unforth

Howdy! I was at IUB for two years studying at SLIS! It's awesome to meet another Bloomington-ite. To answer the "interests" questions... I've been out of school for a number of years. What I found was that my interests showed themselves to me pretty clearly over the years: confronted with a bookshelf full of books on various fiction and non-fiction topics, books I'd already bought, none of which I'd read, I invariably picked out the ones on the US Civil War and the Antebellum years. Most was military history, some political, and occasionally cultural, but it was hard to argue with the consensus: when I had to pick how to spend my time, when I could read ANYTHING, I chose to read US Civil War history. That's how I knew. Hope it helps!

Quote: how far into Harlem would you have to go into before one can get decently priced housing yet still close enough to Columbia? (sorry I can't actually quote, silly iPad widget.) To answer this question...as a native New Yorker, I wouldn't recommend trying this; a lot of neighborhood in Harlem, especially east Harlem, are very spotty and can still be dangerous, and without doing a lot of scouting ahead of time on location you just won't know what you're getting in to. Depending on your definition of "reasonably priced" and "close" the western part of Washington Heights (north of 168th street, west of St. Nicholas) is usually pretty okay, especially the part around 181st and Calibri; I lived on 171st for a year and never felt in danger. Inwood also works well (the area right around Fort Tryon park). Both these neighborhoods are on the 1 train line; when I lived in Washington Heights I could get to the Columbia area in less than 15 minutes by train, or it could be walked in about an hour (three miles). In all of these neighborhoods, though (Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood) look out for deals that look a little too good, though. I found a fantastic deal on a one bedroom for $1250 a month...and ended up with bedbugs. Hope this helps!

Notes on introducing: I'm in a different field (history) and I have no idea if what I did was right or wrong. That said... Last month a road trip happened to take me through the areas of all four of my top choices, so I decided to stop in and speak with professors I hope to study with. I emailed them first and scheduled meetings. Before hand I did a lot of research on the schools, the programs, and the professors work to make sure that I was talking to who I'd really like to meet. I also thought about what I'd want to know, so I would have some intelligent questions to ask about the program and the school. I ended up meeting with two professors who were POI for me. Each talk ran about a half hour. I asked questions about the programs and what they were looking for in prospective students; they both asked me a LOT of questions about my background, my research interests, etc. My experience was mixed - I got the sense that I impressed with my level of preparedness about their programs, but because I'm not yet that focused in terms of my research interests I got the sense that I did not do well in that regard. So, I guess based on my experience...I was glad I had these meetings. I got a much better sense of what these programs were looking for and how I could be a well qualified applicant, and also some important areas where I had to strengthen my preparation. Good luck!

Thank you. Yes, I was not-so-subtly talking about Carol Reardon. I'm actually feeling a lot better again - forced myself to overcome the low and go to the Grad Student meet and great tonight. I'm very glad I did - got to meet another of the professors I'd love to work with (Joe Glatthaar) and a number of other folks and had the ego-gratifying experience of having some grads at my top choice school trying to convince me to go there, and me like, don't worry, no convincing needed, I really, want to. I don't know that I realized you were in military history (if you've previously said so, please forgive my memory!) - are you at the conference? What's your area of study?

This weekend is the conference for the Society of Military Historians. As part of my getting back in to my field, I decided to attend even though as a non-student non-scholar I feel kinda outta place. Anyway, I just took the opportunity to introduce myself to One of the major professors in my field who is at one of the universities I want to attend and solicit her advice. Quite aside from the fact that I feel that I comported myself badly (aargh I'm too impatient ) I'm just feeling totally overwhelmed. The kind of person she describes as being a good candidate sounds like a fricken super human to me. Like, demonstrate deep knowledge of your own field! Oh, and demonstrate some amount of awesomeness in some other fields! And describe now awesome you are! And know what you want to study! And remember it all has to fit in one to three double spaced pages! Kinda panicky. also...feeling like I may end up pushed in to focusing on some areas that I'm actually not that interested in pursuing academically just to sweeten my application. All in all...not feeling good.

lol, no apology needed. Though I can't help answer yours, the only language I know resources for is Japanese.

