"Fit" more often than not means that you're not going to rock the boat, challenge prevailing orthodoxies and cause trouble (which usually means "more work") for people. It also often means the ability to be a grinning blank slate that faculty can reproduce their own ideas upon rather than showing an annoying proclivity for thinking for yourself.
ETA: I didn't see this was a history thread, but I think these short observations about "fit" are normative for most departments.
This is a modified version of a post I made under the forum "decisions, decisions."
The most important question, I think, you should be asking yourself in this season of acceptances is not which program you should go to, but if you should go to grad school at all. The history job market is very bleak. It may well be better when you graduate, but it may well not be. There are troubling trends like MOOCs that, many people think, will restructure much of education in a way that will reduce the number of tenure track hires.
How bad is the job market currently? According to Harvard, as of the fall of 2012, only 52% of Harvard PhDs who got their PhD in the humanities from 2006-2011 had an academic job. (And it looks like, based on some other data they report elsewhere, that about 1/3 of those are in non-tenure-track positions.) 23% were "unemployed and searching." (Due to self selection bias in reporting, this data probably underestimates the number of unemployed.) [1] And those numbers are those of one of the most prestigious grad schools in the nation. Here is what Chicago history's numbers look like: https://history.uchicago.edu/sites/history.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Placement%20Statistics%202002-2011.pdf
Many people in history from elite programs, for instance, spend several years after graduating twisting in the wind with low-paid, time-consuming, and short-term lectureships and visiting assistant professorsips before either get a tt job or quitting academia. If you are really committed to an academic career, you may well be signing up for a PhD + several years of uncertainty and scrapping by after that. While it is hard to get accurate numbers, it looks like only 33% of Yale's history cohort of 2012-2013 got a tt-job.
Of course not all subfields within history are made the same. Some of your fields have excellent job prospects; others, terrible. 20C US and Europe after 1789 appear to be the worst.
It behooves you to research the matter and think about the kind of bet your are making. You are giving up 5-8 years of pay, and more importantly, 5-8 years in which you could be launching a different career. When you graduate at age 30 with a PhD, you will have opened a few doors (for instance, you are an attractive hire for a private high school), but shut many more.
I am not saying you should not go. Personally, I have found getting a PhD immensley rewarding. But it has also come at a great cost.
About your dog: I think that depends entirely on you and your program. I am in a social science program where the majority of my analysis and writing can be done from home, and I prefer to work from home or from a library (as opposed to my cube in the windowless cube farm). When I was taking classes I was generally there from 9-6 or so, but now that my coursework is finished I am rarely at the school itself. I go for meetings, seminars, interesting kinds of things and I do most of my work remotely. My time is verrry flexible, and if my building didn't prohibit it I would get a dog in a heartbeat. Another thing to keep in mind: a dog can be a great comfort when you're all stressed out over graduate school.
Advice?
Age:
-Don't feel like you have nothing to offer just because you are younger. I was 22 when I started graduate school. You got accepted to the program for a reason, and chances are you are just as equipped as any older students are to successfully complete the program, just in a different way.
-Your older classmates may be just as terrified as you. Talk to them. You have a lot in common. You are, after all, in the same place.
-You will feel like an imposter, like you don't belong, or like you are constantly behind. Or all three. It's normal. It will pass. (Well, sort of.) People of all ages go through this.
Adviser related:
-If you are lucky enough to get both research interest fit and personality fit perfect, congratulations! But sometimes, personality fit is more important than research interest fit as long as the research isn't too different. A great adviser is interested in your career development, likes you as a person, advocates for you, and wants to hear your ideas. Even if his or her research is quite different from yours, they may give you the autonomy to work on your own projects and just supervise you. A bad personality fit will drive you nuts, even if you love his or her research. Consider that when evaluating your adviser fit. (This will vary by field: research fit may be less important in the humanities, more important in the natural and physical sciences. Social sciences are somewhere in-between.)
