Why history?

[halliejo]

Hello all,

 

I just graduated with a BA in history and I'm sort of lost at what direction to go in next.  I'll be working abroad for a year as an English Language Teaching Assistant and am trying to decide if I want to apply to grad school for Fall 2014.  I really like history, and I loved doing my thesis, but I am not sure if getting an MA in history is the best idea.  Unfortunately, I don't *really* know what I want to be when I grow up.

 

I was hoping some of you would share with me why you decided to go for your MA of PhD in history, and thoughts on how to go about picking a program that is the best fit.

 

Thanks!

[Andean Pat]

Hi there! 

 

Let me tell you my experience (hope it helps! )

 

The morning after I had defended my thesis I was having a cup of coffee with my advisor and asked her: "Now what?". I have been working as a history teacher for 10 years so I had always thought that was what I wanted to do eventually. However, while working I had always been studying/researching/writing thesis so there was always a little bit of research in my life. I am the kind of person who loves many things at the same time, so I knew I enjoyed teaching and researching. 

 

Hence my question: "Now what?" 

 

She suggested I allowed things to settle down. "Give your ideas some time. Do not think about it, continue working, continue doing what you are doing. If what ever you are truly passionate about is missing in your life you will go for it. You are not 18 because you have a degree on your shoulders, you know yourself better today than before. Let time put your ideas in order, only then you can decide on what to do next."

 

A month later I began to prepare my applications. This was June 2012, a year ago. 

 

Two more things. I have also worked as an English teacher for several years and let me tell you this: you will love it! But if history is your passion, you will miss it and thus you'll know that you want to do that for the rest of your life. Secondly, the postgraduate variety of courses allow you to include history in your life but not to be everything about history. Have you considered other options? (Museum studies, conservation, education, Local history, archives, etc)

 

(Mind my typos, I wrote in a rush of enthusiasm!)  Hope it helps! 

[LadyRara]

I cannot stop researching and working on my subject. I did once, right after I graduated, for two months. It physically hurt.

[jamc8383]

Hello all,

 

I just graduated with a BA in history and I'm sort of lost at what direction to go in next.  I'll be working abroad for a year as an English Language Teaching Assistant and am trying to decide if I want to apply to grad school for Fall 2014.  I really like history, and I loved doing my thesis, but I am not sure if getting an MA in history is the best idea.  Unfortunately, I don't *really* know what I want to be when I grow up.

 

I was hoping some of you would share with me why you decided to go for your MA of PhD in history, and thoughts on how to go about picking a program that is the best fit.

 

Thanks!

 

I would strongly caution you against applying to MA programs right after your BA if you don't "really know what you want to do."  

 

The reasons are twofold.  One: MAs are expensive; and while you can get some scholarship money, there is rarely major funding available.  You could easily go $40,000 in debt for a two-year program.  That's a lot of money to sink into something that you may decide down the road is not for you.  Additionally, the MA on its own is rather limiting professionally (you can only teach at the community college level, where there is arguably NO funding for research).  For this reason, many people do the MA as a step toward the Phd.  If you are, at this point, unable or unwilling to consider spending the next seven years in school, you may want to reconsider applying so soon.

 

Two: This is anecdotal but, I hope, will be helpful.  I graduated with a business degree in 2005.  If I had gone on to an MBA program or applied to law school directly after undergrad, as I had planned, it would have been a huge mistake.  I think it's helpful to take some time away from academia, rather than just plowing through to reach some ill-defined point of "achievement", to find your passion.  I discovered history years after graduating and am now completing an MA program and applying to phD programs with the certainty and conviction that I am pursuing the course that is right for me.  

 

There's no reason to commit yourself, financially and temporally, if you're not sure that it's the right course for you.  It's not a race.  Take some time and decide what you really want to do.  Graduate work is both expensive and rigorous--you will need passion for your work and the courage of your convictions to sustain you.

[halliejo]

Thanks for the input.  I perhaps should have clarified that I am interested in related fields (museum studies, archives, library sciences, historic preservation, art history...) and am trying to figure out if getting a history MA would be helpful or if I should pick a program that is more specific or profession oriented.

[LadyRara]

Check out people whonhave the job you want and see what they opted for.

[jamc8383]

I agree with LadyRara.  Decide on a career goal and then work backward.    Grad school is not where you go to figure out what you want to do. 

[lafayette]

Okay, not to play all-knowing sage just because I'm in my late twenties, but ... I've been about thinking this a lot when reading messages on this board. It's totally okay that you don't know what you want to be 'when you grow up' or even what to do in those incredibly hard years after just graduating college and forging ahead on your own. It's really scary precisely because it's the beginning of the period in your life when most things don't have an obvious plan or next step (as say, going to college after high school). Most of your peers probably have no idea what they're going to become career-wise, and even if they think they do, they'll probably change them in the next few years. I also graduated undergrad with a love of history, but there are very, very few history jobs out there, and chances are you're not going to get one. There ARE entry-level jobs, however, that can utilize those skills you learnt from obtaining your history degree -- research, writing, etc. But it's okay if you don't even get one of those right away, either. The economy's not great for recent graduates. But you'll figure it out, with time.

