iamincontrolhere-haig
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Posts posted by iamincontrolhere-haig
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11/11 applications completed! Now to play the waiting game. And Skyrim. Most definitely Skyrim.
I'll add to the chorus of thanks for the sage advice that has been offered on this board over the last few months (especially from those who have been through this process before). It's been immeasurably helpful!
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So I trim down my Yale writing sample to 25 pages, then go to upload it only to find out that I need to leave 2 inch margins at the top of every page. Now it's back up to 28.
Ugh.
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Do most PDF readers have word count tools built in (I don't own or have access to the higher end ones)? A few of the schools I'm applying to have 1,000 word limits and I'm stuck at 1,030.
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This happened to me and I called ETS and was able to get them to grant what they called a "one time exception" and send a duplicate set of scores to the school for no charge. I think it's worth a shot.
Otherwise, you might consider calling the school and informing them of your situation. If you let them know you submitted your scores on such-and-such a date, they might be able to find them.
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I spoke to the GSC and he told me that letters should be submitted in two ways: through ApplyWeb and via email (in an attachment, on letterhead).
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Haha except that now the online apps just arrange everyone alphabetically anyways!
Do you mean the application services just send out a pile of alphabetically arranged applications (say that three times fast) only after all of the applications have been collected? I don't think that's the case for all schools/programs. I know a few of the schools I'm applying to encourage you to submit your applications early (The University of Chicago, for instance, waives the fee if you submit before a certain date), saying that it gives them time to contact you if they're missing any important information.
Either way, try to take advantage of either the primacy effect or the recency effect!
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4 of 10 applications signed, sealed, and delivered! (Somehow, that phrase loses a bit of "oomph" in the digital age.)
Just in time to sit down with a beer and watch UNC-Michigan State!
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Give him a call! He's been very helpful about answering my questions. From what I've gathered, you send him everything the website asks for and he compiles it all in a folder in his email and distributes it to your POIs when the time comes. I don't think he's too picky about "official copies" of your GRE scores and transcripts--the Graduate Admissions Office receives those--just scan and email. Probably best to send everything in one email, though!
Also, be sure to emphasize the "the" in THE Ohio State University in your statement of purpose!
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Thanks! That is similar to what I'm doing as well. But, I was thinking of registering my referees on the online application now, rather than waiting until each application was complete. Are you waiting to register them when you have completed all the applications?
Some applications will send emails prompting your LOR writers to upload their letters as soon as you register them, while other applications will not accept letters until you have submitted a complete application (even if you register your writers beforehand). To avoid confusion and lost emails, I think registering all of your writers and submitting all of your applications on the same day is a good idea.
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If you make it as easy on them as you possibly can--that is, if you're submitting your applications online, do so on one day so your recommenders can input their letters in one fel swoop--I don't think you'll have any problems.
With that said, if you're planning on submitting something along the lines of 20 applications, you might want to do more research to narrow down your list and find which schools are the best fit for your research interests. There's nothing wrong with casting a wide net, but if you show you haven't done the requisite research, that might come across in the letters that are written on your behalf.
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Even though the Chicago Manual of Style calls for a bibliography in addition to footnotes, I'm using Chicago style footnotes without a bibliography. That's the common practice in most of the academic journals (in my field) I've come across, so I assume my readers will be fine with it.
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I really do wish I had kicked myself and said "You have time. You CAN wait until next year." In retrospect, rushing through my writing samples (in the mist of writing a thesis!) created quite bit of sloppy work compared to my later revisions.
You could try this year and see what happens as long as you gave your best or just hold off your applications and really polish that writing sample for the 2013 cycle. It really does have to be perfect (give or take a few typos).
I think this is good advice. I was in a similar situation last year: eager to apply for graduate school but in the middle of coursework and researching/writing my senior thesis. After consulting with professors and some students who had been in my position in the past, I opted to take a year out--and I'm glad I did. Your writing sample is arguably the most important aspect of your application. Perfecting it, passing your classes, and putting together convincing applications all at once will certainly be a behemoth of a responsibility. If, on the other hand, you hold off on applying this time around and put all of your energy towards crafting the best senior thesis that you possibly can, you'll improve your chances of admission to good programs next year. You'll also have the chance to improve your application in numerous other ways (i.e., winning academic awards, publishing the fruits of your labor, allowing your letter of recommendation writers to better get to know you and your scholarship, pursuing related work/internship experiences, and broadening and deepening your familiarity with the historiography of your field of interest). You might also avoid burnout at some point in the future by, excuse the mixed metaphor, coming up for air.
