amanda1655

I finally got an official acceptance to Yale's MA in European Studies. No funding info. I was pretty sure I would be accepted, sine it would be VERY cruel to deny my PhD app, request permission to move it to the MA program, and then reject me anyway. I feel weird about it. I feel sort-of attached to the program since at least one professor went through a lot to get me accepted to Yale, even if it wasn't for the program I originally applied to. But, my undergraduate professors keep reminding me I would be nuts to turn down a fully-funded PhD at Michigan for a MA at Yale.

Someone recommended "Beyond the Great Story" by Robert Berkhofer to me. It's a general overview of recent historiography.

What makes me really sad is that their acceptance rate is relatively high for a top 25 program. Michigan took around 8% or 9%. Princeton usually takes 8%; this year it took substantially less. Even Boston College only accepts 4 or 5 from hundreds of applicants.

I want to add a touch of realism to this discussion. Nofia and Minnesotan are right. Everyone feels like an imposter at one point or another, and you are well-qualified for a hisotry PhD or else you wouldn't have been admitted. Graduate school, however, is going to be very difficult. You will spend a lot of time studying. I would guess that 60 hours is a bit of an overestimate for reading alone but I don't think it's an overestimate for the total amount of time that you will spend writing and reading. If anything, it might be a slight underestimate. People are going to be uber-competitive. They are going to be brilliant. If you are studying at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Stanford, Michigan, etc. you are studying with some people who are going to be leaders in your field. It will be difficult. Remember this, though, you are smart enough. You are just as good as they are.

How soon before the visit did they let you know whom you would be staying with? I have plane tickets but no information about how to get from the airport to campus or where I'll be staying. The visit is in 12 days but I'll be leaving next week for a vacation.

All I have to say after reading that is - Wow! I am glad that I didn't have to compete with that person.

Missycari - where is the example? For the life of me, I can't find it and I would be interested in reading it.

Umm... I'd rather not say where because my employer doesn't know that I've applied and been accepted to grad school yet. I will say, however, that I am teaching in the West in a major city in one of the largest school districts in the country. rising_star: I didn't quit teaching when one of my students hit me last year but it was enough to switch schools, especially when the principal involved didn't even suspend the kid. I think one of the major problems with TFA is that they don't do enough to support corps members who have difficult students or classes. It's a you're-on-own kid, sink-or-swim attitude. I have a hard time believing that placing a bunch of privileged, middle class students into low-income schools is going to transform our education system. What would change it is creating small schools with plenty of support for teachers and resources for struggling families.

I think it is WAY too general of a statement to say that someone should never incorporate anecdotes into their personal statements. I taught in a low-income elementary school for 2 years before I applied. I tried incorporate some of my experiences working with immigrant communities into my explanation of why I was interested in cultural history and the way that people use symbols and literature to make sense of their experiences. For me, it served two purposes: 1 - why I had taught in an elementary school for two years and 2 - how it had actually strengthened my interest in history.

You could always join us. I say that if we both end up at Michigan we institute a weekly happy hour at the cheapest dive bar we can find. My current colleagues and I have found that it is the perfect place to vent about the bad things that happened that week, relieve stress, and develop friendships.

Nicacar: I don't know about how it ranks. The NRC did not include it in their 1995 Rankings of the top 111 History PhD programs. It's ranked 80th in Political Science, 54th in Psychology, but nothing for history. If you have any questions about the area, though, I grew up on the Idaho/Utah border - close enough that I could have had in-state tuition for either Utah State or University of Utah. I also know a few students there and have some family that lives in Salt Lake City.

I am teaching for a third year, but not in my original placement. I am fully certified as an elementary school teacher and have an M.Ed. that I received as part of the program so transferring to another school was quite easy. One thing that your boyfriend should remember is that schools fail for a reason, and that many of the schools that are TFA schools have bad leadership. Also, there are going to be fantastic teachers at the school he is placed at and many of them resent Teach for America corps members coming into the classroom, all the while knowing that they are going to leave in 2 or 3 years. Underprivileged students need stability and a sense of community. Next year, I am going to be enrolling in a history PhD program (although which one is yet to be decided). I applied to Teach for America for a few reasons: 1 - I found myself swept into the rosy picture that they painted. Their literature is very inspiring, and it's easy to believe that you are going to walk into your classroom and dramatically change the lives of your students. Once you are actually in the program, however, you begin to realize that there structural elements in play that keep underprivileged kids from achieving and that significantly improving your students' academic outcomes is going to require more than anyone can do in two years. Curriculums need to be changed. Schools need to be restructured. Medical care offered to low-income communities needs to be changed. Immigration policies need to be overhauled. Teachers need to be better supported and trusted. One of the most discouraging things that I realized as a corps member was that no matter how much my students and I achieved during our year together. It was likely not going to be enough. It was ONE year out of thirteen. For the other twelve years, they were likely to be subjected to the same curriculum and policies that had already failed them and left them reading at a first grade level as fourth-graders. 2 - I wanted to work in a non-profit organization for a few years because I believe that is important to be fully engaged with your community. Joining Teach for America was a political act, in that it allowed me to identify with the underprivileged and work to improve the opportunities offered to them. 3 - I knew that I wanted to apply to graduate school eventually but my advisor convinced me that I should take a few years off to make sure that I wanted to dedicate myself to a PhD program that may or may not end in a tenure-track job.

