Fall 2015 Applicants

[kblooms]

Hello to everyone on the this thread (this is my first post ever) and congrats to all of us for being bold/brilliant/insane enough to apply to MA/PhD programs in History!

In response to your question kblooms, my own writing sample is going to be a section/condensed version of my senior thesis which focused on a particular art dealer in Switzerland who traded on the Nazi looted art market during WWII. My theoretical/methodological interest is in microhistory therefore my thesis focused on this Swiss art dealer between 1939-1949 as a way to approach the place of Swiss neutrality and national identity during the international shift towards moral diplomacy in the early/mid 20th century. The topic is a bit bold because the paper suggests current scholarship on the matter is misguided in its condemnation of the Swiss as Nazi collaborators.

 

I recently presented a version of it at a conference and got very positive feedback so sometimes bold is better. I would love to hear what everyone else is thinking about using for their writing sample! I also wanted to pose a question to all of you out there:

 

I would like some advice on LORs as I have two professors who I know will write strong LORs for me, but I recently had a minor falling out/growing apart with my third prospective LOR professor, I still think this professor would write a somewhat good LOR for me, but I worry that in this competitive application process, "good" is not good enough, but I also feel that any other professor I have strong relations with does not know me well enough as a student (i.e I have not taken enough classes with them recently) to write a LOR that speaks to my abilities as an academic. Should I try patching things over with this third LOR writer or try and build a new relationship with another professor through some other channel such as possibly assisting them in research over the summer etc.?

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

I'd try patching things up with your professor if possible; wouldn't think there's enough time for a new relationship to be built with another professor but there may be. 

[thedig13]

 

I would like some advice on LORs as I have two professors who I know will write strong LORs for me, but I recently had a minor falling out/growing apart with my third prospective LOR professor, I still think this professor would write a somewhat good LOR for me, but I worry that in this competitive application process, "good" is not good enough, but I also feel that any other professor I have strong relations with does not know me well enough as a student (i.e I have not taken enough classes with them recently) to write a LOR that speaks to my abilities as an academic. Should I try patching things over with this third LOR writer or try and build a new relationship with another professor through some other channel such as possibly assisting them in research over the summer etc.?

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

Try patching things over with the third writer AND building a new relationship by doing summer research. That way, in September/October, you have two choices as to who can write the third letter, and can decide based on which professor you think would write the better letter.

[New England Nat]

I would do some patching up and feel the letter writer out on if they would feel comfortable writing a letter for you.  If they seem to hesitate, find another professor to form a relationship with.  This is probably something best done by reading their body language.

[marte108]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

I was wondering what everyone is up to this next academic year as we apply and hear back? Are most still finishing undergrad while applying? In an MA program? Taking a year off? For those of you out there that are graduating in a few weeks (like myself) what do you have planned this summer and throughout next academic year?

 

...Are there any veteran applicants reading this thread who are already in grad programs or have applied in past cycles and would like to share some advice and thoughts regarding the best course of action for students who have decided to take a gap year between receiving their B.A and grad school? What looks best on applications and what are schools looking for in terms of the way we spend this time "off"?

[kblooms]

Finishing my senior year; getting BA in Greek, Latin and History

[kblooms]

Is it me or are these threads getting fewer and fewer posts these past few years?

[sankofa]

Is it me or are these threads getting fewer and fewer posts these past few years?

I'm fairly new here but do you think that is because more people are getting in or just giving up?

[New England Nat]

It's just depends on the crop of students.  I wouldn't expect this thread to pick up until Sept/Oct

[hj2012]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

I was wondering what everyone is up to this next academic year as we apply and hear back? Are most still finishing undergrad while applying? In an MA program? Taking a year off? For those of you out there that are graduating in a few weeks (like myself) what do you have planned this summer and throughout next academic year?

 

...Are there any veteran applicants reading this thread who are already in grad programs or have applied in past cycles and would like to share some advice and thoughts regarding the best course of action for students who have decided to take a gap year between receiving their B.A and grad school? What looks best on applications and what are schools looking for in terms of the way we spend this time "off"?

 

 

I'm not exactly in your field, having applied to interdisciplinary programs, but many of my friends in History PhD programs used their gap year(s) to beef up their languages or work as research assistants (the language bit is especially crucial, I've heard, depending on your subfield). Many also just take some time to work in the "real world" and save up money for grad school. ^^ There's nothing wrong with that, IMO. 

[catsandscarves]

Hello all! I just went through this last application cycle and will be bopping in to this next cycle to offer any words of advice/encouragement that I can!

 

I study early American/Native American history and had a very successful application cycle (as I was typing that last part of that sentence it felt SO weird because I still do not believe it is true). Feel free to message me with questions. A summary of my path: BA in history, MA in history, now PhD so no gaps, just straight through. 

