2022 Application Thread

[sonnybunny]

55 minutes ago, psstein said:

It's summer, so many faculty are checking email infrequently at best. Don't be too discouraged if you don't get a reply, just try again in the Fall.

Thank you! I've emailed 5 POIs, have heard back from all except one (and I will wait to follow up until the autumn). 

[byrd]

hi all! I'm a senior this year, majoring in history and gender, sexuality, and women's studies. I don't go to a super renowned university but i go to a large public university on a full ride scholarship that i was selected for based on my history research in high school. i'm planning on applying to a whole bunch of PhD programs and also master's in history as a backup in case I don't get into any funded PhD programs; I'm incredibly lucky that I don't have any student loans (yet, haha) so I should be able to obtain a master's even if I don't get any funding. I'm interested in the history of clothing in early america, especially in regards to queer and transgender experience, and have done research on that end on the life of Joseph Lobdell in the 19th century in america, who we would identify now-adays as transgender, which is part of a paper that I'm presenting at my first-ever conference this fall. This paper is what I'm going to use as my writing sample, so I'm in full swing on revising and revamping it to be both presentable for the conference and within the page limits for the schools i'm applying to. I'm... honestly not sure if I'll get into any PhD programs this cycle, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness while in school which limited both my gpa and my oppurtunities to do in-depth research beyond my current project, and am only passable in foreign languages (basically reading in french and latin but no speaking or listening skills). I'm going to try my best anyways! I only just discovered this website exists so pardon me in advance if i trip over any unspoken etiquette in this post.

- byrd

[hydro]

9 hours ago, sonnybunny said:

I know it is a bit earlier to be contacting potential advisors, but has anyone else sent out some introductory emails? I sent out a handful and had my first zoom call with a potential advisor today. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but overall ended in a great conversation. 

Congrats! How did the conversation go? So far I have a spreadsheet of faculty I want to reach out to. I'm still figuring out what to include in the introductory email, and when to send emails out.  

[TagRendar]

I'm glad that I'm not the only one a) back again and b) looking at revamping the list of schools I'll be applying to come fall.  I'm still in the exploratory phase of my planning for my second season, though I do have two writing samples (one on ethnic immigrant neighborhoods in late 19th and early to mid 20th century Grand Rapids and the other on the history of mostly passenger rail service in Michigan) that are in various stages of revision to use and much more time on my hands to write much better SOPs for my upcoming applications, since I'm in an unintentional gap year.

I'm curious if anyone has any experience with interdisciplinary clusters at Northwestern or with U Nebraska-Lincoln's certificates.  Is it unusual for someone to potentially pick up two certificates rather than just one?  Is it possible?  I only ask because I'm interested in both the digital humanities cert and the human rights and humanitarian affairs cert at Nebraska.  In digging through Northwestern's information on their interdisciplinary clusters, I can't quite parse if they're open to all PhD programs or just specific ones, but that could be something that I'm either missing or is just unclear on their website.  For background, I have undergraduate degrees in history and anthropology (my first undergrad degree) and in political science (my second undergrad degree) as well as a masters in history (specialization in medieval and early modern Europe - which is a specialization that I'm moving away from in my PhD programs).

As a side note, @sonnybunny I'm so sorry to hear that you didn't get off the waitlist, but from what you've been indicating here, maybe it'll end up working out better for you in the longer term.

[dr. t]

4 minutes ago, TagRendar said:

I'm curious if anyone has any experience with interdisciplinary clusters at Northwestern or with U Nebraska-Lincoln's certificates.  Is it unusual for someone to potentially pick up two certificates rather than just one?  Is it possible?

I wouldn't put much thought into certificates, to be honest.

[TagRendar]

Just now, dr. telkanuru said:

I wouldn't put much thought into certificates, to be honest.

Why not, out of curiosity?

Mostly as subfields they were interesting to me, though some of the coursework attached to the human rights cert at Nebraska is much more interdisciplinary than I expected and the history course offerings inside of it are admittedly a bit disappointing overall--though it's definitely demonstrating a bit of a scholarship (or at least a course offering) gap there.

