Advice for Undergraduate Preparation

[Sigaba]

Hi all, 

 

I am currently an undergraduate freshmen attending a major university in the District of Columbia. I realize that I am still young and am far away from going to graduate school, but I have a strong ambition to eventually earn a Ph.D. in modern European history. I am currently focusing on taking history courses and maintaining high grades in them. I wanted to know if there was any advice that anyone here could offer for current undergraduates who have an ambition to eventually attend graduate school? I want to keep the advice in mind as I continue to progress in my undergraduate academic career. 

 

If anyone could share advice about things to take advantage of during the summer, independent research, and developing relationships with faculty—it would be greatly appreciated. Again, I will emphasize that I am just looking for advice to make the most of my undergraduate experience. I am in no way concerned with the graduate school application process right now. 

[Fianna]

Some excellent advice above, here are my contributions:

 

Try and start going to conferences and listen to how working historians are presenting their work. Use them to network and start meeting people in your area so that you have contacts at programs you may be interested in.

 

Join the societies/groups that work on the areas you're interested in. Most of them have pretty low student dues and publish good journals and host good conferences that focus on the topics.

 

Join Phi Alpha Theta if your school has a chapter and get involved. Definitely go to PAT's national conference, and present there as soon as you can. Submit to their journal as you get in to more advanced classes. Even if you don't get published the first time, you'll get really good feedback on your work.