 

I wish you all the best! Many people on here helped me through this, and I hope to do the same.

[maelia8]

I was wondering what everyone is up to this next academic year as we apply and hear back? Are most still finishing undergrad while applying? In an MA program? Taking a year off? For those of you out there that are graduating in a few weeks (like myself) what do you have planned this summer and throughout next academic year?

 

...Are there any veteran applicants reading this thread who are already in grad programs or have applied in past cycles and would like to share some advice and thoughts regarding the best course of action for students who have decided to take a gap year between receiving their B.A and grad school? What looks best on applications and what are schools looking for in terms of the way we spend this time "off"?

 

I took two years "off" between undergrad and starting graduate school, and I spent that time working as an ESL teacher overseas in the country of my historical research focus, first with a Fulbright grant and then with a local government program. If you are a historian who specializes in another country or region's history, I would recommend spending your gap year there if at all possible - I got to do some independent research, as well as an internship at a top museum in said country, and it really helped my application. 

 

In terms of programs, most of the people I know who took time "off" applied for a Fulbright grant to research or teach ESL overseas, applied to another program that does the same thing (such as GEPIK in Korea or JET in Japan), joined the Peace Corps or Americorps, or did some sort of competitive internship in their field while moonlighting at a day job to earn cash. 

[TMP]

Nothing wrong with taking time off.  Your experiences will enrich your conversations with others and inform your understanding of the world around you and history.  I spent some time in Berlin between my MA and PhD and it clearly defined what I wanted to study-- the notion of belonging for minority groups and defining national identity (though my dissertation has nothing to do with that... it's another story).  I spent that time working on my German and seeing a bit of Europe.  I actually loved my trips to England, Switzerland, and Denmark- each tickled me with a particular historical question.

 

Immerse yourself in something new to you while doing something related.  I thought I would be visiting a lot of Holocaust related sites in Germany because it's what I've been studying.  Except.... the only time I ever did anything "Holocaust" related was going to Saschenhausen and Dachau camps and the museums in Berlin with my parents.  That...was... it.

 

However, if you have undergrad student debt, I STRONGLY urge you to work and pay it off for a bit.  You don't make much as a grad student as you do as a salaried employee elsewhere ($12K-$20K, depending on university/COL in the area).  Interest accrues and to defer loans while in grad school will only increase the amount of money you will be paying in interest.

 

As for LOR writers, it's also worth asking your adviser for his/her opinion.  Sometimes professors want to be able to coordinate their letters.  Also, your adviser might have a better insight on how forgiving your proposed third referee might be.

[Carlouuus]

Hello guys!

 

I'll be graduating this May--BA in History from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico.  So far I have considered the MAPPS program at UChicago, the MA/MSc at Columbia-LSE and the MAGIC program at Georgetown. 

 

My interests range from Postcolonial studies, World History and Cultural History. 

 

Do you have any suggestion or tips prior my application?

[thedig13]

Hello guys!

 

I'll be graduating this May--BA in History from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico.  So far I have considered the MAPPS program at UChicago, the MA/MSc at Columbia-LSE and the MAGIC program at Georgetown. 

 

My interests range from Postcolonial studies, World History and Cultural History. 

 

Do you have any suggestion or tips prior my application?

 

I'd push you to refine your interests. It's fine to have broad, wide-ranging general interests, but when it comes to the research interests you'd be listing in your SOP, it'll help to narrow it down more aggressively. As it stands right now, "Postcolonial Studies, World History, and Cultural History" is far too broad for an SOP. Something closer to (as an example) "the cultural impacts of French neocolonialism in Mali" would be better. I'd suggest that you open up by saying that your general interests lie in postcolonial/world/cultural history but follow up by offering some more specific details.

 

I would even have a prospective/tentative thesis topic -- nothing concrete, just something substantial enough to show that you've thought about it seriously.

Edited May 20, 2014 by thedig13

[ashlee_liu31]

Hello!

I am applying to study pre-modern Chinese history. Anyone else in East Asian history???? We seem to be pretty rare around here >< I really want someone to exchange information with

My top choices are Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Princeton. I am applying to other safer schools too.

I am currently an undergrad at McGill

[Sigaba]

What's everyone's writing sample on? Are you going with something a bit bold or more conventional?

 

Please keep in mind that as a graduate student, you will spend much more time studying historiography than you have as an undergraduate. Do what you can to frame your writing samples within the context of ongoing historiographical debates.

 

I would like some advice on LORs as I have two professors who I know will write strong LORs for me, but I recently had a minor falling out/growing apart with my third prospective LOR professor, I still think this professor would write a somewhat good LOR for me, but I worry that in this competitive application process, "good" is not good enough, but I also feel that any other professor I have strong relations with does not know me well enough as a student (i.e I have not taken enough classes with them recently) to write a LOR that speaks to my abilities as an academic. Should I try patching things over with this third LOR writer or try and build a new relationship with another professor through some other channel such as possibly assisting them in research over the summer etc.?