Is this the one? http://www.amazon.com/Berliner-German-Edition-Christine-Lemcke/dp/3468478313/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336766115&sr=8-1-spell If so, the price isn't bad at all!

I noticed a number of folks speak German. I'm getting increasingly interested in learning German well enough to read and translate. Can any of you recommend any resources for doing so? (ie, good textbooks/workbooks, etc...)

Yay! Congrats on the GAship, that rocks! Being in second is a win, It'll be really valuable experience, too! I feel guilty when I read anything that isn't history, and I've been out of school for years...it happens.

Yay, another 2013 applicant. Welcome!

I have a happy, and wanted to share! I got my final GRE scores - my 165 in Verbal is 96th percentile, the 157 in math is 77th percentile. Nothing new there, really. My main excitement is on the essay - I'm so long out of school that I really wanted a 6 on the essays - and I got it! I know that many programs don't really care if you do badly, but I'm still hoping that doing well will give me a slight edge, or at least compensate for my undergrad GPA (which was a 3.28, 8 years ago...).

"But I do urge you to just do some free writing on your SOP. Don't worry about grammar mistakes, whether or not the sentences make sense, etc. Just write down everything you ever want to say about your intellectual journey, questions you have, your influences, etc. Just write it all down. It doesn't matter if it comes to 6 pages. "And put it away, somewhere where you can't find easily. Make sure it's out of your sight (out of sight, out of mind)." This sounds like brilliant advice. I will do this imminently. Like today or tomorrow. Thank you. (also: sorry, fancy quoting buttons don't work right on my iPad, it's annoying...)

I do want to work with Prof. Gallagher, very much so. I met him when I visited UVA. He's awesome. Like, literally, I was in awe. I've never met an academic who I felt more comfortable talking with, like, it was just a conversation. Except that he knows a metric ton. Thanks! I think I'm going to need luck. Where did you end up? (also: I love your avatar. )

Well, of you're still in undergrad we're at very different stages of life, so that's a lot of it. I'm finding the time around a full time job that tends to get very busy in the mid-spring and through the summer, so I'm trying to get done early what I can. Like, I was on a road trip last month anyway, it made an ideal chance to visit my schools when I might not otherwise find the time. I forgot, I've also been reading a ton in my field, and for the first time reading intentionally to get more knowledgeable, rather than just reading whatever looks interesting today. I totally hear ya on getting hopes up by visiting. Now that I've actually visited Chapel Hill and Charlottesville, I want to get to one of the two in soooo bad. It's gonna stink if I don't get it...

I didn't claim it was an exhaustive list. I'm at work right now, and brain is toast...tastes yummy with butter and jam...

We've been pretty quiet the last few days! So, I've got a question/conversation starter...for my fellow 2013 applicants, what is the timeline you're thinking of for getting things done? I took the GRE this month, and I've already visited the campuses of my top choices but I'm not planning to work on my Statement of Purpose, Letters of Rec or writing sample until September or so. I'm hoping to get my applications done early, not cause I think it will help, but because it'll get them done. I've already outreached to my POI at each school but figure I'll do so again in the fall...hmm...what else is there?

Just as a correction - you can't take it more than once every 60 days (not every 30 days) and I believe it's capped at four times a year.

I'm planning to apply for Fall 2013 and I just went ahead and took it earlier this month. I figured it gave me lots of time to try again if I didn't do well. I don't know if this will count against me in anyway, but I can't really think why it would, it's still all this year, and applications will be due in the winter...

I'll join you! I'm not on that list, either! Khaaaaaaaaaan!