[dr. t]

Just now, TagRendar said:

Why not, out of curiosity?

No one cares about them outside of your university. Often no one cares about them inside your university, either. 

Generally speaking, interdisciplinarity is something that administrators like to talk about a lot, but something for which your field (and particularly history) will punish you if you engage in it.

[TagRendar]

Just now, dr. telkanuru said:

No one cares about them outside of your university. Often no one cares about them inside your university, either. 

Generally speaking, interdisciplinarity is something that administrators like to talk about a lot, but something for which your field (and particularly history) will punish you if you engage in it.

Good to know for sure.

[TMP]

7 hours ago, TagRendar said:

Good to know for sure.

I'm not sure.  I disagree with @dr. telkanuruin some respects.  It depends on your research and teaching goals and how much of the required coursework can be used towards fulfilling the req. hours to complete before candidacy exams/prospectus defense. 

I was going to do a certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies but realized that I would need to take 2 more courses outside of history and do those after 2 years of coursework in the dept (there were fair amount of offerings). By that point, I was just too burned out to keep going and my committee was pushing me to move along with my exam reading lists (b/c I had spent the previous 2 summers abroad for language study or dissertation research instead of... well, reading like most people).  I ended up switching one of my minor fields from US history to WGS. (otherwise, I would have had my major field in Jewish history, two minor fields in US and European history, and a certificate in WGSS).

It was the best decision I've made.  My minor field in WGS paid off -- I ended up designing a fabulous course that has been a talking point for my academic job interviews. I have no reason to demonstrate that I can teach US history when it's clear that search committees appreciate the ability to teach thematic and non-Western history courses.

 

This is a very good question to ask the DGS in each program -- how often do students pursue certificates? How many non-department courses can be counted for the PhD? The goal is not to take forever to get to the exams and prospectus defense.

[TagRendar]

Thanks @TMP -- knowing what your experience was with regard to this, and the advice about just flat-out asking DGS about the certificate numbers and the nitty-gritty is definitely going to help me sort through these options that weren't on my list the first time around.

[TagRendar]

In digging through the page's archives, I've only found one or two really good replies on this subject (from a couple years ago now), so I'm going to ask and hopefully someone will answer and leave me enough lead time to reach out.

In a couple weeks, I'm going to be in Chicago and would kind of like to reach out to some of the programs that I'm applying to see if it would be possible to talk to someone about the program or maybe at least just get a feel for the campus (the trip is not expressly for this purpose; my cousin is getting married in the suburbs and I'm staying in the city for a few days after the wedding).  Has anyone reached out to a DGS on this recently, or is everyone still in the same mode I am where it's weird to think about asking to actually meet someone face-to-face in the era of COVID-19?

[jebbush2k20]

On 6/28/2021 at 6:24 PM, Sigaba said:

FWIW, I satisfied my second language with statistics. Would you be interested in developing a stat-related skill set so you could crunch some data and make tables/charts/graphs for your research papers and (perhaps) your dissertation?

Developing fluency in Spanish to the point where you could use it for both field and archival research is potentially ambitious, if not also perilous. If your primary area of specialization is going to be reproductive health, you could use a narrower approach as a graduate student then widen your reach (to include Spanish) down the line.

I didn't know stats was an option, but I do have a background in stats and it's very relevant to my research interests (medicine, history of insurance, logic of insurance as applied to constitutional law)! This is very helpful. 

[dr. t]

On 7/1/2021 at 8:27 PM, TMP said:

I disagree with @dr. telkanuruin some respects.

And then you go and make my point for me - that if it's something important, just do it in fields or publish on it ?

[sonnybunny]

On 6/30/2021 at 8:22 PM, hydro said:

Congrats! How did the conversation go? So far I have a spreadsheet of faculty I want to reach out to. I'm still figuring out what to include in the introductory email, and when to send emails out.  

