Fall 2013 Applicants?

[theregalrenegade]

Ahha! This is the language on the site:

"Required Records: Upload unofficial transcripts with the application for the departmental initial review. Official transcripts of all college-level work will be required if admitted. Official transcripts must be in sealed envelopes as issued by the school(s) you have attended. Request a current transcript from every post-secondary school that you have attended, including community colleges, summer sessions, and extension programs.

If you have attended Berkeley, upload unofficial transcript with the application for the departmental initial review. Official transcript with evidence of degree conferral will not be required if admitted."

I think one is fine with unofficial for the initial submission. Plus, my department already has an official copy of my transcript...

As an undergrad alum of the department, I wish you the best of luck with Berkeley! They have fantastic British historians and the department as a whole is a DREAM!

I apologize - This is what I found:

"Transcripts in pdf format. Official transcripts of all college-level work must be scanned – one whole transcript per pdf file. Do NOT scan each page of a transcript into a separate file! Black out your social security number on the original(s). The last scanned page of each pdf should be the page explaining the grading system. Double-check your pdf’s for readability! You should make it easy for the faculty to review your file. Upload the transcript pdf files one by one to the application. If you apply while still in school, do NOT wait for fall grades. Fall grades won’t arrive in time for the review. Instead enter on the application your courses-in-progress for fall (and anticipated for spring if you have it) and upload a PDF of a transcript or student report showing your course list of yet to be graded courses. Here are suggested formats for naming your transcript pdf files:

-Your Last Name_Your First Name_Yale BA.pdf or

-Your Last Name_Your First Name__Laney_ComtyCol.pdf or

-Your Last Name_Your First Name_ _UMD_MA.pdf

If you are admitted and you accept our offer, then and only then will we ask you to mail us an unopened final official paper transcript for each school attended. For the application review we only require you to upload readable PDFs of your transcript(s)."

But then you're an alum! Maybe you have different requirements? :-) Thanks for the well wishes. Same to you :-)

[runaway]

well, first application is in! going to try and get a second one submitted this evening, too... it seems like for so long this moment loomed far in the distance. time flies!

[theregalrenegade]

well, first application is in! going to try and get a second one submitted this evening, too... it seems like for so long this moment loomed far in the distance. time flies!

Congrats! I'm hoping to follow soon

[theregalrenegade]

If anyone is up late working on apps like me - I have a question. In my writing sample (excerpt of a longer paper), I have footnotes. I didn't want to add a references page at the end because my footnotes do the job - but because the paper is an excerpt, some of the references are not full citations (obviously because they were already referenced earlier in the paper that is not part of my sample).

Is this a big deal? Should I make sure to include full citations?

[Professor Plum]

Absolutely. Make sure that the first instance of each work in your footnotes includes the full citation.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Professor Plum

[theregalrenegade]

Absolutely. Make sure that the first instance of each work in your footnotes includes the full citation.

Thank you much!

[aec09g]

Two applications submitted. The weight is slowly lifting! One more due on Monday evening, and then I have until December 15th.

Hope everyone is enjoying the first day of December! Let us all finish these applications before Christmas so that we can have a very merry holiday season. (:

[kyjin]

Profs sent in my last two recommendations right before the deadline. Whew! I guess that means I'm actually really for real done. Crazy.

Good luck to anyone still up finishing stuff for tonight's deadline, and everyone else with deadlines in the weeks ahead!

[theregalrenegade]

Done with Berkeley! Where's my beer? Still one recommender short - but I won't fret until Dec. 8. I should probably submit UCSB while I'm at it...maybe tomorrow.

Good luck to you, kyjin - how wonderful that you are completely done!

Keep up the good work, aec09g - I'm right there with ya. I have two apps that have a Dec. 15 deadline and two that have mid-January deadlines.

Nite!

[runaway]

I have everything together, pretty much, but I still need to write the extra essays specific to a couple programs (ie diversity statements). Trying to find that last bit of motivation... gah! Anyone have tips for getting motivated/inspired?

[jogatoronto]

I chose to avoid the diversity statements.

[annieca]

Congrats everyone on getting in the applications!

I have the first wave due December 15th. They're submitted by me but I'm waiting for recommenders. At what point do I start spamming their email inboxes with reminders? I'm tempted to do it now just because I'm freaking out, have nothing better to do, and can't go and pester them in person since two are in Wisconsin, one is in D.C. and I'm in Wales.

