Questions about applying to Vandy's PhD. History program...

[wannaphdnHistory]

I live in Nashville and plan on applying to Vanderbilt's PhD History program this fall. I graduated in 1992 from a small liberal arts college with majors in History and English, and a minor in Political Science. I had a 3.92 cumulative GPA/ 4.0 history GPA. After college, I went to law school, and I graduated from Washington and Lee in 1996, with a 3.40 GPA. I practiced law for a while, but I did not like it. I went into teaching, high school and middle school. I am working this year in a program for at risk students. However, I want to teach history at the collegiate level. Here are a couple questions I have:

1. Does any one know what the average GRE scores are for accepted students into Vanderbilt's history program? I cannot find those anywhere on the net. I have not taken the GRE yet, but I plan to take it in July. It would be nice though to have a target to shoot for.

2. For a writing sample, I have a 10 page case summary that was published in the first edition of Washington and Lee's Race and Ethnic Ancestry Law Journal. Is that sufficient? I do not have any of my undergraduate papers or anything like that since it has been such a long period of time since I graduated.

3. Letters of recommendation may be tricky for me. I have not kept up with any of the professors at either schoool since I left, but some of the professors I worked with are still at the schools. What if they do not remember me that well? How do I approach them after so long asking them to write me a LOR? Even if they do remember me, should I get someone ( a supervisor?) to write me a LOR just so I have something more recent than 1996?

Any help that someone can give me on these issues will be greatly appreciated.

[misterpat]

1. Does any one know what the average GRE scores are for accepted students into Vanderbilt's history program? I cannot find those anywhere on the net. I have not taken the GRE yet, but I plan to take it in July. It would be nice though to have a target to shoot for.

You cannot find this information because most departments don't provide it. GREs aren't as important as the LSAT is for law school. Shoot for above the 90th percentile on the Verbal section (which I believe is a 650 or so).

You should know that your fit with the department is going to matter as much, if not more, than any of the things you are asking about. I would not recommend applying to Vandy simply because it is in the same city as you.