I have an iPad. I'm typing on it right now...while standing in a book store. I adore my iPad, cause it does so much more than just reading. I imagine other tablets would also be good, but I would say tablet over kindle, unless the price difference is a serious issue. I really use this thing for everything from keeping my shopping list to taking notes at meetings to surfing the net in my commute to reading the newspaper and kindle at the gym to watching tv when I go out to dinner solo. I just love it. (no I'm not getting paid for my statement. I just really love my iPad, and have since the day I bought it, in August. And it's gonna save me money in the long run - with this I don't need a smartphone!)

I've already read Fuller's Grant and Lee, and it's excellent. I genuinely enjoyed his analysis, and he made me laugh a few times, too - he just says EXACTLY what he thinks, even when it's saying things along the lined of, "such and such was a terrible decision and that's why Lee is way over rated." I'm hoping for the same, er, candor in this one. Robert Jordan already died on me. If I start the series and Martin dies without finishing...I'm gonna resurrect him and kill him again....

Why not? I'm planning to read that this summer, after finally getting forced by friends in to watching Game of Thrones (I'd been avoiding it cause I hate starting fiction series that the author hasn't finished writing yet...I've been waiting for the end of one series for almost 20 years...) Also, I started reading JFC Fuller's analysis of Ulysses Grant's generalship...

I went hunting through some of the old threads to see if there was one on this, and I didn't see one in the last 6 months, so sorry if this is repetitious but... I was wondering what strategies people used to organize and keep track of their research notes, books, articles and all that jazz. I'm particularly interested in websites and programs. I know a few people have mentioned things they use - I saw someone mention Endnote, and someone else Evernote. Do people use technological methods? Or flash cards? Or notebooks? What works for people? Here's what I've tried in the past: 1. Notebooks. When I was an undergrad I would keep notes in a notebook, sorted by which book the notes were from. This was always problematic; it would get clunky quickly, took a lot of time to handwrite, and once I'd read 10 or 15 books it would get increasingly hard to find what was where. Furthermore, it was organizationally static - I had no way of reorganizing the notes thematically or chronologically or anything, I was bound by my book organization. I don't want to continue to use this method in to the future. 2. OneNote. I've used OneNote, a microsoft program that comes with Word and Excel and PP and such. It has some flexibility, but again, I've found it static. Also, without extensive planning ahead of time, I've found it hard to keep things straight and figure out effective ways to organize things. And since there's no way to tag or otherwise mark things, it's hard to pull out specifics. On the other hand, it's very easy to move data around, which is handy. 3. Scrivener (<a href="http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php">here</a>). A friend of mine clued me in to this, she uses it for fiction writing. Trying it is going to be my next step, I think it's going to have a LOT of flexibility. I'll speak up when I've gotten a better sense of how effective it'll be. So, what do other folks use? How do you feel about its effectiveness?

I thought of another vote in favor of Kindle - many older books are either VERY cheap or free. I got my copy of On War for a dollar. Historiographical works from the early 20th and 19th century and older are often available at no cost. And one doesn't need to own a Kindle (or equivalent e-reader) - you can read them using Apps for smart phones or tablets (I use my iPad) or readers on a computer. (it was a tough transition, but having to move 8 times in 5 years made me much less attached to 50 boxes of books, and helped me make the switch to digital... )

I've never had to shorten an academic paper, but I write grants professionally and length is always essential and page limits absolute; usually early drafts are double the required length, and a good clean draft that seems "perfect" is usually two to three pages over. To get things down to length, I usually start going sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph and thinking: 1. Does this add anything to my argument? 2. Have I already said this or something similar else where? 3. Is there a way I could consolidate this paragraph with another else where in order to save any space? 4. Does this particular paragraph-long point actually add enough to my argument to be worth retaining? I even go word by word sometimes, though that's less applicable in this context since you don't have an EXACT length requirement, you just want to get it shorter. As to length - I noticed that many of the places I've looked don't specify, but one of the professors I've spoken too specified that, since they DO read every writing sample, keep them short - he suggested that the 20 page sample I was considering using (but now won't be based on our convo here... ) was about the right length.