School Suggestions for History/Anthro PhD seeker

[GuitarSlayer]

Hi all,

I'm graduating this spring with a MA in History, minor in anthropology. 3.93 GPA, 790 V 740 Q and 5.5 Writing on the GRE, reading competent (though not fluent by any means) in German, and working on Latin. I have some Spanish rattling around from ages past, but I'll probably pick up French next. I plan on submitting my SOP/research interests to the board's scrutiny shortly. My undergrad degree was Theatre Arts and English, history minor (I had the choice of either doing another year abroad or studying Euro history in America to complete my major -- I went with the former), 3.78 GPA.

My master's thesis is related to beliefs surrounding burial practices of the medieval and early modern periods. One of my committee members is an anthro professor at my school. My uni is more known for its American and military history, and it only has two medievalists and a few early modernists. It is a state school, however. I will be taking a research trip to Europe in January 2013 to research burial sites. I'm definitely leaning toward schools that have Medieval Studies certificate options. I am a late medieval or early modern person -- I'm fairly flexible.

My major professor is a medieval law specialist, so she really has no idea what to do with me and my oddball interests. We've come up with a list of schools, but I'm hoping someone here might be able to give some insight in order to cull the herd. Let me know if any of these are "just not going to happen." In turn, new suggestions are also welcome. To give you an idea, my ideal PhD professors would have been Caroline Walker Bynum or Elizabeth A.R. Brown, but they are now both Emeritas -- I'm using their work extensively in my thesis.

Safeties: Fordham (previously accepted there for MA; too much money at the time), CUNY

Middle of the Road: OSU, U of Bristol, Iowa (neither my professor nor I are particularly huge on Iowa, but it's there), U of Michigan's Anthropology History program

Top of the Pops: University of York, UK (someone does my type of work there!), Toronto, Oxbridge, Harvard (at my professor's suggestion), Northwestern (dream school -- Muir, Elliott, AND Kieckhefer)

I've done some tentative research in to UC San Diego, Temple, and Tufts, and there are people there that may work for me, but I don't have enough information/feedback/reputation for my particular area. Modern Euro history appears to be no prob for these schools.

I apologize for the small novella. I have done my research on this, but I feel as if I'm missing something -- my work spouse feels the same way when he looks at my list.

[TMP]

What do you want to do with your PhD.... besides being a professor?

Some thoughts:

A) Have you checked out job opportunities for your particular area of interest? I'd start with that.

CUNY's funding is not guaranteed from the start. So it's not a safety in terms of funding.

C) There are no safeties when it comes to PhD admissions.

D) Be prepared to apply at least twice.

[GuitarSlayer]

A. Professor/Writer/Researcher is the end game. I've spent most of my adult career as the business and office manager of medical practices, and this is what I rather be doing. Dumb? Yup, but I knew I had a few screws loose when I took a 30% paycut by changing jobs to accomodate my course load. I'm more than 30% happier, however. I don't expect to be Simon Schama or Indiana Jones when this is over.

B & C. My major professor used the "safety school" term to describe the odds of me getting in, not so much "guaranteed." Funding will be another animal entirely, but I do plan on applying for Fullbright, Marshall, etc. I'm working on those now before Uni apps open.

D. I'm hoping not! However, as I said above, I have functioned outside of academia before, and I will be able to get another job as an office manager, should I have to wait a year. My eligibilty to work at my school ends just before Fall 2013, so from the time I find out "no," I'll have 4 months to job hunt while still working and saving. I won't like it a bit, but I'll do it. Teaching at the 2-year college level is certainly not out of the question either.

Edited June 8, 2012 by GuitarSlayer

[Zephyr99]

Here's my 2 cents:

-Don't get a PhD from a European school & expect to teach in the states (except for Oxbridge).

-Don't get a PhD in any "Studies" area. Go for either history or anthro. Interdisciplinary PhDs struggle on the already depressing job market

-Not sure if U of M's anthro/history PhD program has ample funding. I remember looking at the dept.'s website a couple of months ago and it appeared that there was no standard 4-5 year guaranteed funding package.

-Don't pick "Safety" schools. In order to make it in this terrible job market, you need a PhD from at least a top 20 program in medieval history.

-You need to be prepared to take a year off if you don't get in. You appear as if you're "rushing" to get to grad school. If you want to get a PhD & remain sane, patience and diligence is the key. Go teach English abroad in that year off! Do a non-academic job that you enjoy! Go backpacking in Europe! Do something out of the box and non-academic!

[GuitarSlayer]

Zeph, I appreciate the response. I will be pursuing a general History PhD with an MS cert, if available. Definitely wiser to be broad based.

As to your last point, I previously did say I am coming from years outside academia. I have not gone straight through a BA to MA; I took several years off in between, and I effectively took a paycut by switching jobs to return to school last year. I'm still holding down a job to earn money while doing my master's, which is partially why this part of the adventure is taking 3 years.

I perhaps should emphasize that I am seeking insight on programs and critiques as to my choices for their academic quality and recommendations for people/faculties to work with. I understand the need to be grounded. I'm hardly a starry-eyed teenager who thinks she has the world at her fingertips. I've lived in multiple states and countries, and I have worked in multiple industries. I've reached a point where I wish to work toward a permanent career in academia. I graduated college just as the economy went to hell, and I know several friends who have yet to hold a job beyond retail, unfortunately. I am keenly aware that the eggs can't be all in one basket.