-Don't be afraid to be straight up blunt with your adviser when it comes to asking about your progress. Ask if you are where you should be both academic program wise and getting-a-job-after-this-mess-wise.
-Be proactive. Advisers love when you draw up an agenda for your one-on-one meetings, come with talking points and progress to share, have concrete questions to ask, and have overall shown that you have been thoughtful and taken control of your own program. Of course, this won't immediately come easily to you, but in time you will work up to it. Every semester I type up my semester goals, and at the beginning of the year I type up annual goals. I show them to my adviser and we talk about whether they are too ambitious, or whether I need to revise them, and how I can meet them.
-Don't expect your adviser to actually know what courses you have to take to graduate. They will know about comprehensive exams and the dissertation, but a lot of professors don't really keep up with the course requirements, especially if their program is in flux. Get you a student handbook, and find out what you need to take. Map it out in a grid, and check off things when you finish them. Show this to your adviser every semester. You may have to explain how such and such class fills a requirement.
-Nobody loves you as much as you, except your mother. Keep this in mind as you take in advice from all sources, including your adviser. Your adviser is there to guide you, but that doesn't mean you have to do everything he says.
Studying:
-You will have to read more than you ever did before, in less time than you ever have before, and you will be expected to retain more than you ever have before. The way that you studied in undergrad may need some tweaking. Be prepared for this.
-Corollary: you may find that your methods change with age or interests or time. I preferred to study alone in college, but in grad school, I prefer to study in groups. It keeps me on task and the socialization keeps me motivated. You may find that you shift from being a more auditory learner to a visual learner or whatever.
-You will feel behind at first. This is normal.
-At some point you will realize that your professors don't actually expect you to read everything they assign you. This, of course, will vary by program, but there will be at least one class where the reading is actually impossible to do in one week. The point is to read enough that you know the major themes and can talk intelligently about them, and then pick some of the readings to really dig into and think more deeply about.
-For most programs, don't worry so much about grades. If you stay on top of your work and do what you're supposed to, you will probably get an A. How much grades matter varies from program to program. In some programs, a B is a signal that you are not up to par, and more than a few Bs will warrant a discussion with your adviser or the DGS. My program isn't like that - A, B, it's all meaningless. My adviser doesn't even know what my grades are. But at almost all programs, a C means you need to retake the course, and two Cs means you have to convince the DGS not to kick you out.
Extracurricular activity: What's that? No, seriously:
-A lot of your time will be unstructured. You will have coursework, but most grad classes meet once a week for two hours and you may have three classes. You may have meetings with your adviser every so often and some seminars or things to catch (like we have grand rounds and colloquia that are required), but a lot of time will be unstructured. However, since you have so much more work than you had in undergrad, you actually will have less free time than you had in undergrad. This may initially cause you great anxiety. It did for me. Some people love unstructured time, though. (I don't.)
-Because of this, you'll have to be planful about your non-grad school related stuff.
-TAKE TIME OFF. DO it. It's important for your mental health. However you do it doesn't matter. Some people work it like a 9-5 job. Some people take a day off per week (me) and maybe a few hours spread across the week. Some people work half days 7 days a week. However you do it, there needs to be a time when you say "f this, I'm going to the movies."
-Find your happy place, something that keeps you the you you were when you came in. I love working out. It gives me energy and I feel good. I stay healthy. I also love reading fiction, so sometimes I just curl up with a good book, work be damned. You have to give yourself permission to not think about work, at least for a couple of hours a week. You may also discover new hobbies! (I never worked out before I came to graduate school.)
-Your work will creep into all aspects of your life, if you let it. This is why I hate unstructured time. You will feel guilty for not doing something, because in graduate school, there is ALWAYS something you can do. ALWAYS. But since there will always be more work, there's no harm in putting it aside for tomorrow, as long as you don't have a deadline.
