melissarose8585

American History R_Escobar (20th century, American Indian), crazedandinfused (antebellum, intellectual), hopin'-n-prayin' (southern, religious), stevemcn (transnational), Simple Twist of Fate (early American) European History Kelkel (Modern Germany, political), goldielocks (Britain), SapperDaddy (Eastern and Central Europe), kotov (Modern Romania, Holocaust, labor) African History Oseirus, Singwaya18, Safferz Latin American History teachgrad (20th century, Southern Cone), BH-history East Asian History alleykat Near/Middle Eastern History uhohlemonster Atlantic World sandyvanb World/Global History melissarose8585 Jewish History uhohlemonster, hopin'-n-'prayin, kotov (Holocaust) Others??? Jewish History uhohlemonster, hopin'-n-'prayin, kotov (Holocaust) Others???

Thankfully, my husband has never had this problem! He's used to the fact that life was always taken over by the research (I already have my M.A.). I'll be having a Skype chat with my old grad school advisor as well as a friend of mine who went the high school route to make some hard decisions. It just literally hurts my heart to think of giving up this idea, especially when I still see things, or hear things, and the first thought I have is "project!! article!!!"

I, like AnnieCa, find myself in an interesting situation. I'm applying for Fall 2013. I've always wanted my PhD to teach and publish and be "at that level." But now, after having taken 2 years off to work and see the world, I find that I might be going down the wrong path. I highly enjoy life not focused on publishing and research constantly, although some days I do miss the thrill of finding that missing thread of information that my thesis will hinge on. I've been instead considering MA programs for secondary school licensure, but I still think the PhD is what I want. Is anyone else torn about the possible pros/cons, wrong decisions they might make, etc? I was so sure about this until about two months ago.

I used Kaplan's 101 New GRE Verbal Questions and their New GRE introduction Manual. There is also a site called mygretutor . com that you can pay for questions. I just used it to build my vocab. But I will say, it seemed like the questions in the study books were harder than the ones on the exam, and I got a 165 verbal.

I was in this situation as an undergrad. My parents were pushing Pre-med and I wanted history, and I literally just let myself fail out. Later, I went back and finished, got my M.A., and I'll be applying to PhDs this fall as well. But since that moment, I've never really lost my passion for my subject, or for academia. Even now (I took a gap year between my M.A. and applying for PhDs) I read journals, I'm finishing a documentary, and keeping it in the forefront of my mind. I'll miss the money I'm making in the RW, but I will love being back in grad school. If you can't say the same, then maybe it is time for you to sit down and evaluate exactly what is causing the biggest problem: your "coworkers," your subject, grad school in general, and figure out what you need to change. If it means a year off, do it. If it means a field change, do it. Don't be miserable! Make a change that will get you where you think you can be happy.

Thanks for the advice guys, especially bfat-I figured they weren't the most important part of the application materials, and I definitely don't want to go through all that again just to get a higher quant. if they will see all my scores from the last five years. I'll stick with what I have and beef up my writing sample. @Modernity-Yeah, U Denver International Studies. They've been really great about talking to me, even this early on, about their program. Definitely a place I'm going to look at; I think it would be great if I went into government, public, or even NGO work.

I took my first GRE in December to give myself enough time to prepare for admissions in Fall 2012 (looking at starting for my PhD in 2013). I didn't know how well I would do, so I wanted to give myself enough time to re-study, take a course, and re-take the test if needed. Scores weren't so bad (V=165, Q=154, AW=5.5), and I'm going for World History (with a good bit of Archaeology thrown in), so I needed a great verbal and writing for the schools I've chosen (UPitt, Brown, UVirginia, UArkansas, UDenver). My question is this: if I take the test again to try and improve my quantitative score, how does it all work? If I should get a lower verbal, do they typically take the highest among the tests, or the highest average score among the tests? I want to make sure that, before I spend the money and time prepping for another round, I won't lose my great verbal and writing score. But I don't want to take the chance of not getting into a good school because my quantitative is low. I know admission depends on quite a bit more than a good GRE score, but I want to look as good on paper as is physically possible.