Let me shift this back to topic: Fordham, CUNY and U of M don't have guaranteed 5-year funding. Should I avoid this completely? Or should I pursue it, considering the professors there, and the fact that people are scared off by no guaranteed funding, which leaves the candidate field more open? Also, for a medieval/early modern focus, do Tufts, Temple, and UCSD have a decent reputation? Any gaps in the list, like, "Why don't you have _____ listed? It/She/He is amazing!"

[remenis]

My advice is - don't avoid any schools just because funding isn't guaranteed. I also do medieval history and almost didn't apply to several programs because they only fund a select portion of the students - but you may get lucky - I did and got a 5 year offer from a school that offers most students no funding. The funding can vary widely field to field, year to year within a single department.

One program gave me a relatively low funding offer and said, they were very sorry they couldn't offer more but that the year before they had accepted three medievalists and gotten full funding for all of them - it just wasn't the medieval historians "turn" my year to put a strong funding package together. It can really vary widely from year to year, but it's worth it to try because this might be the year the medieval professors get the money for their candidate and that candidate could be you.

Additionally, in my opinion your list of schools is lacking a lot of the bigger name programs - at least, the ones I recognize as being strong programs for medieval history. I don't know the strength of your application or if you are interested in applying to a lot of the Ivy League schools, but I would still recommend you consider adding to your list.

Just from a quick look at their department pages, it doesn't seem that Tufts, Temple and UCSD would be particualarly strong choices for this field. Temple and UCSD seem to have only one medieval historian listed and Tufts, if you search their website by faculty area of expertise they don't even include a subfield for medieval europe - that should be a red flag.

Obviously, fit is extremely important, so I really can't say that these departments are not good choices for you, it just seems like a surprising list if you are really set on Medieval history. The issue is that even if one professor there is a great fit, the department as a whole may not be well suited to preparing you in the field as a whole - and if other historians don't perceive it as a strong program for Medieval history you could have a harder time finding a job at the end.

Feel free to PM me if you want some suggestions for more programs.

Edited June 12, 2012 by remenis

[GuitarSlayer]

Thanks for your response, remenis. I'll take you up on that offer

Edited June 14, 2012 by GuitarSlayer

[runaway]

If you're interested in a Fulbright and think you're a qualified applicant, I would look at it as an opportunity, not a means to an end. The application process is a great means for discernment-- you learn a lot about your own research interests in the process of writing it, and it's a worthwhile exercise whether or not you're accepted. A year of independent research can also add a lot to your CV.

A caveat: not all Fulbrights are equal. It's generally easier (more applicants, but less self-selective) to get an ETA award, and countries vary in competitiveness. A Fulbright to fund study at Oxbridge is on the high end of competitive. Discuss with your adviser if you might be interested and qualified to apply somewhere else. It's amazing how a year abroad can bring goals, POIs, research interests into sharper focus.

(For me, at least, it's opened up a lot of additional possibilities that are making decisions more difficult, but I think it's all part of the same process!)

[Sigaba]

My uni is more known for its American and military history[.]

You say this like this is a bad thing.

GS--

Have you looked at North Carolina at Chapel Hill? The history and anthropology programs allow some degree of collaboration and also Tar Heels can work with professors at Duke.

In regards to the second point, have you looked into the opportunities that schools on your list allow graduate students to work with faculty members from other schools? Might it be possible to apply to a school that is very strong in your historical interests (but may not be as strong when it comes to anthropology) and is within a short drive of a school that is strong in anthropology.

Also, regarding Professors Bynum and Brown--have you contacted them to ask for guidance and/or done research to find their historiographical progeny (e.g. graduate students who had Bynum and Brown as dissertation supervisors).

Also, please check your private messages.

[Weepsie]

I'm sorry for jumping on this, but I hate starting new threads when there are similar ones.

I'm in a situation of wondering what schools to look at too. Coming from Ireland, I'm still slightly puzzled at the whole system. I will be applying to UBC I think, Madison and Chicago. They are the only ones I am sure of. I've never put much credence into rankings up to this point as I know plenty of people who have gone to what are considered lesser colleges here than others and have far better careers.

I've seen what look like fantastic PhD programmes, really well structured and with good funding that I think I would have a good chance at getting in, but they are not in the great universities I suppose, or at least rankings wise despite having a good repuatation. I dislike a lot of the eilitism that surrounds it all. Are there any schools that I might not be aware of (remember I'm in Ireland) that have well thought of history depts., that might not be overly publicised. I'm US History (Mapping, Exploration, Trade, European perceptions)

I'm currently finishing my second masters, and will be working in an academic library for the year so have some time to get myself a good GRE, polish my proposals and rememember my French.

[New England Nat]

I think the thing to remember is that the academic job market in history is so bad right now that no matter how good some of those programs are at "lesser schools" you are going to have trouble getting a job coming out of there. I could name a few off the top of my head where I know they have never ... as in never... had a PhD graduate get a tenure track job.

There are a number of students doing history of science/history of anthroplogy/geography and exploration at Princeton. But if you get jumpy about elitism that's probably the last place you want to be.

[Sigaba]

... at Princeton. But if you get jumpy ... .

@NEN

I almost sprayed coffee all over my keyboard with that one.

[Weepsie]

Perhaps it was lucky Princeton was not on my radar.(Northwestern is also on the list) I'm trying to be realistic as possible, but as the Irish System is so different from the North American system, it's hard to gauge my grades. I'm on my second masters and providing my final project does not go badly (it's not going great, though not due to me and colleagues) I should have a first overall. Previously I have a 2.1 for MA and BA, so don't know how to address that in applications, particularly when I know I probably should have done better.

I guess this is where the statement comes in, sell myself and my desire to do a doctorate.