolutely want to take seriously blukorea's advice regarding funding. A PhD in the humanities without funding can turn into a life-long straight-jacket if you take on too much debt. I would not go so far as to say, however, that "a PhD in the humanities nowadays is really not worth the time and effort." If this is really what you want to pursue in your life, then make sure that you do the research to ensure that you can get into a top program which consistently places its graduates in tenure track jobs. It is also not a bad idea to consider working in the corporate world for a while. If nothing else, you will be absolutely certain whether or not you want to do a PhD after a few years spent in cubicle hell! Good luck.

Just a little perspective for the original poster... The Princeton Historian, Peter Brown, had published his still-to-this-day authoritative work on Augustine of Hippo by the time he was 27 or 28 years old. You are by no means too young for graduate school work, and there is no telling where your unique life trajectory will take you! If you, at some point, feel the need to take a break and get some other life experiences, look into your programs leave options... however, there is nothing unusual about having a bit of doubt -- all of us who are graduate students are entering a somewhat unique situation. As undergrads, it is likely that we were generally among the smartest couple of students in each of our classes... In grad school, it is common for every student to be just as intellectually engaged, intelligent, bright, and interested as we are! It is a definite transition and absolutely takes some getting used to. I'm 30 years old -- and I have to continually remind myself that my trajectory is unique when I'm surrounded by so many young, brilliant, driven people, and that it's my duty and privilege to make the most of it, and to do my best to enjoy as much of it as I can! I hope that you can do the same. Regards!

Congratulations, Recycled! Hopefully this means I'll see you around the AMA in years to come.

I was told that acceptances will be sent out this week. Don't be so sure that you won't be accepted into their program! Both of the earlier postings for Boulder's history program were from individuals who received Fellowships. It is entirely possible that you will be accepted perhaps even with some sort of funding package, although I suspect that those receiving Fellowships will have all heard from the department by now. Don't give up hope!

Keep your dream alive! I have had the ultimately humbling experience of being funded for my MA with a fellowship from a humanities program that funds the majority of its PHD students with TA/RA positions, and rarely funds MA students in any fashion whatsoever! It can absolutely happen.

Ahhhh, well your language preparation is definitely far better than mine! Nice -- I wish I had that language portfolio under my belt. Mirable visu! Anyways -- I think that you do, actually, hit the nail on the head. One piece of advice I've seen is to convey your interests broadly, even if you do have a very specific set of interests... you don't want to be so broad that you seem unfocused, but a lot of professors, apparently (I've been told), also want to have students who they can mold and shape to a certain degree! It might be worth it to convey your interests in both the broad and the specific sense. Also, the buddy-buddy thing is definitely a good idea. I am lucky that I have a very phenomenal history program in my neck of the woods and I was able to take a few classes with the professor that I want to study with while I was putting together my application. I'm pretty sure that that helped me get admitted to their MA program with generous funding. In any event, is there anything that stands out on the application of your friend who got in versus on your application? It would be very nice if she would let you compare applications, as that might give you an idea of what they are looking for. In any event, I wish you the absolute best! I feel truly lucky to have been accepted into a program, and I hope that you too will soon have the same groovy vibe! Vale!

Hi OP (original poster)! You have some very salient concerns, and I thought that I would share with you the advice that 100% of all tenured/tenure-track professors have given me. The first is this: Once you start limiting yourself geographically, you may find that search committees on the post-PHD side of things will have serious reservations about your committment to live in new, strange places. This advice is mitigated significantly if the program that you choose has a significant placement rate from its program, but it is still a significant consideration. The second piece of advice I've received over and over is to try and ensure that your spouse/SO/etc. is on board with the fact that you will do a PHD in one place, and then almost certainly move somewhere entirely different as a TT Professor. I've been reminded again and again that the only TT jobs available in my field when I get my PHD may well be Blizzard Community College, North Dakota or One Horse Town Technical College, Wyoming. The point is that if you can get into a *better* program by going to the more awkward place now, you may have a better shot at getting the job in the place where you'd actually LIKE to live for the rest of your life post-PHD (and if those are in North Dakota or Wyoming, then I apologize -- my intent is not to denigrate those places!)... It may be worth it to live in the awkward setting for the next 5-10 years so that you have a better shot at getting to that post-PHD dream job. The job market is a complete mess anyhow, so there are no guarantees, but that is what my advisors and other professors have been drilling into my brain again and again!

Dear Recycled -- don't give up! If you don't make it into UConn, there is always next year! Have you gotten any feedback on ways to improve your application for the next cycle, or do you have any feelings on what might have been the least strong parts of your application? How, in particular, is your language preparation? That seems to be one of the most significant stumbling blocks to getting admitted into programs, but also one of the easiest tangible things that you can do to improve your applications for next year!

I'm not the lucky individual who received the Chancellor's Fellowship at Boulder (That's the only acceptance I've seen from Boulder's history program so far)... but I do know that their website states that they won't send out decisions until the third week of March, and in conversations with the current graduate director, I've been able to confirm that "the end of March" is the timeframe that we're looking at. That's about as inside as I've managed to get, unfortunately! I am trying to console myself that there are only a few more weeks to go... I'm helped along by the fact that I've got exams this week, so worrying about admissions in several weeks is a slightly lower priority at the moment!