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Apill

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  1. Thank you. I will keep your advice in mind and definitely was planning to narrow my topic down when actually writing a dissertation. Without trying to sound defensive, I will say that I have been studying and keeping myself immersed in literature on South Asian history for years. I am aware of its historical dynamics and know what I'm getting into, the linguistic issues and so on. I agree with you that I need to continue to immerse myself and expand my knowledge of the region which I am still doing and hope to continue doing. By the way, the Sikh Empire (of Ranjit Singh) did not switch its administrative language to Punjabi but retained Persian and Vijayanagara never used Marathi; Kannada was the most commonly used language there. In any case, all will be made clear in a couple of months. Thank you again.
  2. Thank you very much. I have been studying Persian for about a year and am planning to continue with it and also know some Telugu (South Indian language. For the sake of records, I am more focused on the Mughuls and those that came after them such as the Marathas and Sikhs, but I also find myself interested in Vijayanagara (south Indian state). This topic (IR history) can definitely be done from a 19th-20th century perspective, though I feel as though the Great Game is well-researched. However, one of the topics I've focused on in both my SOP and previous research is the history of political interactions between the subcontinent and Tibet, which has room for further research. In any case, I am still planning to update my statement of purpose towards a more British Raj orientation on this topic when applying to a couple of schools in Britain.
  3. This is basically what my professors (all Political Scientists) told me. I got a second opinion from a History PhD as well and he said the same thing as well. I agree with both you and the other people who commented here in that whether or not this switch would be an issue is really up to the perspective of different departments. I realize I'm basically flipping a coin here. But since I'm flipping multiple coins (many schools), I try to remain optimistic, though realistic.
  4. Thanks for the advice. The next couple of months will be tense!
  5. Can you please elaborate a bit? Btw, I am getting an MA but not in History. I know it would have made more sense to have gotten one in History, or a relevant language or area studies program, but I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do and hopefully can get the MA along the way to my PhD.
  6. My situation is a bit complicated. After undergrad, I applied to PoliSci PhD programs. I got into a couple w/o funding, turned them down and decided to bide my time by going to graduate school in IR and then apply again. A few things happened in the last 2 years since undergrad that made me really switch to history. So, as a result, my minor was a while back. I took my last history class my junior year of college, almost 4 years ago. It was only 5 classes, mostly lecture hall classes so there was really not much contact with the professors, one of whom has also left the field. So I'm relying on 3 Polisci letters, but 2 of them are the people I did my historically related theses with. However, I did make a clear case in my statement of purpose as to why I made the switch and what I hope to accomplish by doing history. Also my proposed study's advantage and disadvantage is that by studying the diplomatic history of 17th century South Asia, I'm entering a relatively unsaturated field but one that also does not attract much attention, and thus, probably not much funding either.
  7. Hi everyone, I'm new to applying to History (PhD). I have pretty good statistics but I am a bit nervous about the fact that I'm switching to History from Political Science. I majored in IR and Polisci in Undergrad with a good GPA (3.8+) with a minor in History but I didn't produce any major paper through that minor. My interests were always historical, in that both my undergraduate theses were on history related topics: IR Thesis a historical case study on the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and my Polisci Thesis on Historicism, Hegel, and Spengler. So given all that and my disinterest in Political Science as a discipline, especially quantitative work, I've decided to apply to a PhD in History, with a focus on early modern South Asian history. Since most of my work previously was on South Asian security and IR and often used case studies, I chose this. My verbal GRE was 170 and I have some command of Hindi, Urdu, French and Persian ranging from good (Hindi) to beginner (Persian). I have one Political Science publication, my thesis. My main question then is, how likely is my admittance into a history program and how are departments going to view my profile, especially in regards to switching fields? Thanks.