Apologies for this incredibly late reply... it went really well, thank you for asking. Have you reached out to anyone yet? I've heard August/September is a good time to reach out, but like I said, I reached out in the last few weeks to a handful of professors who were all quite receptive. 

[sonnybunny]

Mid-summer check roll call! How is everyone doing? What step of the application process are you working on? Have you narrowed down a list of schools? Hope you all are doing well!

[TagRendar]

27 minutes ago, sonnybunny said:

Mid-summer check roll call! How is everyone doing? What step of the application process are you working on? Have you narrowed down a list of schools? Hope you all are doing well!

I've added more schools to the potential list, which is currently in flux.  Had some contact with Loyola's public history program and based on that have probably taken their public history/US History joint PhD off my list (in part due to my own background and how they handle folks who come in with a master's in hand).  A few others that either weren't on my radar last cycle or were taken off my list of schools that I actually applied to are probably ending up on this year's list (U Wisconsin at Milwaukee being one of them).

After going back and forth like crazy about which of my writing samples I want to use, I've decided to revise both but will likely use one because it better fits what will likely be my research focus (mid-19th to early 20th century settlement and community patterns in urban spaces - asking questions about the factors that caused people to settle the way they did in the patterns that they did and what caused some of these communities to persist while others dissolved).

Statements of purpose come after I've narrowed the application pool.

[AfricanusCrowther]

On 7/8/2021 at 9:11 AM, TagRendar said:

In digging through the page's archives, I've only found one or two really good replies on this subject (from a couple years ago now), so I'm going to ask and hopefully someone will answer and leave me enough lead time to reach out.

In a couple weeks, I'm going to be in Chicago and would kind of like to reach out to some of the programs that I'm applying to see if it would be possible to talk to someone about the program or maybe at least just get a feel for the campus (the trip is not expressly for this purpose; my cousin is getting married in the suburbs and I'm staying in the city for a few days after the wedding).  Has anyone reached out to a DGS on this recently, or is everyone still in the same mode I am where it's weird to think about asking to actually meet someone face-to-face in the era of COVID-19?

I don't see a problem if you specify that you're fully vaccinated and indicate that you completely understand if the person you're emailing is uncomfortable with meeting in person for whatever reason that they will not have to disclose.

Why email the DGS, though? Why not a relevant faculty member or current graduate student?

[TagRendar]

3 minutes ago, AfricanusCrowther said:

I don't see a problem if you specify that you're fully vaccinated and indicate that you completely understand if the person you're emailing is uncomfortable with meeting in person for whatever reason that they will not have to disclose.

Why email the DGS, though? Why not a relevant faculty member or current graduate student?

Probably because of my nerves, really.  I do have some emails out regarding various things and will be reaching out to some faculty and possibly some graduate students this week as I attempt to narrow down my prospects for the upcoming cycle.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets anxious about essentially cold-emailing someone you've never met who's higher up on the career and academic ladder than you are.

[hydro]

On 7/13/2021 at 6:56 AM, sonnybunny said:

Apologies for this incredibly late reply... it went really well, thank you for asking. Have you reached out to anyone yet? I've heard August/September is a good time to reach out, but like I said, I reached out in the last few weeks to a handful of professors who were all quite receptive. 

No worries! I haven't reached out to anyone yet. My goal is to start reaching out by August 2nd. Should I reach out to 2-3 faculty members in a single department or just 1? 

[AP]

On 7/1/2021 at 12:07 PM, TagRendar said:

I'm glad that I'm not the only one a) back again and b) looking at revamping the list of schools I'll be applying to come fall.  I'm still in the exploratory phase of my planning for my second season, though I do have two writing samples (one on ethnic immigrant neighborhoods in late 19th and early to mid 20th century Grand Rapids and the other on the history of mostly passenger rail service in Michigan) that are in various stages of revision to use and much more time on my hands to write much better SOPs for my upcoming applications, since I'm in an unintentional gap year.

