What do you think?

[LilRara]

Hi,

I know everyone hates these annoying 'do I have a chance' threads? Yes, this is one of those. Okay, so I went to a CCollege for my gen eds. I've only been at a four year for a year (this year will make my second). I think I've done pretty well. I presented at a small undergrad conference in the Spring. I'm doing a DC internship in the fall (under the encouragement of a few professors), and could be possibly presenting at a professional conference in the Spring.

I want to study environmental history. I knew I wanted to do public history when I got into the university, and knew I wanted to do women's history. Ha, I changed to environmental history (my first history research paper using primaries was a meshing of the two and I loved the environmental part more). I have a 3.8 gpa overall. I have a 3.6 in history (counting my gen eds from the ccollege when I slacked in history because I thought law school was my path). I have only taken practice GRE's and each time I've gotten 730, 750, and my most recent practice 650 for the verbal. The quantitative is higher (hovering around 750 each time). I know these are just practice and not a fair indication of how I'll do (but that's about the best I can provide). I really want to get into an M.A. program because I highly doubt acceptance into a PhD program (but my eventual goal). I really want to go to the Universty of Houston, University of Wi-Madison (ha, I know), and that's really all I have at the moment.

I feel kinda stupid asking to be admitted into these programs having only one year of university work under my belt. :/

[theregalrenegade]

I think you are way ahead of most students going into their sophomore year. IMO, you have an outstanding chance of getting into an MA program at most colleges. I know very little about the schools you're looking at and I'm not in environmental history, but in general, your GREs will probably be just fine as well as your grades. Keep aiming to bump up your GPA in history and cultivate as many relationships with professors that you can.

As far as already presenting at conferences and having an upcoming internship - congratulations! This experience will make your graduate application shine! It's great that you are so enthusiastic about graduate school so soon into your studies.Just don't burn out or overwhelm yourself trying to over-prep. You're already on the right track. Keep up the good work and enjoy your college experience!

[LilRara]

Thank you so much, Trr. You made my day!

I'm a senior this year though... not a sophomore. I have two years of my gen eds done at cc's, and have one year of pretty much history done as well here at my four year. I got two B's in history when I was at the Comm. College, I've also made one B in history at the four year, probably because I jumped into a senior class my first semester (hasn't happened since, thankfully). So now that you know I'm a senior (that's my fault, I should have clarified) am I behind?

*Also, I love your profile pic!

[Sparky]

IIRC, most application forms ask you to give your GPA separately for each school you've attended. You'll be able to show how you've improved since transferring. That might also be something to mention in your SOP.

Just from what you said, it seems like you are way ahead, not behind, many applicants regardless of their background! You actually have a well-articulated area of research interest, a story of how you got there, and a record of improvement. I bet your SOP is pretty great.

[theregalrenegade]

Thank you so much, Trr. You made my day!

I'm a senior this year though... not a sophomore. I have two years of my gen eds done at cc's, and have one year of pretty much history done as well here at my four year. I got two B's in history when I was at the Comm. College, I've also made one B in history at the four year, probably because I jumped into a senior class my first semester (hasn't happened since, thankfully). So now that you know I'm a senior (that's my fault, I should have clarified) am I behind?

*Also, I love your profile pic!

I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood your year! Even so, you aren't behind at all. I agree with Sparky - you have everything you need for a great graduate application. Just focus on making this year a good one.

*and thank you!

[Sigaba]

Does your department require you to write an undergraduate thesis? Do you have the time to write that thesis and then an honor's thesis?

[LilRara]

I'm writing an undergraduate thesis this semester. I don't think I'll be doing an honor's thesis though :/ . I really don't understand the difference between the two.

[Sigaba]

I'm writing an undergraduate thesis this semester. I don't think I'll be doing an honor's thesis though :/ . I really don't understand the difference between the two.

The differences will vary by program.

At my undergraduate institution, every history major had to complete a proseminar and a research seminar (which was devoted to writing a thesis).

To be considered for departmental honors, one needed to meet a couple of criteria and then to take two additional classes. One class was to write the honor's thesis (another paper grounded in primary source research) and the other was a proseminar in historiography reserved for honors candidates. One also had to pass a oral exam given by a member of the faculty different than the professor supervising the honor's thesis.