-You may need to reach outside of your cohort for a social life. None of my close friends are in my doctoral cohort. I've met master's students in my program, master's students in other programs, and I know a few non-graduate students I hang out with, too. Go to graduate student mixers. (If your university doesn't have any, organize some, if you like planning parties.) Join a student group that doesn't take up too much time. I had a doctoral acquaintance who kinda laughed at me because I joined some student groups other than the doctoral student one, and I was usually the only doctoral student in those groups, but I met some close friends (and future job contacts) and had a good time.
-DO NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR WANTING A LIFE OUTSIDE OF GRADUATE SCHOOL. This is paramount. This is important. You are a well-rounded, complex, multifaceted human being. NEVER feel bad for this. Everybody wants some kind of life outside of work. Yes, you may loooove your field, but that doesn't mean you want to do it all day long. Some other doctoral students, and perhaps professors, may make you feel bad about this. Don't let them. Just smile and nod. Then disappear when you need to.
Career:
-This is job preparation. Remember that from Day One. Always be looking for ways to enhance your skills. Read job ads and find out what's hot in your field, what's necessary, what's in demand. For example, in my field statistics and methods are a hot commodity, and they're not a passing fad. I happen to really like statistics and methods, so I have pursued that as a concentration of mine.
-Don't be afraid to take on volunteer work and part-time gigs that will give you skills that will be useful both inside academia and out, as long as it's not against your contract. Your adviser may be against it, but he doesn't have to know as long as it doesn't interfere with your work.
-If you want to work outside of academia - if you are even *considering* the possibility - please please definitely do the above. Even if you aren't considering it, consider the possibility that you won't get a tenure-track job out the box and that you may need to support yourself doing something else for a while. You will have to prove to employers that you have developed usable, useful skills and this is one of the easiest ways to do it. But don't overdo it - get the degree done.
-For more academic related ones - always look for opportunities to present and publish. Presentations look good on your CV. Publications look better. When you write seminar papers, wonder if you can publish them with some revision. Write your seminar papers on what you maybe think you may want to do your dissertation on. Even if you look at them three years later and think "these suck," you can at least glean some useful references and pieces from them. Discuss publication with your adviser early and often, and if you have the time and desire, seek out publication options with other professors and researchers. But if you commit to a project, COMMIT. You don't want to leave a bad impression.
-If you can afford it, occasionally go to conferences even if you aren't presenting. You can network, and you can hear some interesting talks, and you may think about new directions for your own research. You can also meet people who may tell you about jobs, money, opportunities, etc.
-Always try to get someone else to pay for conference travel before you come out of pocket. Including your adviser. Do not be shy about asking if he or she can pay. If he can't, he'll just say no. Usually the department has a travel fund for students, but often it's only if you are presenting.
-If you are interested in academia, you should get some teaching experience. There are two traditional ways to do this: TAing a course, and teaching as a sole instructor. If you can help it, I wouldn't recommend doing a sole instructor position until you are finished with coursework. Teaching takes a LOT of time to do right. You should definitely TA at least one course, and probably a few different ones. But don't overdo it, if you can help it, because again, it takes a LOT of time. More than you expect at the outset. If you are in the humanities, I think sole instructor positions are very important for nabbing jobs so when you are in the exam/ABD phase, you may want to try at least one. If your own university has none, look at adjuncting for nearby colleges, including community colleges. (I would wager that the majority of natural science/physical science students, and most social science students, have never sole taught a class before they get an assistant professor job. At least, it's not that common n my field, which straddles the social and natural sciences.)
-Always look for money. Money is awesome. If you can fund yourself you can do what you want, within reason. Your university will be thrilled, your adviser will be happy, and you can put it on your CV. It's win-win-win! Don't put yourself out of the running before anyone else has a chance to. Apply even if you think you won't get it or the odds are against you (they always are), as long as you are eligible. Apply often. Apply even if it's only $500. (That's conference travel!) Money begets money. The more awards you get, the more awards you will get. They will get bigger over time. If you are in the sciences and social sciences, you should get practice writing at least one grant. You don't have to write the whole thing, but at least get in on the process so that you can see how it's done. Grant-writing is very valuable both in and outside of graduate school.