If you choose to apply this season, go with whatever piece of writing best demonstrates your ability to work with primary sources and deploy original arguments. This likely means your senior thesis, but could aso mean extending another paper or combining two or more related papers. Whatever you choose, have as many professors as possible look it over and give you their comments and critiques.
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In my case, I let my letter of recommendation writers know that I will be sending in my applications on such-and-such a date and that they should expect to receive emails from each school I'm applying to then. Even with applications that allow me to have letters written on my behalf uploaded before I submit my application, I won't input my letter writers' information until the date I specified. IMO, that minimizes the hassle for the people who have been kind enough to write you letters and also minimizes the chance that an email gets lost in an inbox somewhere along the line. Of course, you should also be fastidious about checking the status of your applications to make sure the schools you're applying to have received all the necessary materials.
If one of your letter writers will be without access to email before you think your applications will be ready, contact the programs you're applying to and ask if they will either accept a hard copy of the letter or if your letter writer can email it to the graduate admissions coordinator beforehand. In my experience, they've been very accommodating.
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In the end, I hope I can compete with all of you in applying to Yale. I'm intimidated by the folks that are already teaching and presenting at conferences.
Tell me about it! It seems like a great deal of the people whom Yale admits come in with MAs, MPhils, or JDs. Oh, well--it's always going to be a "reach" school.
The SOP is indeed painful. If I could just put it out of my mind how consequential it is for my applications, I might be able to have a bit more fun writing it it. It's more likely to kill me than to get any easier, though. So it goes.
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For choosing a book for the book review: I asked myself "if I could have written any book, which one would it be?" So, if I wanted to study the American South, I would choose The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Since I want to study the Cold War, I obviously chose We Now Know (kidding--though the more I think about it, the more I think it could have made for somewhat fruitful review). I think choosing a book that looms large in the historiography of your field has its benefits, although you do risk sounding unoriginal. Also consider if your potential advisers at Yale have slightly different interests than your potential advisers elsewhere. It could be beneficial to tailor your book review to their specific research and teaching interests.
I briefly flirted with the idea of writing about Marc Bloch or EH Carr, but thankfully decided against it.
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Forgive me for being unclear and a tad contentious. I wasn't arguing (or at least I wasn't trying to!) that the mention of work experience in the SOPs I've seen advanced these applicants' candidacies, merely pointing out that--regardless of the accumulated wisdom of the graduate students in this thread--it didn't harm their chances of admission beyond repair, if indeed it was seen in a negative light.
With that said, I do very much appreciate the aforementioned accumulated wisdom (especially its being made available in a public forum such as this) and the fact that given the relative paucity of my experience I will in some cases be helplessly blind to my own naivete. The discussion has thus far been both satisfying and edifying.
But I'm still not convinced!
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I find it interesting to note that, predominately, those that are saying "don't do it" are all well into our graduate degrees, while those that are saying "do it" are currently applying. Something that might be worth considering.
Unless you have experience on admissions committees, I fail to see the significance. I've seen statements of purpose from successful applicants who mentioned their relatively unrelated work experiences and are now attending top programs. Your path to matriculation isn't the only one.
With respect, I believe you are missing the point.
The central question of this thread is what are the best way for an applicant to include tactfully a fact of debatable relevance in a SOP. Those of us who believe that the fact is not relevant are saying that there is no tactful way to accomplish the task and that the risks outweigh the rewards.
I certainly see the overall point, but I think some of the arguments being deployed in its favor are a bit far-fetched--the risk, for instance, being that readers will assume the applicant will want to continue working as he or she pursues a PhD or has a chip on his or her shoulder and is difficult to get along with. Divorced from the context (and depending on the mindset of the reader), almost anything one writes in a SOP could be construed negatively. And slightly contradictorily, I think just about anything can be said tactfully.
After a great deal of generalizing, I'll withhold judgment on the wisdom of mentioning it until if and when I see the entire statement.