 

And it's totally okay to continue to love history on the side, while you're working, and perhaps even volunteer in some history-related capacity, and continue to look into how people who do have those few lucrative (as in they're coveted -- not that they pay much) history-related jobs out there. Then maybe you can start to think about enrolling in a Master's program that might help you move into one of those fields (but be sure of WHICH field). It's going to cost, and your loans will follow you -- and your paycheck-- through years of your working life. Keep in mind that a master's degree will take away years during which you might have been working, earning money, and gaining more experience. So it's good to be sure, or at the very least, mostly sure. I was looking for work between graduating with my history M.A. and starting a Ph.D. and while everyone I interviewed with didn't view my degree as a negative, they were confused by it, wondering why I had even bothered to get it. Mostly they were obsessed with the gap in employment I had due to quitting my part-time jobs to finish my thesis during my final semester. So, a liberal arts master degree might not be much of an asset while looking for broad employment, but it is, for some very specific jobs, the only way to get in. So if you want to do a field like say, archival work, you WILL need that MLIS. If you really want it, you have to just go for it.

 

My years working after school helped me one, feel like an independent, adult person (yay!) because I was making my own money and bearing a ton of responsibility (which also meant I could be fired at any moment! I don't miss this) but also made me realize how much I didn't want to continue on my same path. I was always very good at history, have loved it since I was little (and all that other sentimental junk one must never put in their personal statements and had, like you, considered but was not too sure about getting my Masters right after I graduated. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wanted to be a historian. Schooling would be necessary, of course. But I STILL wasn't sure, because I had to figure out if I was even good enough to get very far in the field or if I even liked it. So I saved up my money and enrolled in an inexpensive program, giving myself a semester to figure it out. I loved it -- the reading, the writing, the research -- and I was pretty decent at it. So I stuck around.  My M.A. advisor recently said to me, "So I guess all those years here were actually worth it, right?" And yes -- I'd never take them back, as now I'm headed into my top choice program. But I was always cautious. BUT ... not too cautious, because if I had been, I'd still be in some corporate office somewhere. 

 

Anyway, tl;dr ... take some time off, try to get a job -- even you hate it, it'll teach you about where you want to go, what it is you want (or don't) want to do. Along the way, do a little research into other job options, and see how people got there. But who knows! You'll figure something out though, I'm sure of it. Best of luck.

Edited June 28, 2013 by lafayette

[halliejo]

Thanks for all the thoughts.  

 

I have another related question: I've heard/read about contacting professors at schools you are applying to...what is the appropriate way to do this?  

[Andean Pat]

I sent them an e-mail telling them about my interest in the program in connection to my own research interests and my aims at PhD level. Most of them responded (except Canergie Mellon). Some of them make suggestions of applying elsewhere for different reasons (they were not taking students, funding was limited, they were on a leave, etc.). With others I held Skype/phone interviews. I even grabbed a coffee with one of them.

 

It's a great idea to contact possible advisors because you can make a better decision of where to apply (among other benefits). In my case, I could not afford applying to ten universities so it saved me some hundreds dollars because I did not apply to places where POIs where not admitting new students, for example.

[BerenErchamion]

Why history?

Mostly because I'm too shy for cultural anthro 

[czesc]

I was always cautious. BUT ... not too cautious, because if I had been, I'd still be in some corporate office somewhere. 

 

Well put, lafayette. When I left my job recently I had a lot of older colleagues tell me they wish they could have done this, or that they actually had planned to (get a PhD in history specifically) but could never work up the courage. I'm glad that I won't wind up the person who, late in life, is embarrassed to explain that they didn't go through with it because they worried what their parents would think.

[annieca]

If you have any questions about archival science, hit me up! I'm starting my program in the fall and I've got connections up the wazoo of people who love, love to talk to other people about archiving and what path to take.

 

There are two bits of advice I can give you that have helped me the most: 1) Trust yourself and your own timetable. 2) The devil isn't in the details unless you make it out to be. The second one is more specific to MLIS degrees but, I believe in some ways it stands for all future grad students. I knew I wanted to be an archivist when I applied for graduate school but not what *kind* of archivist. I know now, of course, but I didn't when I was starting this whole process. If you don't know exactly, down to the second hand what you want to do with your life, that's okay. If you know what program and have a general direction, I have no doubt you'll find yourself where you want and need yourself to be.