czesc

regalrenegade - no problem discussing it openly here; his name popped up when I was doing my own search for people to work with on British transnational / imperial history. Feel free to PM though if you want to talk more specifically about this area without disturbing others in the thread Also, if anyone else has any suggestions in this area, they'd be most welcome to reply or PM. The names I have are all from top schools - Harvard, Princeton, NYU, Stanford, Cambridge. I want to diversify the pool I'm looking at with more realistic / probable possibilities... Sigaba - thanks again for great advice. Do you think it would be preferable to have a law professor write this third LOR rather than risk ill feelings surfacing?

Thanks all for the LOR tips so far! Sigaba - might the same problems be (potentially) true of all LOR writers? I guess it would be prudent to somehow look into everyone's backgrounds in terms of professional spats and jealousies...but I'm not sure how one goes about sussing these sorts of things out. regalrenegade - have you looked at Fredrik Albritton Jonsson at UChicago? He's more into environmental than cultural history, but seems to have dealt with its cultural impacts as well.

runaway - I assume you're doing Eastern European history? Sorry to disappoint! Despite my ethnicity my interests lean more toward the British Empire. Yes, I'm thinking of starting to contact potential LOR writers soon, probably in April. Should I wait longer to start contacting potential POIs? oseirus - haha, I'll keep in mind that my capacity for the Dark Arts will have been weakened, though in truth I think I would have probably been the dunce of Slytherin; manipulative legal sliminess has never really been my forte, despite working in the field It is really unbelievable how supportive this forum feels; I don't remember people being so personally invested in one another on law school admissions fora. CageFree - thanks! Do you study Argentine history by the way? (basing my inference off your avatar) Considering everyone is saying how important LORs are, what do you think of the following situations for LOR writers? The first two I will probably ask, the others I would consider as my third...a sort of related question is whether it's a better idea to try to bring in someone from law school, even if they don't have a history background, or to choose all three from time in undergrad, longer ago... 1. Close advisor during undergrad, implicitly encouraged me to go to grad school (started naming advisors, etc.) but seemed sort disappointed when I went to law school instead and, over email after I started law school, seemed to think it was strange that I would still think about pursuing a PhD and wondered if I should do legal history as a law professor with a JD alone. 2. History professor who liked me during undergrad; visited her during my first year of law school and she seemed to think I should have stopped to think about what I was doing with my life before going to law school and then realizing that I sort of wished I were in history instead. Maybe/hopefully I will have convinced her of my seriousness after working in law for two years, but worry I will still come off as diletanttish with this switch. She's also overseas right now...should this be an in person request? 3. Superstar history professor (but more a superstar outside the academy than in, maybe) who wrote me a law school recommendation; will probably not remember me all that well and will require a lot of explanation as to why I was switching gears (especially because I'm concerned he'll think I'm retreating from the potential to use my education for activism). I also wonder to what extent I could stress that he can work off my law school LOR if he still has it, so as not to take up too much of his time? 4. Not-really-history-oriented research advisor with whom I worked a lot during law school who agreed to write me a recommendation in the future, but seemed much more interested in doing so for a law fellowship than for a history PhD, which he sort of thought was a strange idea. 5. JD/PhD-holding legal history professor in law school; was very impressed with my ability to critique scholarly papers during colloquia but for whom I didn't work as closely as the above - i.e. I didn't write a major research paper with him. However, he could serve as a sort of bridge to show continued interest in the field in law school. Also denied tenure recently so I wonder if he will be down on the whole history PhD thing as well... In sum, I think, with the exception of the last person, they might all be wary of me crossing back over disciplinary lines once I seem to have migrated from one to another...

Thanks, all! This has been really encouraging. It's strange, but just posting here is helping me overcome doubts and makes this process feel more inevitable. I think I'm probably going to go for it. I have a "comfortable" life and it's nowhere near as stressful or awful as it could be in my current profession/this economy, but I feel like I'm just going through the motions and not doing enough of what I love, which is writing and engaging with ideas. Now I just have to think about whether I want to leave my job at some point and devote myself to the application process full time, or leave that for when this is a more certain thing. I guess it will depend on whether I can carve out enough time for GRE studies / meetings with profs, etc. runaway - nice catch. Polish was actually my other first language, but my parents made sure it didn't stick because they were afraid I'd grow up not speaking English well enough. I can throw a few words around here and there, but I don't really know enough to carry on a full conversation. Sigaba - thanks for the good advice. When I started law school, I originally wanted to run straight back to the humanities and the way they're taught and do something completely unrelated to law. I'm mostly glad I waited and have a more mature perspective on this, even if it means I'm an "older" grad student; I'll now almost definitely try to find some way to make my legal education an asset for my application/career. p.s. maybe I'm just really out of the loop at this point...what is "the Forty Acres"? Made me think of Reconstruction, but sounds like a specific place?

Feel free to bring on the lawyer jokes as I've never really wanted to be a lawyer (law school was motivated by vaguer goals of legal academia / maybe government service...I had no idea how very specifically vocational it would be). Thanks for the link; I'll definitely peruse it. I guess my concern with not having a masters is twofold: not only will I be competing against masters students who have an extra credential in the field, but since I've been away from the formal study of history for awhile (unless you count legal history in law school), it might put me at a disadvantage not to start from there. Unfortunately I also don't have academic publications /conference experience like Safferz does (I have published essays in a national magazine in Canada but I don't think that's anywhere close to relevant). Here's what I do have: - Ivy undergrad (high GPA) / Ivy law school (unclear GPA thanks to weird grading system change in the middle of my time there) - Honors thesis and award from undergrad history dept. - Potential recommendation from / association with prof who's well-networked in my field - Languages: I do work in German, so I would assume it is sufficient for admissions purposes. I also have over a year of Arabic behind me, mostly from law school but also from experience in the Middle East. I am wondering if I can claim some basic reading knowledge of French since I used some in my thesis? I studied it some earlier in life and can usually puzzle it out when necessary. I studied Latin in high school but only for translation purposes and am probably incredibly rusty - wonder if this is worth noting at all. - Awhile back, spoke with DGS/POI (soon to be head of dept) at program at same school as law school who was very encouraging of my interest areas and said he liked law students. Good friend already works with said POI on interdisciplinary law/history doctorate. Unfortunately admissions rates for history at said school are next to impossible. - Zero points for diversity What do people think?

Hi all, First post. Still figuring out whether I definitely want to throw my hat in the ring this cycle. Skipped last time because of other issues (I currently work as a lawyer and had to go through the whole bar exam process, which left me rather exhausted). This time it's primarily worries about the job market, both the academic one and nonacademic options after being cloistered in the Ivory Tower while doing my doctorate...sigh. I know I'd absolutely enjoy being a history PhD student more than almost anything; I just wish I knew whether it's the best decision for what will come after. Assuming I can't pull off the coveted TT position after awhile, I'd be looking at trying to reenter the nonacademic job market after ten years of not-quite-so-relevant experience. Assuming that this (the PhD) has been a longtime goal, and that I plan to get off the lawyer train anyway and doing so will probably involve another degree that I can't afford to pay/take out debt for, is this a risk worth taking? I'm not sure my other options are actually much better from a finance point of view and definitely not from a happiness one... Oh, one other question while I've got your attention: am I hopeless five years out of undergrad with a JD and not a masters? Seems like all of you are coming from MAs and it's very intimidating...