-Revise your CV every so often. Then look and decide what you want to add to it. Then go get that thing, so you can add it.
-The career office at big universities is often not just for undergrads. I was surprised to learn that my career center offers help on CV organization and the academic job search, as well as alternative/non-academic career searches for doctoral students. In fact, there are two people whose sole purpose it is to help PhD students find nonacademic careers, and they both have PhDs. This will vary by university - some universities will have very little for grad students. Find out before you write the office off.
-It's never too early to go to seminars/workshops like "the academic job search inside and out", "creating the perfect CV," "getting the job," etc. NEVER. Often the leader will share tips that are more aimed towards early graduate students, or tidbits that are kind of too late for more advanced students to take care of. This will also help you keep a pulse on what's hot in your field. It'll help you know what lines you need to add to your CV. And they're interesting.
Other:
-Decide ahead of time what you are NOT willing to sacrifice on the altar of academia. Then stick to it.
I'm serious. If you decide that you do NOT want to sacrifice your relationship, don't. If it's your geographical mobility, don't. I mean, be realistic, and realize that there will always be trade-offs. But you have to think about what's important to you for your quality of life, and realize that there is always more to you than graduate school.
-If you don't want to be a professor, do not feel guilty about this. At all. Zero. However, you will have to do things differently than most doctoral students. Your adviser will probably never have worked outside of the academy (although this may vary depending on the field) so he may or may not be able to help you. But you have a special mission to seek out the kinds of experiences that will help you find a non-academic job. Test the waters with your adviser before you tell him this. My adviser was quite amenable to it, but that's because I told him that my goal was to still do research and policy work in my field just not at a university, AND because it's quite common in my field for doctoral students to do non-academic work. If you're in a field where it's not common (or where your professors refuse to believe it's common, or it's not supposed to be common)…well, you may be a little more on your own.
-Every so often, you will need to reflect on the reasons you came to graduate school. Sometimes, just sit and think quietly. Why are you doing this to yourself? Do you love your field? Do you need this degree to do what you want to do? Usually the answer is yes and yes, and usually you'll keep on trucking. But sometimes when the chips are down you will need to reevaluate why you put yourself through this in the first place.
-To my great dismay, depression is quite common in doctoral students. Graduate work can be isolating and stressful. Luckily your health insurance usually includes counseling sessions. TAKE THEM if you need them. Do not be ashamed. You may be surprised with who else is getting them. (I found out that everyone in my cohort, including me, was getting mental health counseling at a certain point.) Exercise can help, as can taking that mental health day once a week and just chilling. Don't be surprised if you get the blues…
-…but be self-aware and able to recognize when the depression is clouding your ability to function. Doctoral programs have a 50% attrition rate, and this is rarely because that 50% is less intelligent than, less motivated than, less driven than, or less ambitious than the other 50% that stays. Often they realize that they are ridiculously unhappy in the field, or that they don't need the degree anymore, or that they'd rather focus on other things in life, or their interests have changed. All of this is okay!
-You will, at some point, be like "eff this, I'm leaving." I think almost every doctoral student has thought about dropping out and just kicking this all to the curb. You need to listen to yourself, and find out whether it is idle thought (nothing to worry about, very normal) or whether you are truly unhappy to the point that you need to leave. Counseling can help you figure this out.
-Don't be afraid to take a semester or a year off if you need to. That's what leaves of absence are for.
Lastly, and positively…
…graduate school is great! Seriously, when else will you ever have the time to study what you want for hours on end, talk to just as interested others about it, and live in an intellectual community of scholars and intellectuals? And occasionally wake up at 11 am and go to the bank at 2 pm? Sometimes you will want to pull out all of your hair but most of the time, you will feel fulfilled and wonderfully encouraged and edified. So enjoy this time!
Hi there, this board is not meant to help undergraduate students do their homework. This sounds like a question that should be directed to your professor or your TA.
