History Admissions 2009

[canadiana]

Last year I applied to four PhD programs and didn't get in anywhere. I will be applying to SUNY, Notre Dame, and Chicago this year. I don't think there's anything wrong with applying to a lot of schools, but each application will require its own individual attention in order to be competitive. My own reason for only applying to three schools is just that I'm not confident that I'm cut out for a PhD program, so I won't waste too much time, money, and effort on apps this year.

[hbehrens5]

hbehrens -

I'm asking this because of your signature, but is UMass one of the programs your applying to for medieval history? I just finished my undergrad there and can confidently say (also as a fellow medievalist) that I would not recommend trying to do medieval history there. The History dept. just hired a tenure-track medievalist this past year (their only medievalist) and other humanities departments are lacking in medievalists.

I was interested in UMASS because i graduated from Smith, and as the other 4 colleges dont have grad programs i was hoping to work with them any way. I have changed my thoughts on this however and am not applying.

[hbehrens5]

hberens, why only one PhD program? Have you done anything else to strengthen your application (kept up with languages, taken grad classes, etc)?

The research and responses that i have gotten over the last few years have led me to believe that it is easier to get into history PhD programs if you already have grad experience, or have something published.

I have worked on a new language but as i am a full time teach don't have time for grad classes. I am presenting at Kalamazoo this year, which seems to have helped my applications this time around

[Minnesotan]

Ok, but even when you research a school, you're still not going to craft an individualized app just for them, are you?

Yes. I wrote a different SoP for each school to which I applied. I got offers. I accepted the one I liked best. I'm happy.

"This is what I want to study. Make way!" It strikes me as totally reasonable, since only a couple schools are likely to be *perfect* for any applicant, and everyone's gotta have some back-ups, which are back-ups precisely because they're less than perfect.

I'll echo what Rising said: your backup school is someone else's first choice. I honestly don't believe there is such a thing as a "safety" or "backup" school these days, if there ever was. Not everyone wants to go to the same school. Moreover, the gap in educational effectiveness between a top 10 versus a top 100 school is nearly non-existent. Burn your copy of U.S. News and start hunting for schools that make sense for you, regardless of rank. You'll be much happier at Southeastern Mississippi Baptist State Women's College, if that's where your research and personality fits, than you'd ever be at Oxford, if you just like the name.

We should put a sign on the door around here, with my mantra that rank means shit.

Find your best fit. Find someone you want to work with. Find a department that studies the same topics that make you happy. Find a place that will fund you, give you proper advising, and provide you with some teaching experience. And, my god, once you find that place, tailor every aspect of your application to getting into that university, and that university alone -- don't just recycle your SoP from the last school to which you applied (with a recycled SoP)!

[mjl52]

Hi all,

I'm putting the final touches on my application for admission to PhD programs in Latin American History and was wondering if there wouldn't be someone out there kind enough to give me a sense of where I stand. I'm applying to most of the top programs in the field: Yale, Harvard, NYU, Columbia, UMich (in Anthropology & History joint program), UWisconsin, UChicago, Stanford and Berkeley. As for my background, I graduated from Yale in 2007 with a BA in History and Latin American Studies; my undergraduate GPA was 3.62 overall, 3.73 in history, and 3.71 in Latin American Studies. I also have a Graduate Certificate in Labor Studies from the Graduate Center at CUNY; my GPA there was 3.92.

I'm a bit concerned about my undergraduate GPA, but the real downer are my GRE scores: V 720 (98%), Q 670 (65%), and AW 4.5 (58%). I'm not a math guy and I'm applying to history programs in any case, so I'm perfectly happy with the math score; and I'd be an ass if I complained about my verbal. The writing really worries me, though -- I've heard its the most important part of the GRE for programs in the social sciences and humanities. The irony of all this, of course, is that I had an 800 on the writing portion of the PSAT and on the writing SAT II, won the prize for the best senior thesis in Latin American history my senior year at Yale, and now work as a professional journalist for a major labor union. Will this make up for the low AW score?