I think most of us have a similar problem. My plan is send a polite e-mail, saying that I am choosing to attend _____________ University because (insert polite reason - better funding, closer fit to interests, etc.) and regreat that I won't be able to attend ____________ University. Don't be too specific and say that you are really excited about working with Professor X or that the graduate students at their institution seemed much more interesting. Thank them for their time and the care they have taken in getting to know you. Professors know that you can ultimately only go to one place and should be fairly understanding.

I'll keep that in mind during the visit. Also, did you receive that e-mail from the graduate student focusing on Modern Russia? (I have no idea why I did. My interests are Modern British History, focusing on nationalist movements within Ireland and the rest of the British Empire. I also have an interest in sexuality and gender.) If I attend the happy hour he's planning at the pub, I would be more than willing to ask any questions that you have.

There is very little benefit for graduate school unless it directly relates to your interests. I can see someone making a convincing case for a Masters of Public Health degree based on their experiences working with underprivileged kids who have little access to health care and realizing the effect that it has had their education. I can also see TFA helping someone who is interested in African American literature or immigrant experiences in the United States. Education people are obviously very interested. At one of our last meetings, an admissions rep from Harvard came to speak to our corps about applying to their education program. Law school is a completely different story. There are several law schools that have established special fellowships, fee-waivers, and other incentives to lure in corps members. I think that they are heavily courted because they have already been vetted once for academic ability and leadership, and they have shown an interest in public service. It seems to have less of a benefit for medicine. Most of the partnerships with medical schools offer two-year deferrals. A few offer academic credit but that's it. There are excellent opportunities after your corps experience. After I finished my commitment, I received recruiting information from companies like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. I have absolutely no business background or I might have been interested. On a side note, no one should apply to Teach for America unless they have a sincere interest in teaching underprivileged kids. Teach for America was one of the most difficult times of my life. TFA's promotional literature shows cute students who are motivated to learn. Your boyfriend will have a few of those... but more common will be students who are angry and occasionally violent. I taught fourth grade, and I had more than a few students who were suspended for beating other children, throwing chairs, etc. One of my friends' students hit another kid on the head with crowbar on the way to school. Were there times when it was incredibly rewarding? Of course. Did I help some of my students increase their academic achievement and set them on the path to success? Yes, though, not nearly as many as I would have liked. Would I do it again? I don't know.

Speaking of Michigan, has anyone received a notice from the graduate school approving the department's recommendation for admission? I looked on their help desk and the University said it should take 10 business days for the graduate school to approve the department's recommendations but I haven't heard anything yet. (I know this is slightly off-topic)

I'll gladly post my impressions of Michigan afterwards as well. Could you remind me, redwine, what your interests are? Modern European? Asian?

I know that quite a few people have already been on visit days but my first one isn't until the middle of March. I am very nervous - I am worried that the adcomm and my potential advisors will realize that they've made a mistake and that they should have let in that other kid. Could anyone tell me what the visit days are like? How much time were you expected to spend talking about your research interests? Were the other students super-competitive? One thing I would really like to avoid, if possible, is discussing where else I got in, what my GPA was, and my GRE score.

That sounds like a fantastic idea. May I make a suggestion? I would also take a day to forget about grad school admissions and go out. Go to the movies. Go to a bar. Get a little buzzed. Do whatever it takes. After that day, get right back to work on applying to this MA program.

All of my potential advisors have either e-mailed me or spoken to me on the phone. I initiated contact with one because I had some questions about the program. If you are uncertain about the program, don't be shy. E-mail your potential advisor and ask them any questions that you have. Remember this person probably read your app and was excited enough by it to recommend you for admission. At some schools, they liked you enough that their comments about your file allowed you to get accepted over hundreds of other people. Another thing to remember... your potential advisor may or may not have served on the adcomm this year. Depending on the level of communication within the department, they may not know whether or not you were actually admitted.

Ivy Leage means nothing. 1 - The Ivy League is a sports league that just happens to have some fantastic schools in it. 2 - Undergraduate ranking is different from graduate school ranking 3 - For graduate school, fit and advisor are just as important as rank.

I agree with risingstar. Wait a bit before you request an advisor change. There could be a reason why the adcomm assigned you to this particular advisor... similar research interests, past success advising similar students, etc. Why not wait it out and give this person a chance? You need more than one person on your dissertation committee anyway.

Hmm... I never thought of that but all of the programs that I applied to don't have stand-alone MA's so I'm guessing it's not a big issue. Also, their numbers for Wisconsin are pretty close to what Wisconsin self-reports on their internal applicant website.

Diamond is a bio-geographer. Germs, Guns, and Steel is actually well-within his field of inquiry. And, I don't think it was any worse than some of the histories that I have read by historians, and in fact, was far better than some.

If you google Peterson's, you can search for specific programs and graduate schools. If you then click on "outcomes," it shows you their admit and matriculation rate.