History

[mhcrosefly311]

Hey! I tried getting into the history programs...they just thumbed their high GRE and GPA standards in my face. I love engaging the past to explain the present, yet they rejected me. I am heading to Indiana--Bloomington's Latin American Studies program and try to sneak into the history dept. grad courses--heh. Ok I'm still not done with my undergrad. so I'm going back to my finals...play nicely and please don't let the sociologist overtake us. We may be small, but we are mighty.

[Guest daphna]

Thankfully not that terrified of a year of graduate seminars as this is basically what I'm doing right now (said Daphna, ignoring the pile of 15th century manuscript copies waiting for her to try and translate them into something readable for her current seminar paper).

Also, I don't know how undergraduate seminars are in the States, but I did 8 undergrad seminars in BA, 4 of them with a small lecture and paper, and 4 with a large research paper, all of them in History. So I hope I'm generally well equipped to deal with the seminar thing. Hope I don't get completely disillussioned. :-)

Actually, I've got so many things to do and worry about just regarding the whole "I'm moving half way around the world" thing, that I haven't really had the time yet to worry about potential academic failure. I forsee it happening somewhere over the Atlantic.

[History_Nerd]

Uh - oh, Berkeley sent out an e-mail to the graduate students and left all of the e-mail addresses on there. The students hijacked the list . . . and thank goodness, people seem normal. They are into baseball, jazz music, and have already made several references to drinking beer.

I am so relieved.

[Minnesotan]

Someone was bitching about the mass-mailings in another forum. I think it was for rejection letters, though. They were whining about invasion of privacy and all that, as if someone knowing you got rejected to a certain school was privileged information. They'd likely figure it out when you weren't showing up in the fall, huh?

Anyhoo, I don't think I applied to enough history programs. I have the feeling I'm going to end up in a humanities or classics program if I want a top school.

[Minnesotan]

This thread is dead, Jim!

[History_Nerd]

This thread is dead, Jim!

I don't know what happened! Anyone feel like sharing details about their language requirements?

[Guest cheryl]

Sure... I'm a medievalist w/ early modern (mostly Ren/Ref) as my minor field, so medieval Latin, French, and German for the former, and I need Italian for the latter since I plan on focusing on Italian history. My medieval Latin & French are good, Italian is basic, but I have ZERO German. Zilch. But at least I'm not really planning on doing much work on the history of German-speaking folks. Hopefully I can just do the basics to pass the exam and not worry too much beyond that. I don't anticipate having to work with many primaries written in German.

I have a question though - my school requires the Toronto Medieval Latin Exam (PhD, obviously) - has anyone here taken it or know anything about it? I've heard a couple of horror stories, but like to hear from a wider audience.

[Minnesotan]

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[Guest Distressed]

I'm a modern Europeanist, and though two languages are required, my advisors are already pushing me to pick up a third, since they have this hope that it'll make my dissertation that much more pathbreaking -- they're already thinking dissertation, and I haven't even gotten into my first full academic year, let alone first DAY of course work.

I'm currently freaking out about the language exam, simply because I can't afford to fail it. I'm in this strange position where, when I met with the grad director at my school of choice for the fall (this was during the come-visit-us-so-we-can-lure-you-here campus trip), he said, "You got our most prestigious fellowship" -- which, while flattering, has made me panic. I could sense him telepathically communicating with me: "So you'd better not make us regret it!" When I met with my advisors they reiterated the director's statement, and ugh! I wish they hadn't told me!! That means they have high expectations, and I had better deliver above and beyond what they expect from their graduate students.

I've been studying my main language for a little over a year -- and when I say "studying," I am using the term loosely. It was extremely difficult to work at it diligently over the past seven or eight months, while you're still in school, working as a research assistant to two professors, making ends meet with a smaller part-time job, and trying to get into grad school!! My plan was to spend the remaining four months now brushing up on it, but, as I found, most of May was a bust -- and, even though I was trying to learn new words daily, and translated a new article regularly, the words just aren't sticking in my head. Every new article I pick up has 2,500 brand new words, and, if I'm lucky, 1 word from the previous article. I have used up two packages of index cards (cut into quarters) for flash cards (not helping!!!). I try to play "memory games" with words that are synonyms, and I feel like maybe I'm retaining 1% of all the words I'm encountering. I'm trying to stay positive by commending myself even when I only recognize a word as one I've seen before (even if I can't recall its meaning), but, frankly, I'm scared. And spending money on an expensive language program is out of the question for me, since I graduated from undergrad debt-free, but BROKE. Moreover, in my case, an expensive language program doesn't help with acquiring many of the more sophisticated words used in academic articles. For learning grammar, I've gone through two books specifically geared for acquiring a reading knowledge of the language -- and I took a course at my university for that purpose last year. But while I know the grammatical constructions (which, I suppose is at least one plus), I'm worried that when they sit me down with an excerpt from a book, I am going to tank.

Oh, the anxiety of graduate school!