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

It depends. Is your intent to patch things up with a professor because it is the right thing for an aspiring historian to do? Or do you want to patch things up because you want this professor to write a LoR on your behalf?

 

If it is the latter, I suggest that you give long and careful thought about how you intend to comport yourself as a graduate student in history. IME, the word quickly gets around among the Powers That Be when a grad student approaches relationships with established academics as resources to be leveraged to advance his/her ambition.

 

If your intent is the former, initiate a conversation with the professor in question so that you can find out how/where/why things went off track. Take all remarks that seem like criticism on the chin but do not tolerate abuse. Acknowledge and accept responsibility for the role you played in the relationship going off kilter but think very carefully before you offer an apology.

 

Hello guys!

 

I'll be graduating this May--BA in History from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico.  So far I have considered the MAPPS program at UChicago, the MA/MSc at Columbia-LSE and the MAGIC program at Georgetown. 

 

My interests range from Postcolonial studies, World History and Cultural History. 

 

Do you have any suggestion or tips prior my application?

 

The following recommendation is offered as a respectful counterpoint to thedig13's suggestion in post 39.

 

Spend a significant part of your summer reading up on the historiography of your three areas of interest.  I recommend that you start by identifying the three most important, if not prominent, journals for each of the three fields. (That is, nine journals total.) Once you've identified the journals, read selectively from cover to cover each journal's run over the last ten years (or longer). Give yourself one week for each of the three fields to complete this task.

 

Attempt to develop a reading list of works in which your areas of interest closely intersect and/or of works that really grab your attention (as in, you slamming your hand on the table at a coffee house and saying "That's the kind of book I want to write one day!")

 

Spend the balance of your summer working through your reading list, adding and removing works as you become familiar with the historiographical landscape of each field. Maintain a reasonably comfortable pace in your reading, say, three books a week. Along the way, take a stab at writing a couple of review essays in which you establish a dialog among the books you're reading.

[dr. t]

So, after doing more in-depth research, my list has shrunk a bit to Harvard, Brown, UCBerk, UChicago, and UToronto. I'm... moderately intimidated by this list. I've gone only for professors who were very near my area of interest, but I've ended up with a short list of heavy hitters. Two questions:

 

1) Does anyone have any tips on how to not freak out about this?

 

2) The UCB program says it takes a history cohort of 32-40. This seems absurdly large. Is this perception accurate, and can anyone here comment on how the cohort size influences the internal department dynamic?

[ashlee_liu31]

So, after doing more in-depth research, my list has shrunk a bit to Harvard, Brown, UCBerk, UChicago, and UToronto. I'm... moderately intimidated by this list. I've gone only for professors who were very near my area of interest, but I've ended up with a short list of heavy hitters. Two questions:

 

1) Does anyone have any tips on how to not freak out about this?

 

2) The UCB program says it takes a history cohort of 32-40. This seems absurdly large. Is this perception accurate, and can anyone here comment on how the cohort size influences the internal department dynamic?

Im applying to a bunch of schools too, but my focus will be on the few schools that i truly want to go and highly match my research interests: Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and perhaps Columbia. Although my list is also ambitious, my advice for not freaking out is 1) to start preparing early (too late for this?) and 2) to know exactly why you want to go to these schools 3) to know exactly why these schools should want you specifically. For me, Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton have profs and resources that fit my interests very very well and I know I have specific assets that will make me attractive to them out of all other applicants. The more specific you can be, at least in your mind for now and later in the statement of purpose, the less freaking out there should be.

I see that UofT is on ur list! I'm from Toronto myself but I study at McGill. You might have known already, Toronto and UT are heavily populated by...Asians =P If you are from parts of the USA other than places like UCLA or UCB, you probably have never been in an academic environment with so many Asians. But don't worry, we mostly speak English very well =D Other than that, UT is enormous with three campuses...many Canadians, including me, actively avoid going there due to the size and lack of faculty-student interaction. I'm not sure about grad schools. One of my high school friends studied evolutionary biology there and rocked a near perfect GPA. However, since the classes, even upper year ones, are so big, she could not get meaningful recommendation letters from UT profs. Probably as a result of that, she didn't get accepted to a prestigious university despite her rocking GPA and tones of research experience. Just sharing some experience =p  

[gsc]

So, after doing more in-depth research, my list has shrunk a bit to Harvard, Brown, UCBerk, UChicago, and UToronto. I'm... moderately intimidated by this list. I've gone only for professors who were very near my area of interest, but I've ended up with a short list of heavy hitters. Two questions:

 

1) Does anyone have any tips on how to not freak out about this?