[theregalrenegade]

I have everything together, pretty much, but I still need to write the extra essays specific to a couple programs (ie diversity statements). Trying to find that last bit of motivation... gah! Anyone have tips for getting motivated/inspired?

Those diversity statements are tough. I know mine sounded like I was trying too hard, but I was at a loss of how to come across more genuine.

As for motivation - read a bit of one of your favorite pieces of historical literature to reinforce why you love your field/topic and then put on some headphones and listen to anything that inspires you to write (atmospheric, classical, indie, whatever). If you're brave, add a glass of wine. It can help you relax and stimulate the ideas to flow.

Congrats everyone on getting in the applications!

At what point do I start spamming their email inboxes with reminders?

I'd set a couple alerts on your calendar and plan to send maybe 2 more reminders in the coming weeks, and then if you still need to, the day before the deadline.

Having a plan might keep you from freaking out..hopefully

[kyjin]

I have everything together, pretty much, but I still need to write the extra essays specific to a couple programs (ie diversity statements). Trying to find that last bit of motivation... gah! Anyone have tips for getting motivated/inspired?

Bribe yourself with something delicious. I hardly ever get frappachinos, so when I was working on my diversity statement for the umpteenth time, I went to Starbucks and got a caramel frapp while I worked. It actually helped!

[runaway]

Those diversity statements are tough. I know mine sounded like I was trying too hard, but I was at a loss of how to come across more genuine.

At least I'm not the only one. I'm a QWOC so I have plenty to write about, but it's hard to sound genuine and not like I'm just trying to work it to my advantage.

Bribe yourself with something delicious. I hardly ever get frappachinos, so when I was working on my diversity statement for the umpteenth time, I went to Starbucks and got a caramel frapp while I worked. It actually helped!

I wish it weren't so cold! I live literally across the street from a Starbucks, and even that can't entice me out today. Brr.

[runaway]

sorry for the double post, but I need opinions!

I was planning to apply to a mix of history and art history programs, but in the end I'm only applying to one program in history. I have two polished writing samples, both art history papers. One is very theory heavy, but is the paper (oddly enough) where I use foreign language and archival sources. The other is far less theoretical, and more historically oriented, but given the topic and my limitations at the time (it was my senior thesis and I wasn't able, or expected, to travel to the relevant archives) it doesn't display my scholarly abilities as well.

I don't have time to edit any of my history seminar papers or the like, so these are my options. Thoughts as to what I should submit for my history application?

[theregalrenegade]

Thoughts as to what I should submit for my history application?

I vote for the theory paper. Foreign language and archival sources are exactly what I've been told the adcoms are looking for - and if they happen to be in a well-written essay, even if it is theory heavy, you can't go wrong

[kyjin]

Thoughts as to what I should submit for my history application?

I agree with theregalrenegade. The fact that you can do research in a second-language and that you have experiences in archives is really important.

[runaway]

Thanks, guys. That was sort of my gut instinct, but I just keep second-guessing myself on everything!

[lafayette]

Thanks, guys. That was sort of my gut instinct, but I just keep second-guessing myself on everything!

Ah, I feel you! I don't think I am ever going to feel fully sure about my application materials -- like should have I picked a different paper, or cut it down in a different way (those 10 page limits are hard!), or taken a different approach to my SOP (less broad? more broad, so I don't seem too rigidly focused, ahh!) but ... we'll just have to see what happens.

Submitted my first app last Saturday ... feel okay about it, somewhat, but do think my future applications will receive even more of my attention & editing & hopefully then a better shot. (But who knows, really!)

Best of luck to everyone here as those mid-December deadlines approach!

Edited December 4, 2012 by lafayette

[vtstevie]

those of you sending chapters of your thesis, are you including any sort of introductory paragraph or anything, outside of what you are saying about it in your SOP?

[runaway]

Mine just says 'Excerpt from Title', since I used a chapter that has a fairly good introduction built in.

[CageFree]

I wrote an abstract of the thesis and explained where the chapters fit within it. I also included a brief table of contents of the entire thesis.

[Guest lefilsdhomme]

Mine just says 'Excerpt from Title', since I used a chapter that has a fairly good introduction built in.

Seconded. I didn't have room to include any sort of abstract, so I am indicating that it is an excerpt on the front page and then editing down to a paper that resembles something logically cohesive...

[viggosloof28]

Whew! Seven applications submitted - three to go! Almost there...just think, in a few months we'll be receiving answers! (That usually motivates me to get my butt in gear and work on these endless SOPs and statements.)