I'm curious if anyone has any experience with interdisciplinary clusters at Northwestern or with U Nebraska-Lincoln's certificates.  Is it unusual for someone to potentially pick up two certificates rather than just one?  Is it possible?  I only ask because I'm interested in both the digital humanities cert and the human rights and humanitarian affairs cert at Nebraska.  In digging through Northwestern's information on their interdisciplinary clusters, I can't quite parse if they're open to all PhD programs or just specific ones, but that could be something that I'm either missing or is just unclear on their website.  For background, I have undergraduate degrees in history and anthropology (my first undergrad degree) and in political science (my second undergrad degree) as well as a masters in history (specialization in medieval and early modern Europe - which is a specialization that I'm moving away from in my PhD programs).

As a side note, @sonnybunny I'm so sorry to hear that you didn't get off the waitlist, but from what you've been indicating here, maybe it'll end up working out better for you in the longer term.

I teach in a certificate.

Late to this but: bear in mind that certificates have their own course requirements. While it might be technically possible to do both, you'll probably won't have enough credits to fulfill their requirements plus the courses that actually will be useful to you. 

Also, imagine certificates not as certifications of expertise but as opportunities to network, explore methods, get campus experience in area that is of interest to you, etc. In other words, it's more of an opportunity to build your CV than an attestation of anything. For example, in DH, certificates usually include a capstone project. If you are interested in that certificate, your SOP could lay out in one or two sentences how you are thinking to incorporate DH into your research (rather than saying "I'm interested").

[SaturnDevours]

Hello everyone, I've never posted in this forum before, but I have been lurking here and there. I'm applying to Loyola, Dominican, University of Maryland, St. John's University, and NYU specifically for their dual degree option to complete a Master's in Library Science and a Master's in Public History (or History in UMD's case). My research area is American material culture, photography, and art from the end of WWII to the present and how they can impact popular memory. I have previously worked on a project on photography and the civil rights movement, but I am hoping to branch out into other movements, events, and important figures from this time period. My goal is to marry art history and history in the work I do, and then get public audiences to engage with history through the analysis of objects. That's the idea at least, I'm still trying to figure out definitive parameters for future research. How specific should I be?

My materials are slowly coming together, and I am currently getting my butt kicked by my statement of purpose. Does anyone have any tips?

[OHSP]

On 7/27/2021 at 7:26 AM, SaturnDevours said:

Hello everyone, I've never posted in this forum before, but I have been lurking here and there. I'm applying to Loyola, Dominican, University of Maryland, St. John's University, and NYU specifically for their dual degree option to complete a Master's in Library Science and a Master's in Public History (or History in UMD's case). My research area is American material culture, photography, and art from the end of WWII to the present and how they can impact popular memory. I have previously worked on a project on photography and the civil rights movement, but I am hoping to branch out into other movements, events, and important figures from this time period. My goal is to marry art history and history in the work I do, and then get public audiences to engage with history through the analysis of objects. That's the idea at least, I'm still trying to figure out definitive parameters for future research. How specific should I be?

My materials are slowly coming together, and I am currently getting my butt kicked by my statement of purpose. Does anyone have any tips?

Are you applying to MA or PhD programs?

[SaturnDevours]

On 7/29/2021 at 9:05 PM, OHSP said:

Are you applying to MA or PhD programs?

MA programs for sure. I don't think a PhD program would be good fit for me.

[OHSP]

On 8/2/2021 at 4:45 AM, SaturnDevours said:

MA programs for sure. I don't think a PhD program would be good fit for me.

Do any of the programs you're applying for offer funding? Feel free to message me about NYU -- I know the cost of the MA program is enormous. 

[SaturnDevours]

On 8/2/2021 at 10:24 PM, OHSP said:

Do any of the programs you're applying for offer funding? Feel free to message me about NYU -- I know the cost of the MA program is enormous. 

I am still looking into all that. I know that Dominican/Loyola offers funding for MLIS/MA Public History students, but I'm not 100% sure about the others yet. I'll keep you in mind as I'm working on my applications. I appreciate it