  8. Thank you, I appreciate the advice. I think I can get two excellent letters from undergrad, from the same people who wrote my initial letters. I should also be able to get one from grad school, though I'm not sure about two. My adviser recommended I get letters from people with PhDs in political science, and as I pointed out, my program has many professors who are retired diplomats, soldiers, and the like. I should also mention that when I applied last time, I choose IR as my main field and Theory as my subfield although now I'm considering comparative instead. Definitely my strongest questions and ideas come from Comparative at the moment. I also did very well in theory, my undergrad thesis is on theory, and my strongest letter is coming from a professor I did theory with. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much sense it makes to play up IR anymore, though it was my undergrad major. IR is the most similar to my current practice-related masters that I haven't comparatively well in.
  9. Hi everyone. I hope everyone is ready and for the new application season. I previously applied PhD programs in Political Science two years ago (2011 for 2012) out of undergrad. At that time, I had done pretty well (3.82 undergrad GPA with a double major in Political Science and International Relations) and a decent GRE and excellent letters of recommendation. I applied to many programs in the top 20; however, I didn't get into my top choices. I got into two programs, both of which I turned down, one due to lack of funding, one due to it not being a good fit with the overall idea of doing my masters and applying again afterwards. This was where I perceive I may have a bit of an issue and would appreciate some advice, especially from faculty. In the end, I ended up choosing a master's program that was not a good fit for my interests and career goal, a "terminal" masters that focuses on Security Studies and deals largely with bureaucratic/military issues. It is also not very closely related to classical political science questions and issues and is mainly geared towards people who want to advance their government careers. I am not attempting to make excuses for myself, but much of this material was totally new to me and beyond my knowledge/interest and was not like the graduate level political science courses I took in undergrad (both of which I did well in). I notice a lot of people's profiles have higher graduate GPAs than undergraduate GPAs; however, my case is the opposite. As mentioned before, my GPA was 3.82 in undergrad but is around 3.62 at the moment. My statement of purpose this time is a lot more particular and focused, my letters will be good, and I have a publication. However, I am unsettled by my graduate school GPA and wonder how this aspect would impact my overall application for a PhD. All of my previous and potential research for the future is on topics that don't have anything to do with my masters (though certain classes I took in my program touch on these topics, and these were the classes I got A's in) but I realize that a committee looking at my transcript also looks at grades in terms of potential. I am still aiming for a top 20 program plus a couple here are there though. I would appreciate any honest advice. Thanks!
  10. I turned down Northwestern (funded), and GW (unfunded). I've decided to go to Georgetown (Security Studies MA) and apply again for a PhD after I finish that.
  11. I waited until the last moment for funding from GW, which I didn't get. Thus, I decided to do a Master's first and try again. Hopefully in 2 years, I'll get into more and better programs and with more funding offers. Better than settling for an unfunded offer. My other offer was funded but they didn't have the resources for my field so I turned that down as well.
  12. Hey everyone, I asked this question in the Georgetown SSP thread...but my question is, if you get into the Walsh school (say, the SSP program, as I did), are you allowed to transfer within the school to another Walsh graduate program, such as the MSFS? Thanks.
  13. Question: does anyone know if you can switch from one program in the Walsh school to another if you're admitted into one of them? I know you can do this in the Elliott School.
  14. Hey guys. I haven't posted in this thread yet, since I mostly applied to PhD programs, but I was admitted into the SPS studies program today. I haven't heard about fellowships or anything yet though. I am definately seriously considering going to Georgetown now.
  15. Thanks, I really appreciate the answer. Your points 2 and 3 were my issues with NU's program as well. Caverly is great, but he is only one person doing security, and so there are not many other people to work with, especially if Caverly leaves NU as I've heard he might consider doing. Also, I looked at the classes offered for graduate students, and as I think you noted before, there are not that many offerings at all. While I wanted to do something that was a mix of theory and IR/security/foreign affairs/politics, I find that NU leans, for the type of stuff I want to do, in the direct of theory too much. My work then would be, by being exposed to a department environment that leaned a certain way, much more theory oriented that I wanted it to be.
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