CageFree

Aww. I know the feeling. The first year can be rough. Make sure you build a network for the holidays... other international students who are stuck too... even if in other disciplines. I know those in my program found those networks super helpful.

I would contact Yale and find out if that line is an absolute cut off (as the GPA can be for some) set by the university, or whether they have considered people who didn't quite meet that requirement.

I own a Galaxy S line phone and I love it. I upgraded from a Galaxy S 4G. They are a bit bigger than the iPhones, which allows you to read PDFs and Kindle books easily. If you are really used to the Windows interface, you could also go for a Windows phone. I would second what someone else said about going in and playing with the phones. And don't listen to the person who said that Androids are unstable or have questionable hardware. My phone works perfectly.

A professor once told me that some of the lower tier schools will take people from big name schools (regardless of quality of field and or program) over someone from a more respected program with a lesser name, just to pad their ranks. It's the mid tier to lower first tier schools that offer better opportunities for mobility.

Yes, it is. That is up to you to decide. It is worth the effort for me, but I cannot count on having a job in academia when I get out.

Oh no, not late at all. In fact, it's a bit early as many are just now getting back into town for another academic year.

I am only now starting to think about comps, but I don't think you have to own all of your comps books if you are conscientious about writing summaries for yourself and you organize them well. I only really buy books for class and for my own reading if they are related to my areas of interest, though I occasionally find books for class cheap enough to buy used. If I HAVE to buy a book that I won't use again, I sell it when I am done. Use ILL extensively... especially if you have a good library system. Also, keep in mind that some books on your comps list, you only will read a few pages or chapters.. and likely, for some, you will only read a couple of book reviews and then a selected chapter or two.

You can get into a master's program with that GPA. It won't be funded, but you can do it, and go from there.

This. Take Austin, TX. I didn't apply to UT-Austin because I thought... "ugh, Texas," and I'm from LA (totally stupid on my part). Later I found out it's really progressive, probably more so than some other places I applied to. So... just evaluate a program on its own merits and evaluate each locale. Austin would be far more welcoming to people who march to the beat of their own drum than say, Irvine.

[quote name="czesc" post="1058006454" timestamp="1374645890" Going back to the geography question -- NorthernLights, I'm a bit confused. The Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and South are very diverse culturally and politically...it's strange to me that you'd find all of these places objectionable. Not to mention that there's considerable diversity within these regions...New York and Chicago are not Smallville, Illinois and Smallville, PA...and most college towns and neighborhoods have fairly similar cultures and politics, anyway - at least, while they're flavored by their regions, they're equally flavored by a sort of national academic culture that make them distinct from their surroundings as well.This. Take Austin, TX. I didn't apply to UT-Austin because I thought... "ugh, Texas," and I'm from LA (totally stupid on my part). Later I found out it's really progressive, probably more so than some other places I applied to. So... just evaluate a program on its own merits and evaluate each locale. Austin would be far more welcoming to people who march to the beat of their own drum than say, Irvine.

I wonder who that could be.

I would just add that although you seem to be bent on "not discussing" why you don't want to move to the southern/midwestern states, you are dropping quite a bit of personal information on here. I don't care, personally, but as Sigaba pointed out earlier, there are faculty and/or admissions people (including grad students, who often serve in admissions commitees) that do read the boards and might be able to put two and two together. Also, the job market in ancient history is really tough in an already bad job market for all historians, so keep that in mind. You may have to apply to a job in a place you don't necessarily love because it might be the only job open in your field and specialty that year, and you will be fighting 200 other people who desperately want it. Some schools have gutted classics, others have no ancient historians of Europe at all. Heck, I am in a field that has done *slightly* better than average, and will consider myself lucky to beat 300 people to get a job one day in a tiny town in the midwest. In terms of the list of schools, I think you should do research on the specific faculty in those programs and contact them to see whether they are taking anyone, whether those faculty plan to be around, etc. I left the field of Late Antiquity, which I worked on as an undergrad at one of your listed institutions (I simply changed interests, though the dim job prospects definitely made my decision to switch easier). My then-advisor is no longer there, though the university still lists them as faculty (and has another faculty member in my current field who teaches on the other coast). So, rather than ask us to find programs, you need to do your own research. Finally, a lot of programs are not responding to emails right now bc professors are traveling. My advisor and I are on the same continent right now (and it's not North America).

That is really program-dependent. For us, the first summer is dedicated to research for our second year project. I am currently in my country of study doing archival research.

For white, I stick to Riesling and the occasional Pinot Grigio. For red, Pinot Noir, Malbec, Beaujolais, maybe a Merlot. I don't like dry wines.

Have you read Novick yet?

I think it would be highly dependent upon the other courses. My fall historiography class had us read two books a week and write two papers. Taking two other classes along with that nearly killed me, and I wasn't working as a TA (which will take up easily 20 hours per week, including during finals, when you're writing your papers). You likely won't be able to take it P/NP. Auditing might be a good choice so you don't have to do a reading on a week when you're slammed, but keep in mind that some professors require you to do weekly responses even if you're auditing.

Reading Jane Eyre right now. Haven't read a book "for fun" in a while

Oops, I got you confused with the OP. A 630 would have been around 90th percentile at the time, which is indeed very good. I think Is saw the qualitative scores when I was looking that up (about 53 percentile). My mistake.

Scores are not valid for more than 5 years, so you would have to retake it anyway.

Just a few thoughts. Retaking the GRE would not be a bad idea, since 630 is definitely on the low end. You may need to have some French in addition to your German. I think it might be worth looking at specific people you'd want to work with rather than just focusing on the name/reputation of the school. Good luck!

I don't know if it will "increase" your chances, but it doesn't hurt, especially if you are going to have to TA at some point. In speaking to some POIs it seemed that they liked that I wouldn't have to learn how to teach so I could focus on my research. That said, having that background will be a huge help once you're in. I taught for several years as well, and it was definitely helpful in terms of content knowledge. They say that the best way to learn something is to teach it and it's true. I feel very comfortable in areas outside my specialty. Also, if you taught history you probably had to teach writing, and if you've done that then you are probably a good writer yourself.

I'm reading about 10 books right now. Two papers due next week. I feel like my poor little brain is melting between the 100 degree temps and the excess work.

This is highly dependent upon your school culture. Very few people "dress up" in my department... in fact, some professors regularly wear shorts and teva type sandals with hawaiian shirts. Clean jeans with a blazer would be considered 'dressy' around here.

It's funny that you mention that because I had a similar issue with my earlier applications. I took had been out of academia for an extended period and forgot what it was like to be an academic. I kept working on them throughout the application season and not surprisingly, it was the last applications I submitted that were successful. I was looking through the SOP that I submitted to the programs with earlier deadlines and compared them to my last version (the one that got me into this program) and they really were a disaster. I'm embarrassed to have submitted what I did to a couple of programs. I will say though that while the time I spent away from academia made my applications weaker, it came in very handy as a graduate student. Not only do I have a good grasp of my work and study habits, but having taught various subjects exposed me to knowledge that I would have been sorely lacking at 23.

I wouldn't say so. We kind of split the care 50/50 (potty times, feeding, exercise, etc.). My dog is older though and I've had her for a long time. Some of this will depend on how much time you spend at home. I don't go to campus every day and do a lot of work in my home office, so my dog doesn't feel neglected. It might be different for someone who has to work on campus.