[mhcrosefly311]

Well I'm glad this thread is not dead, hehe...Minnesotan good try starting your own thread under the humanities, but we

ARE definitely a social science nanananenee. So now that I have my B.A. in hand...finals and graduation are over--HOORRAAAHHH!--I can now say for sure that I am going to gradschool. Anywho, eventhough(SP) I'm not going straight into a history program, the lang. requirements for a Latin American Studies and History program are Spanish (check), Portuguese (hmmm), French (highscool french?), and maybe a Native American Language (for those brave souls out there). Well heres to a productive and adventurous summer to you all!

[Guest cheryl]

Distressed, does your language exam not allow the use of dictionaries? I thought that nearly all of them did (Toronto exam excluded... grrrr). Assuming that you've got the grammar down and are a speedy looker-upper, you should be able to pass it without too much fretting. Of course, we're all eventually going to have to really learn these languages for research purposes, but that comes with practice and at least the formalities will be out of the way.

Don't worry, Minnesotan, I'm sure there's a plethora of summer programs teaching Gothic. Gothic is so hot right now - everybody who's anybody is learning Gothic So you're a classicist - so was/am I. I doubled in classics and history. One word of advice: if you need to learn Modern Greek too in order to do research in Greece, wait until you've got the Ancient Greek down. I learned Modern Greek first, when I studied in Athens for a year, and though it made the Ancient Greek grammar go down a little easier, my pronounciation is perpetually f***ed up in both languages. Sometimes it seems that Modern Greek pronunciation is just as idiosyncratic and weird as English. Plus I'm always mixing up the letter formations for the two different periods. Same letters, two different ways to write them. Weird, huh?

And btw, though I was too lazy to post a reply to Minnesotan's humanities post, history is totally in the humanities. No doubt. If I wasn't such a laid-back person, I wouldn't post to this thread solely in order to protest this grievously inaccurate classification

Anyway, apropos to this topic, I've got a meeting with a prof to do some medieval Latin translation and I've still got 3 pages of Roger Bacon to go... We're having weekly meetings this summer to help me keep up and improve my medieval translation - it sounded good during the school year, but now that it's actually *summer*, 2-hour sessions of me translating aloud, by myself, aren't quite as fun. At least it's good for me. Speaking of, I think I need to go drink some castor oil as well...

[Guest Distressed]

Of course you're right, Cheryl -- dictionaries are permitted, and I am a rather fast looker-upper. It's just that my language exam is apparently 1 hour long, and I get two book pages to translate. There's no way that I can actually do that. I've been meaning to time myself with two side-by-side book pages, but I don't want to further discourage myself.

Fortunately, I've found some excellent web resources to assist in building vocabulary. Desperation makes you google all sorts of things!

Until September, I think the only thing I can do is remain calm, stay positive, work like crazy, and hope for the best.

[Minnesotan]

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[History_Nerd]

Does that sound like a late night Cinemax movie to you? "Hot Gothic?"

Either that or the name of my new band. If I was in a band.

[Minnesotan]

I liked Jack Black's "Kathleen Turner Overdrive."

[rising_star]

Any ideas of how to study a language on your own? (A modern one) Are there good CD/book resources that anyone would recommend? Particularly for French or Swahili...

[Minnesotan]

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[Minnesotan]

He's right, that one.

[History_Nerd]

Does anyone know of a link to the National Research Council's rankings of history programs in the US? You can make customized rankings on Phds.org based on the NRC rankings, but I would be curious to see the originals.

[Minnesotan]

No, but I think I could point you in the direction of someone who would offer you a cash loan. =)

[History_Nerd]

No, but I think I could point you in the direction of someone who would offer you a cash loan. =)

It would be nice if we could get rid of that garbage.

Is anyone reading any history for fun?

[Minnesotan]

I've been reading a little historical fiction, but this summer is my last chance to be a bum and read the silly literature I read for fun. Finished off the last Vonnegut and Bradbury books I had yet to read, and I'm starting on Pratchett and Orwell. I like to read everything in sequence when I find an author I enjoy.

I did pick up Quintus of Smyrna, though. I want to read Iliad again, though, before I start him up, so that everything is fresh in my mind. Watching the movie Troy doesn't quite cut it for me.

[rising_star]

Sorry, I was on a hiatus. All the offending posts have been deleted. And next time if that happens, could someone send me a PM and jolt me out of my dreamstate? Thanks.

I'd love to read some quality historical fiction. Instead I've been reading, The Colonial Present by Derek Gregory, a geographer.

[History_Nerd]

I have to confess, I've been watching a lot of the History Channel's "The Revolution".

[rising_star]

...and I'm starting on Pratchett and Orwell.

What do you mean starting? How are you so late to the Pratchett and Orwell party?? Okay, how far are you into the Pratchett? I'm all over the place because I started reading them semi out of order, tried to fix it, then resorted to just reading them whenever they were available at the local public library. Currently reading Guards, Guards, if I ever finish this required summer reading.

P.S. I went with Pimsleur's Swahili CDs, mainly because the public library had them available. It's been a good review because it's helping me recall latent Swahili and, since the language is completely phonetic, I'lll have no problem transferring what I've learned so far to paper. Though it's designed for people traveling so not all of the content is useful...