If the history channel is allowed to exist in it's current format, I believe historians will find it hard to educate most people on factual records because of the evil rot that medium emits.
I will defend my use of "office ladies". It's a category in part because service jobs at universities are almost always done by women and to pretend otherwise is it's own form of othering. In fact I thought about that word as I was writing the sentence and decided to use it anyway because I did think that it would cause a little thought about who those administrative staff are. And for the record, I've worked for or been a student in 7 academic departments at institutions from across the prestige spectrum. The ratio of female to male administrative staff was 40:1.
Perhaps it's because I have a certain acculturation in the American south I certainly don't think it implies someone does more or less work. In that context, the word usage in fact implies quite a strong figure. In my world, annoying administrative staff is right up there with career suicide. I might suggest that this word, much like the usage of "ma'am" or "miss" is highly regional.
In fact in this case the academics have flexible hours, and yes, it's important for you to know if you are going into the field academics often work a lot more hours than a traditional 9-5, 5 day a week job.
I had several pre-admission phone/skype interviews and only one "real" admission interview via skype with three professors. At the time of the interview, my mother was having an emergency surgery. At exactly the same time. I succeeded, and got an offer for that school. If I could survive that stress, anyone can do it!!!!
In short: all the best to you! Be yourselves, and everything will just flow.
Hi all,
I'm a return applicant; applying for the second time to PhD programs. My last app season was for admittance in Fall 2012. Here I am again...let's see how it goes this time.
After having to hunt down the good people at Sussex to find out about my scholarship status, I finally received an answer. No funding.
So, I'm back for round two Fall 2014 and I've decided to concentrate on US schools this time. I'll settle for research trips or a nice post-doc in the UK. :-) I've got about six schools in mind, but I'll reveal those as app season draws near. I decided to take my time and finish my MA thesis this fall while I find a job to hold me over.
I don't know if this will help anyone else, but it sure has helped me ...you will require the following things, another human being, a timer, a bucket, 2 pairs of handcuffs, a chair, a blindfold, and a bathroom. Now go into the bathroom, set the timer for 30 mins, sit in the chair have the human being blind fold you, then handcuff your hands and feet to objects so as to prevent you from moving. Now after this is accomplished make sure they dim the lights and gently turn on a water faucet as to make the water drip into the bucket super slowly. Have them either be super silent or leave the area whilst this goes on for 30 mins. After the time elapses, They will uncuff you and remove the blindfold. I suggest doing this 4-5 times a week if you ever find yourself stressed out about grad school applications. I hope this helps!
Below I've posted a list of history programs that seem to offer some possibility of funding to MA students. I found this info by browsing history department web sites (usually it was in the "Financial Aid" section or the graduate handbook). "Full funding" means assistantships and tuition waivers. Sometimes it was unclear whether assistantships included tuition waivers, and in those cases I noted the assistantships only.
Please consider this to be a list of leads requiring further research. I don't know these programs personally, so the info might be out-of-date or inaccurate. The DGS in each department will have the best information. Also, I'm sure I missed a bunch of programs, so keep looking on your own!
I really hope this helps somebody!
Auburn University: MA students eligible for full funding
Case Western Reserve University: some MA fellowships through the Julia Edwards Fund, program seems to try to provide tuition waivers as well
Florida International University: MA students eligible for assistantships; limited number of tuition waivers also available
Georgia State University: MA students eligible for assistantships
Indiana University - Bloomington: they "provide multiyear financial support for the vast majority of students admitted at the MA and PhD levels."
Iowa State University: MA students eligible for assistantships
Kent State University: MA students eligible for full funding
Miami University (Ohio): full funding for MA students. No PhD program.
Northeastern University: some partial tuition waivers available
Northern Illinois University: MA students eligible for funding
Ohio University: full funding for MA students
Oklahoma State University: MA students eligible for full funding
Portland State University: full funding awarded to a number of MA students. No PhD program.
Southern Illinois University - Carbondale: "Approximately 60% of our MA and PhD students receive some form of funding."
