LadyRara

Wonderful advice! I am only starting the first leg of my journey (the M.A.) but these tips seem applicable across any part of an academic's profession life!

"In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way." --Yoda speaks to us all. :-)

Haha! Advice to live by, Annieca!! :-D

As cliche as this is... Theodore Roosevelt. I just love reading about him! Oh, and John Muir. I can't help it. Most of the papers I write has a little John Muir quote somewhere. If not... it's just not complete.

Congratulations to the UNC admit! :-) Thank you to everyone who congratulated me! I would specify, but after spending a few moments about to write down these unique names... I'm just leaving at 'thank you guys, you are truly exceptional people!' I'm so happy that this is the generation of historians I get to work with! :-D

Stillalivetui, Thank you, I really appreciate that note of confidence! I cannot express how happy words like that make me! Oh, and my fingers are crossed... I hope they don't get stuck that way! :-)

Accepted in Oklahoma University! Yay, what a relief that I got accepted into the only school I applied to. :-) I am curious, I was told that I was placed on a list of alternates for a GTA'ship. Is that the norm? I'm curious if it was just a nice way of saying that I have no funding. To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect any funding for a master's program, but the prospect of a position is nice.

Yay!! So exciting!! Funding sounds just as if not more rewarding than admission!!!

Yay! Congratulations Annieca! You will surely hear from them soon!

Congratulations to the new generation of incredible historians admitted to those amazing institutions!! Especially with funding!! Ohhh, funding! :-) Now that your panic is alleviated, have patience with the rest of us crazies here! Awaiting the University of Oklahoma here. Nervously awaiting a response!

So... perhaps schools should provide medication costs in their app fees. I think it is a reasonable request at this point.

Wild bright colors and patterns.... mixed of course.

To be honest, i would think those personal questions would be totally irrelevant and you would want to funnel it back into your research interests anyway. Not that I support the "go around the room introductions' at all! Eww--quite the opposite!

Sanity... how I miss that phase of life.

OH! I plead the fifth on what my definition is of 'bad science fiction.' I would hate to offend anyone because our perceptions on good and bad literature differ! :-)

For this break: terribly cliched and cheap science fiction paperbacks that the used bookstore sells for 50 cents a pop. Nothing mind-altering there. It's my 'Jersey Shore.'

Well, I wound up applying to only one school. This has not been fun. Time gets away from you when you have a real job!!

The University of Houston has a lot of great Profs who work with urban environmental history! Oklahoma is more agriculturally centered.

New England Nat, That site is great. I am a first-generation college student. So it's very helpful to hear these things. At the end, there was interesting post about such applicants. As a whole, we tend not to know precisely how to go about the process, and we are reluctant to make excuses for mediocre GPAs. I find that extremely useful. It is difficult to know the intimates coming from a culture based around material production of things versus intellectual production. It's funny, I find it baffling that people recommend making excuses... or more euphamisticaly 'explaining.'

If you don't need to take pictures, then don't. There are so many variables that can go wrong. I always used notecards. I made a notecard with the collection citation. Then on one side, I wrote pieces which stuck out and then on the other I wrote a reference number for the notecard with the collection citation. It made it easier to incorporate into a paper... physically manipulating the information that is. Archives are so much fun! Don't hesitate to give an update of how great it was! :-) Good luck!

She was so nice, and very busy when I met her! I think everyone who meets her loves her. It's inevitable!

New England Nat, I believe in Oklahoma. At least, that's what the grape vine has it at.

Mmmm... a funded M.A. program. The idea of it makes me salivate. :-) Not specifically Southern U.S. history programs.

This makes me afraid. Very afraid.

The cost of admission fees are deterring me from dream schools. Anyone else this is happening to? The thought of losing $80 is too painful!! How it all seemed to easy last year, when I was only reading gradcafe and not an active participant in the misery! I think the University of Houston, the University of Pennsylvania. Houston and Penn are the ones I'm pumped for. Then early next year, I'm applying to the university of Stirling. I'm liking my SOP, kinda, so that's good news!