Eastern Europe/Russia

[JohnGalt]

Hi,everyone.I was wondering whether anybody can give me some advice concerning doctoral programs in Eastern European/Russian history. My stats are as follows:

I have a 3.4 uGPA and a 3.95 mGPA. Even though my uGPA as not that high, however, the lowest grade that I received for an advanced course was A-.

I scored 322 on GRE (162 Verb./160 Quan.)

I am an expert in Russian,Ukrainian,Belorussian, and I'm advanced in Polish.

The schools that I went to were not top-tier, however the programs were solid enough.

My main problem is the absence of extra-curricular activities. I was working full time throughout all my school years and didn't have a lot of time for internships and such,however, I was on a Dean's List 4 times and stuff like that.

Sincve I am kind of new to Ph.D. stuff, I was wondering whether someone can suggest me any relevant programs or at least tell whether it is worth a try with my stats. Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[TMP]

Don't worry about the ECs- adcoms don't care. They care more about your research and potential to be a scholar.

Your languages are fantastic compared to many applicants. You are in great shape.

What you do need to do at this point is to figure out what aspect of Eastern European/Russian history that you're interested in studying for the PhD. That should help you figure out which programs to apply to.

[JohnGalt]

Thanks for replying. Actually I was thinking about studying something besides the Cold War and the revolution (these two topics are getting really over-studied). I was always interested in the medieval times (Kievan Rus is not a bad example) or early imperial times (Peter I,Peter II, etc.). If you could point out some programs conneceted to these topics I would be very grateful. By the way, I forgot to mention that I am getting my Master's degree this fall (with a 3.9 GPA). Thanks in advance for making me feel more confident; it does matter a lot in these turbulent days of ours.

[runaway]

If you could point out some programs conneceted to these topics I would be very grateful.

Given your username, shouldn't you be doing some of this research on your own?

[JohnGalt]

Given your username, shouldn't you be doing some of this research on your own?

I did some research on my own, I just wanted to double check and get a second opinion.

[Glo Fish]

Nearly every major university except a few (namely Minnesota) has at least one faculty member focusing on Eastern Europe or Russia, so there are a wealth of programs to pick over.

If you really are interested in Kievan Rus and early, early Imperial Russia and want to study those eras at the graduate level, you may run into a few problems mostly because the field of Russian history is generally dominated by historians who focus on the USSR; although I think Imperial Russia is making somewhat of a comeback. I really don't know of many who focus currently on Kievan Rus or medieval Russia but somewhat close fits could be those who focus on the early modern era like Kansas (Levin), Texas A&M (Dunning), Nebraska (Kleimola), Miami (Martin), Stanford (Kollman Shields) to name a few. There are more choices once you move into the 19th century, like Indiana, Brandeis, Harvard, Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, Washington and on and on.

Extra circular activities don't matter really at all, so don't worry about that. Your overall GPA isn't stellar but it shouldn't be a major problem because your greatest asset is the ability you have to speak the languages that you will most likely be doing research in. That's a major bonus for people applying in this area. Often you'll see someone who has command or near command of one language (usually Russian) but very rarely do you see someone fresh out of undergraduate who also has the ability to speak two plus additional languages.

[annieca]

While yes, you might find one professor at almost any university for Russian history I would be careful to say Eastern European history professors abound.

Indiana-Bloomington's Russian and East European Institute is US-renowned (if not world) for it's foreign language classes and it's professors in Eastern Europe/Russia. Since you already have a huge amount of languages under your belt, Indiana would also be a good bet because you would be eligible for FLAS grants for the languages you're a little iffier about.

[TMP]

Here's a cheat: Look at the conference programs for AREEES.

[JohnGalt]

Thanks a lot,everybody.You've given me some very useful information,I'm not feeling as lost as I was anymore