Parenthetically, luck and timing can each play a huge role in making it through such a sequence. If your timing is bad, you may go through an experience that will not improve your candidacy (e.g. you do the sequence after you've submitted your applications). However, if your luck is good, you can get a good look at the other side of the looking glass and build some confidence for when it is your turn to step through the mirror (e.g. you get slaughtered with such ferocity during the oral exam that almost every following discussion about history is gravy).

Edited August 14, 2011 by Sigaba

[TMP]

It does depend school by school. You may want to ask your major adviser what exactly are the benefits of doing the honors thesis vs. regular senior thesis. At my small LAC, everyone had to write a senior thesis in their department in order to graduate. You could take the seminar either in the fall or spring of your senior year (sometimes ambitious juniors will take one in the spring prior if there's a course that they really want to take). In order to do the honors, you had to have a 3.5 GPA in your (history) major and have completed a senior seminar. Then you go into the honors seminar (in the spring) and work on expanding the thesis by double (from 30 pages to 40-60 pages) and sharing drafts with your peers to improve the thesis as a while. If you wanted to get "high honors" (with a major GPA of 3.8), you would do an oral defense. It was a great experience for me. My department did strongly recommend anyone who's interested in graduate school (especially for history) to do the honors thesis if they met the GPA requirement.

[StrangeLight]

<p>heh. my honours program sounded way different from the others described here.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>at the end of your second year, you could apply to the honours program if you wished. you needed two letters of recommendation, at least one from a history professor. for a school with probably a thousand history majors, they took 8-10 students into the honours program each year. for the next two years, we took three seminars a semester, some of them research seminars, some reading seminars. we also did a year-long historiography seminar. in our final year of the program, we wrote an honours thesis based on original research, guided by an advisor, that had to be defended in a 90-minute 3-examiner defense. we also had to complete a language translation exam in order to graduate with honours.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>i am under the impression that this honours system was fairly unique. none of the other majors at my institution (which had 40,000 students) had honours programs that worked this way. they seemed more in line with what others described (a research paper and two seminars). it was good prep for grad school.</p>

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[LilRara]

I looked on my school's website about the honors thesis, and it seems that it more closely resembles the criteria of your school's, Ticklemepink. I have the GPA requirements no problem. I will definitely talk to my adviser about it. I love my adviser, but every time I want to bring up grad school I have this incredible fear of her laughing at me. Even though we have had a previous discussion during the fall in which she made me realize the job prospects of this endeavor. It's taken me a whole semester to reaffirm it is what I want to do.

Sigaba, thank you so much for your advice too! I really appreciate everyone with all the help on this!

If I go the honors thesis route, It's possible I would have to take a year off between undergrad and grad school (which doesn't sound too awful by the discussions on this website).

[barricades]

My school had a senior seminar for regular history majors, but had a year long honors thesis program, where you met in a small class (6-8 people tops) and elaborated original research. Senior seminar paper would be like 30 pgs in lengths, whereas the minimum for the honors thesis was 60 pgs (mine ended up being 90 something).

I'd say they were two very different experiences (those who did the honors thesis didn't have to do the senior seminar). First of all, it was a much more intense writing and research project, where you would actively engage with a primary adviser (I met with mine once a week or so). Those in the seminar only had the professor organizing the thematic seminar (there were approximate 3 or 4, and the paper had to be on the theme). Also, you had to defend your thesis, like a light version of the dissertation defense (3 committee members, etc). Finally, it gave me the opportunity to get funding to do archival research in France, which the less independent seminar wouldn't have allowed.

So if you're debating between different kind of experiences, go for the one that would most likely resemble grad school and the kind of research you would be doing.

[LilRara]

Wow, this has been so incredibly informative! I'm definitely going to ask about the honors thesis next time I get a chance to talk to my adviser (which should be soon, hopefully).

[CageFree]

I strongly recommend doing an honors thesis for the same reasons given by barricades. Mine was similar - we did not have to write 60 pages though - it was a min of 25, I believe.