 

 

I think the trick is to simply accept it; I find that the more I try not to freak out about things, the more freaked out I actually get. 

 

I mean, your list is filled with top schools and it's a bit nerve-wracking -- but dwelling on that fact doesn't really help you write your SOP or fill out the applications or anything else. So you can acknowledge that you feel a certain way (intimidated, etc), but you don't have to let that feeling get in your way. You can just kind of let it be in the background, if that makes sense.

[thedig13]

So, after doing more in-depth research, my list has shrunk a bit to Harvard, Brown, UCBerk, UChicago, and UToronto. I'm... moderately intimidated by this list. I've gone only for professors who were very near my area of interest, but I've ended up with a short list of heavy hitters. Two questions:

 

1) Does anyone have any tips on how to not freak out about this?

 

2) The UCB program says it takes a history cohort of 32-40. This seems absurdly large. Is this perception accurate, and can anyone here comment on how the cohort size influences the internal department dynamic?

 

The schools I applied to were also heavy hitters, and I got into a few of them. As long as you can demonstrate a strong fit and potential as a scholar, there's no reason these programs wouldn't want you.

Edited May 30, 2014 by thedig13

[maelia8]

So, after doing more in-depth research, my list has shrunk a bit to Harvard, Brown, UCBerk, UChicago, and UToronto. I'm... moderately intimidated by this list. I've gone only for professors who were very near my area of interest, but I've ended up with a short list of heavy hitters. Two questions:

 

1) Does anyone have any tips on how to not freak out about this?

 

2) The UCB program says it takes a history cohort of 32-40. This seems absurdly large. Is this perception accurate, and can anyone here comment on how the cohort size influences the internal department dynamic?

 

1) I only applied to "heavy hitters" as well (top-10 history schools) as well, and in my opinion you just have to be confident in yourself and know that although the chances of getting in are not amazing, you're going for gold and are prepared to do your absolute best. Applying to programs with a poorer fit simply because you think you're more likely to get in would be a waste of your time. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt - if you're applying there with good stats and your interests mesh well, then you are probably qualified to get in and it's just a question of having a good app and being in the right place at the right time with a little luck (factors you can't influence, so sit back and relax after you submit your best possible application knowing that you made your best effort )

 

2) I don't know where you got those numbers for Berkeley, but I don't believe they are accurate. I'll be going there in the Fall and there were less than 30 people at the visitors' day, with an expected cohort of 20-25. There are only two other people in my field, and I think 2-3 new grad students per specialty area is normal. the cohort did not seem especially large to me, and department dynamics seemed relatively intimate.

[dr. t]

2) I don't know where you got those numbers for Berkeley, but I don't believe they are accurate. I'll be going there in the Fall and there were less than 30 people at the visitors' day, with an expected cohort of 20-25. There are only two other people in my field, and I think 2-3 new grad students per specialty area is normal. the cohort did not seem especially large to me, and department dynamics seemed relatively intimate.

 

They said they usually get 300-400 applications and take about 10% of their applicant pool (from which I derived the above numbers), but based on your comment I did some more digging and found that elsewhere they say they're looking for ca. 25 students. This is much more comforting, though still on the larger side, I think.

 

Thanks!

[maelia8]

Yeah, the reason why it's a bit of a larger cohort (I believe) is because they a) have a lot of funding and receive an awful lot of applications - although I know that Ann Arbor also receives hundreds of applications and aims for a cohort closer to 12-15. Regardless, I thought that 25 people seemed quite small and intimate enough when I was there to visit

[Sigaba]

 

1) Does anyone have any tips on how to not freak out about this?

 

 

Have confidence in your academic pedigree. Right or wrong, the fact that you're presently at Harvard will work to your advantage when some professors read your application materials.

[bioarch_fan]

I saw this thread and I thought I might try and introduce myself.  I'm actually an anthropology student specializing in Roman bioarchaeology (which is the study of human remains in an archaeological context) and forensic anthropology.  But I am also a history and classical civilizations minor.  I've been really thinking of also obtaining either a history or classical archaeology MA.

 

When it comes to history I am obviously considered a classicist because of how much I love anything to do with Ancient Rome.  But I am also a medievalist as well.  My interests span from from antiquity to late antiquity to the late middle ages.  I am extremely interested in the Black Death and how it may have differed from other plague outbreaks throughout the world, i.e. the Plague of Justinian.

 

I'm not sure what schools I'm looking at for history since I just decided to start thinking about doing a history minor, but I want to find schools that also have PhD anthropology degrees so that I can finish both degrees at the same institution.  If anyone knows good schools for my areas of interest I'd be happy to hear.