If someone who knows about this stuff or is in or applying to similar programs in Latin American History would respond, I'd very much appreciate it! Thanks!

[rising_star]

mjl52, your undergrad GPA is nothing to worry about. You might want to check out the thread in the Applications section on the GRE writing. If you got a prize for your senior thesis and submit a writing sample, people aren't going to be worried about your ability to write and do research. Good luck on your applications!

[TMP]

mj52, I would kill for those numbers. Stop complaining, keep your chin up and believe that you can do it this year! Seriously, a prize for best senior honors thesis is a huge deal, especially from a top history department like Yale. Look at some of the professors' CV and their honors for their undergrad thesis and dissertations got them in top schools and heavy research funding later on.

[limeinthecoconut]

Hmm.. The history board seems a little slow, relative to some of the other boards. A sign of good news (i.e. fewer applicants)? In any case, I have been lurking around, and decided to introduce myself.

I am an international student, working on modern Asian history.

Good luck to all fellow applicants!

[Nikki]

I applied to military history programs at:

Temple

Duke

UNC Chapel Hill

GWU

East Carolina University

[limeinthecoconut]

military history programs

*cough cough* A field that I am totally incompetent at. :oops:

[hist-09phd]

Anyone here applying to Yale? I'm feeling a little unsure about the book review requirement. For those who are unfamiliar:

"The department requires a short book review to accompany the application. It should cover the book that has most shaped the applicant

[technocat]

.

[misterpat]

Daaamn, a book review? That's intense.

[Sonic]

I, like Cornell07 and some others here, slogged through the Eternal Waiting of Spring 08. I was a college senior last year and I applied to 6 programs. I wound up in the Early American Masters program at The College of William and Mary; a combination of enthusiastic faculty and a partial tuition waiver and paid apprenticeship lured me to the South. The program also solidified my desire to continue with grad school, and WM being a one-year program has me back in the game for Fall 09. I study crime, violence, and political economy in British North America and the Caribbean, and managed to complete applications for: UC-Davis, University of Southern California, Maryland, Brown, Duke, Columbia, Northwestern, and Washington University in St. Louis.

I wish everyone luck. I'm actually enjoying this "rest period", the two or so weeks between submitting the last application and the frantic checking of websites/spamming of grad secretaries/panicking on GradCafe.

[canadiana]

My goodness. I swore to myself that I wouldn't log onto this site or obsessively check my email 20+ times a day between January and April, yet here I am even though I have a lot of work to do. Tried to convince myself that I don't really care about whether or not I get in (and really I don't), but a part of me just can't wait for the self-loathing to begin once you wonderful people start getting offers of admission. :mrgreen:

[Cornell07]

Hello, all!

If any of you are still here from last year's round of admissions, you may remember my plight of trying to apply to history programs with an interest in studying the role of historical perspective in US foreign policy. It suffices to say that I was rejected everywhere. A number of professors wrote afterwords that, essentially, most academics frown on "practical history".

Well, bollocks to them. So, I've gone another way: left the legal field, worked on Team Obama for a while, and then applied to actual foreign policy MA/MPP/MPA programs, where my field of interest is actually considered to be worthwhile by a number of professors. This change essentially means that my academic interests will be one aspect of my professional career, rather than its totality. Unfortunately, most programs don't have a research component, which will make applying to a PhD program in the future (if I deem it necessary) to be a bit of a pain in the rear.

I wish you all the best of luck. See you all in March or next Fall!

[misterpat]

Hello, all!

If any of you are still here from last year's round of admissions, you may remember my plight of trying to apply to history programs with an interest in studying the role of historical perspective in US foreign policy. It suffices to say that I was rejected everywhere. A number of professors wrote afterwords that, essentially, most academics frown on "practical history".