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I'd be very surprised if funding (especially in my field, at least) ever rested on transcripts or GRE scores. The SoP would be the most important component for funding, as this is where the adcom can learn about the applicant's philosophy of teaching, knowledge of the field and related experience (so all the more reason to leave more room to talk about those things, right?).
Depends on the school. Funding doesn't only come from departments. While departments probably do give a great deal of weight to the SOP, GRE scores and transcripts are often the only metrics by which one can compare applicants from different departments for university-wide fellowships. At my undergraduate institution, for instance, two of your GRE score percentiles have to combine to equal more than 180 to qualify for funding.
"While working full time" is four words. Even if those four words put you four words over the word limit, so what? Furthermore, to Sigaba's point, if you were to excise everything that could somehow be extrapolated to suggest something negative about you, you would either be painting a grossly distorted picture of yourself or saying nothing at all. To continue with the example I gave above, if an applicant were to write that he or she "completed a prize-winning master's thesis and graduated at the top of my class," the admissions committee could surmise that "this person is an arrogant prick and I don't want to work with them."
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Moreover, if one teases things out, the fact may actually raise skeptical questions about an applicant's character, personality, and commitment to the field of study.
As is the case with most items in the statement of purpose--and as you said above--it probably all depends on the tone and delivery. It's not about what you say, but how you say it. I doubt very much that anyone reviewing a statement of purpose that says something along the lines of "I have a commitment to learning and scholarship at the highest levels: while working full time, I completed a prize-winning master's thesis and graduated at the top of my class" would be skeptical about the applicant's character or personality. If, on the other hand, the applicant wrote something like "unlike most of the other applicants whose files you will review, mommy and daddy didn't pay for my education," that would obviously raise red flags.
Explained briefly (i.e., in a subordinate clause of a sentence that makes a bigger point about one's background or education) and properly, I still see no reason whatsoever not to mention it. Indeed, depending on the field--say, labor history--it could be beneficial. Of course, if that was the case, you would obviously want to weave it into a broader narrative about why you want to study labor history!
My feeling is, it's not going to make your SOP, but it's not going to break it either.
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The title says it all! What are some of your favorite history books, and why? And what are you reading at the moment?
A few of mine:
Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times
-An all around brilliant book--unabashedly presentist, but still the best kind of history
Jeremi Suri, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Detente
-Whatever its flaws, a thought-provoking reconceptualization of detente's origins
Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis: New York and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie
-Economic history done right--anybody know of a similar book covering 1970ish-today?
Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft
-Though it's not a work of history per se, it's always an inspiring read
Currently reading David Engerman, Know Your Enemy: The Rise and Fall of America's Soviet Experts
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I just use good old fashioned file folders. For instance, I had a big folder for a given project's data/documents subdivided into two additional folders: one in which all my data was organized by date and another in which it was all organized thematically. It creates some redundancy but makes it easier to find stuff.
That said, if there are any great apps made for this kind of stuff, I'd love to hear about them.
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I can't fathom an admissions committee interpreting the fact that one worked and paid his or her own way through school in a negative light. That one pursued work and school simultaneously doesn't say anything about plans for the future, but rather evinces a commitment to continuing education in difficult circumstances. It also demonstrates maturity and independence. You should show, not tell in your SOP--and what better way to demonstrate your work ethic?
I wouldn't make a big deal about it or write an entire paragraph on the subject, but I think tactfully mentioning it is a great idea. If you devote a paragraph to your experiences in the MA program, just slide it in somewhere as long as it doesn't come off as pompous or arrogant! Even if it doesn't help your application, the notion that it could hurt your chances seems ludicrous.
As far as what this thread is actually about--suggestions and examples--I think it depends on how you structure your SOP. My (probably pointless) advice would be to try mentioning it a few different ways and see which one you like best!
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I don't think it can hurt at all. References and citations are part of the business! I know when I see a quotation without an appropriate citation I immediately think sloppy work. Granted, since OP is only mentioning the title it may not be as necessary.
Still, though, I think citations in the SOP could even help by demonstrating a knowledge of the literature of your (sub)field.
Fall 2012 Applicant Chit Chat
in History
Posted
Consider this an expression of interest!