St. Louis University: assistantships available to MA students
Texas Tech University: MA students eligible for full funding
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa: full funding available to MA students, limited number
University of Cincinnati: tuition waivers (80% - 100%) offered to most MA students, assistantships awarded competitively
University of Delaware: MA students eligible for full funding
University of Hawaii - Manoa: MA students eligible for full funding
University of Houston: MA students eligible for assistantships - also a public history fellowship
University of Maine - Orono: MA students eligible for full funding
University of Massachusetts - Amherst: full funding for select MA students, merit-based
University of Mississippi: full funding awarded to a few, based on merit, as well as some scholarships for unrepresented minorities
University of New Hampshire: MA students eligible for funding
University of Oregon: full funding available to MAs, awarded on competitive basis
University of Rochester: half-tuition scholarships available to MA students
University of South Carolina: full funding available to "many" MA students
University of Utah: MA students focusing on the American West eligible for the May Fellowship. Possibly other full funding available to MA's (?).
Washington State University: MA students eligible for assistantships, awarded competitively
Western Michigan University: MA students eligible for assistantships
Oh I don't think it was off topic and I agree with your overall point ... but in defense of Huntington he was saying that different regions were going to have some common link .... and in the case of the "Islamic world" it was the common theme of Islam ... now would you consider Nigeria part of the Ummah (I mean they are part of the OIC) or would you consider Turkey? All that plays to your point but he was making a simple point so I say we cut him some slack
None of my fields relate to diplomatic history (though my dissertation does deal with it). Remember, transnational doesn't necessarily mean diplomatic or military history. You can go transnational in social history when you examine networks (social, economic, labor, activism, etc) and migrations. My primary focus is naturally transnational in nature (though much of it has been Europe-centric). I'm not really into world or global history though I do like to examine history through global perspective.
I hope this doesn't come off as rude because that is not my intention but I have to ask this question: isn't the application process subjective? I mean the schools have a weird marker of what they are looking for. Let's say you and another candidate have the exact same set up, they offer the other candidate a spot but they also want you, what are they to do? They only have one slot available? Obviously they know you are interested, isn't that the purpose of the waitlist? They want you but they have to make a seat at the table, not some sort of 'sleazy' attempt to lure you into academia.
I don't know if this will help anyone else, but it sure has helped me ...you will require the following things, another human being, a timer, a bucket, 2 pairs of handcuffs, a chair, a blindfold, and a bathroom. Now go into the bathroom, set the timer for 30 mins, sit in the chair have the human being blind fold you, then handcuff your hands and feet to objects so as to prevent you from moving. Now after this is accomplished make sure they dim the lights and gently turn on a water faucet as to make the water drip into the bucket super slowly. Have them either be super silent or leave the area whilst this goes on for 30 mins. After the time elapses, They will uncuff you and remove the blindfold. I suggest doing this 4-5 times a week if you ever find yourself stressed out about grad school applications. I hope this helps!
I will say this. Nobody is going to post anything less than positive about their departments. It's just not professional to do so in public. At the same time, don't take the lack of responses as "there must be so much negativity" but rather simply not enough posters are here that go to those places and check in on this site.
You are better off waiting to be admitted and then asking graduate students for their opinions.
I don't know if this will help anyone else, but it sure has helped me ...you will require the following things, another human being, a timer, a bucket, 2 pairs of handcuffs, a chair, a blindfold, and a bathroom. Now go into the bathroom, set the timer for 30 mins, sit in the chair have the human being blind fold you, then handcuff your hands and feet to objects so as to prevent you from moving. Now after this is accomplished make sure they dim the lights and gently turn on a water faucet as to make the water drip into the bucket super slowly. Have them either be super silent or leave the area whilst this goes on for 30 mins. After the time elapses, They will uncuff you and remove the blindfold. I suggest doing this 4-5 times a week if you ever find yourself stressed out about grad school applications. I hope this helps!
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