Postponing Application - Questions

[eshark83]

Hello Everyone,

I've been lurking for probably about a year now. This forum has been a fantastic resource while I've been pursuing the path towards applying to a History PhD program. I have somewhat of a "dilemma" and would like some opinions regarding it.

 

Neither my wife nor I are completely traditional students.  I bounced around a bit in my youth and changed majors a bit before deciding to stick it out and pursue my passion, and she started school at 23. She's now about two years away from graduating with an elementary education degree, but I could be done (or extremely close to done) in one year.

 

My question is regarding waiting to apply until she has completed her degree? How bad will this look when going through the application process? If it were a matter of just being apart for a semester or so I would say we could suck it up and stick it out, but another confounding variable is that we were just told we have fertility issues that could leave us without children if we don't see a specialist and get on it, needless to say we are doing just that.

 

Luckily we have been saving for quite some time, I have worked through my degree and have savings enough that we wouldn't have to worry about living expenses or anything of the sort during my grad schooling, my only concern is how this waiting period will be viewed by admissions. My job isn't in history I am a supervisor at a publishing company working over their technical support team.

 

Any thoughts on how to handle a gap like that? Thank you in advance!

[med latte]

I've been told that having work experience in your field actually helps your application, so I would say you have no worries.  Find a position in which you use your new degree, enjoy your future transition into parenthood, try to get paper published in the meantime, and grad school will still be there when you are ready.

[TakeruK]

I don't think 1 or 2 years between undergrad and grad school is a significant enough gap that would "look badly". It would be a good idea to keep in touch with those you intend to ask for LORs though! Maybe even give them advance notice now (they might even prefer to write the LOR while the memory is fresher and then just touch it up when you do apply).

[czesc]

I'm confused about this poster's life situation. How long have you been out of undergrad? Have you been working through your bachelors degree or another, subsequent degree? Have you already had a long working gap at some point in your life, or have you effectively been in school since entering college?

 

I think if we are dealing with a person who's already been working for 15 years, it might be a different story (or not; what's two more years on top of that?) But if this is a situation in which the person in question has always been in school and is now worried about not being in a degree program, the answer, to echo the others, is clear: it's actually the norm to have a working gap. Literally no one who entered my program with me this year did not. 

 

More posters should be worried about their chances applying straight out of undergrad than vice versa.

[TakeruK]

I read the OP's post as saying they were now in their final year of their undergrad and their spouse is 2 years away from graduation. I think their question was whether or not to apply right when they finish (1 year ahead of spouse) or wait until spouse is also finished. I think that waiting the 1 year isn't going to be a huge deal. Even if the OP may have worked outside of academia for awhile before their undergrad program, since their undergrad program will be very recent (within 1-2 years), I don't think the gap will make a huge difference in admissions, in my opinion.

[TMP]

What TakeruK said.

 

What czesc meant in his/her last sentence is that 22-24 is often view as "very young" by professors to be PhD students and they don't want to be dealing with immature students.  Since the OP is older (about 26-27?), s/he has no reason to be worried about this.  I've witnessed students who started "very young" in my program (and know from my own experience of entering a MA program at 22/23) and can get how difficult it is to settle down and really work.  I mean don't wait until 8 PM to start on readings and attempt to stay up until 2 AM to finish and doing only few hours of work during the day here and there.  Rather, professors hope that when PhD students come, they will treat their work as a job.

 

And that's where "work experience" looks good- just the ability to settle down and get the work done while respecting authority and learning how to navigate workplace politics.  Professors would prefer that students learn these skills elsewhere because... academia is... a black box itself with very few opportunities for multiple chances to redeem one self.