Well, bollocks to them. So, I've gone another way: left the legal field, worked on Team Obama for a while, and then applied to actual foreign policy MA/MPP/MPA programs, where my field of interest is actually considered to be worthwhile by a number of professors. This change essentially means that my academic interests will be one aspect of my professional career, rather than its totality. Unfortunately, most programs don't have a research component, which will make applying to a PhD program in the future (if I deem it necessary) to be a bit of a pain in the rear.

I wish you all the best of luck. See you all in March or next Fall!

I've never even heard that term before, "practical history."

Good luck.

[Cornell07]

I've never even heard that term before, "practical history."

It's mainly been a Harvard thing, from what I can tell. Check out http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Time-Uses-History-Decision-Makers/dp/0029227917 "Thinking in Time" by Ernest May and Richard Neustadt, who are/were (Neustadt is now dead) Harvard history professors who co-taught a course at the Kennedy School on using history to influence policy decisions. Also at Harvard was Philip Zelikow, who now teaches at UVA, who wrote on the subject with May, with a focus on the Cuban missile crisis. Both May and Zelikow served on the 9/11 commission. Not your average historians, eh?

I first became interested in the field as an undergrad when one of my professors asked me to partake in an experimental seminar that ran like a policy course at the Woodrow Wilson School (with which my professor was coordinating the class) except instead of using analyzing current policy issues, we broke down and critiqued policies from World War II (e.g. bombing policy, the rescue of European Jews, and coordination with the Soviet Union).

[misterpat]

Yeah, sounds like policy school might be the right place for you. Hopefully somewhere you apply to agrees. That Princeton program looks really cool.

[Auzzfest]

So how do you guys think the economy will affect admissions and funding this year. I know for a fact there has been major cut backs within the UC system. Whether that will directly affect funding availability for history grads I don't know. I wonder if private schools will be more protected from the downturn. What about the number of applicants in general. For example there have been record numbers of recent grads joining the peace corps instead of attempting to enter a weak job market. I wonder if it is the same with grad school? I for one am glad to be living abroad right now where finding work is relatively easy.

.

[limeinthecoconut]

So how do you guys think the economy will affect admissions and funding this year. I know for a fact there has been major cut backs within the UC system. Whether that will directly affect funding availability for history grads I don't know. I wonder if private schools will be more protected from the downturn. What about the number of applicants in general. For example there have been record numbers of recent grads joining the peace corps instead of attempting to enter a weak job market. I wonder if it is the same with grad school? I for one am glad to be living abroad right now where finding work is relatively easy.

.

I don't have the answers to your question, but I am guessing that a rise in the number of applicants wouldn't greatly affect disciplines like history, or other disciplines that require extensive preparation. Stuff like language training, research experience aren't things that one can obtain overnight.

[synthla]

Auzzfest wrote:

So how do you guys think the economy will affect admissions and funding this year. I know for a fact there has been major cut backs within the UC system. Whether that will directly affect funding availability for history grads I don't know. I wonder if private schools will be more protected from the downturn. What about the number of applicants in general. For example there have been record numbers of recent grads joining the peace corps instead of attempting to enter a weak job market. I wonder if it is the same with grad school? I for one am glad to be living abroad right now where finding work is relatively easy.

There were a few articles back in December discussing how the number of GRE takers had actually dropped in 2008 for the first time in several years, and for the first time ever (I believe) during an economic downturn. That would seem to bode well. The UC Regents finally decided within the last week to lower freshmen enrollment, raise transfer enrollment and maintain steady graduate student enrollment numbers. Enrollment doesn't necessarily correlate to funding though.

[Louiselab]

To keep my mind occupied until February rolls around and the history people don't seem as chatty as last year, I'm curious what field everyone is going for/interested in studying? I'm partial to 20th century U.S. with an emphasis on social and political history.

[misterpat]

[quote name="Louiselab

[Nikki]

20th century American military - technology and warfare