How many internationals apply to history PhD programs?

[Catria]

One may wonder how attractive are history PhD programs at US universities to internationals in the light of the collapse in the domestic applicant pool. After all, internationals have a variety of reasons to seek seats at US schools: a different standpoint on their area of interest, advantages conferred by US degrees in the job market back home, better funding, and so on, so forth.

 

Of course, the actual number of internationals enrolled by any one department varies wildly from year to year, but the data from NWU points to 1-4 yearly as par for the course.

 

http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/documents/program-statistics/H20PH_adm_enr.pdf

[kotov]

Let's see...our department's website is in the lower decks of the failboat, so this is just off the top of my head:

 

We have...5, not counting people who are there as part of the exchange program (since they're technically M.A. students). One each from Scotland, Germany, and the Netherlands, and two from Mexico. Out of...15 total Ph.D. students (I lose track of the people who run out of funding, etc., and I'm not on campus to do a real head count...).

[wacyeah]

 

interesting topic! First, for both my B.A. and M.A. programs (both are two different institutions), I was the only Japanese and international student who majored in History. For Ph.D., I got accepted to Univ Hawaii at Manoa so far and my primary advisor told me that the program had not had Japanese student in a real long while (although there are some intl. students from other countries but they also take up very few percentage as a whole)

[danwaterfield]

I'm sort of straddling history / literature in my PhD area, but here's my 2c. I'm British, with a British BA and MA, applying and accepted to Cambridge, York, and Durham. Looking around York, I was asked why I didn't automatically go to America or Canada (specifically the Burney centre at McGill) as I would apparently have an easier career with an American PhD.

[maelia8]

In my cohort of 20, there are 4 international students, and the average in the years above me is around 3-4 per year. The majority of these come from English-speaking Commonwealth countries (Britain, Australia, Canada), although we have a few PhD students from China, India, and especially Germany. We also have several people in our cohort who are US citizens but were born and spent their childhood/teens in other countries, in this case Mexico and Morocco. I'd say the foreign diversity is pretty solid, but the domestic ethnic diversity leaves something to be desired (I think there are two Latinos and ten Asian-Americans in my entire department of 150 students, and not a single black student).

[Cpt Jo]

I'm sort of straddling history / literature in my PhD area, but here's my 2c. I'm British, with a British BA and MA, applying and accepted to Cambridge, York, and Durham. Looking around York, I was asked why I didn't automatically go to America or Canada (specifically the Burney centre at McGill) as I would apparently have an easier career with an American PhD.

Good job with Durham.

 

The problem with the US PhD is that they don't recognised EU masters and I didn't want to start a 6-7 years long degree.

 

In my cohort of 20, there are 4 international students, and the average in the years above me is around 3-4 per year. The majority of these come from English-speaking Commonwealth countries (Britain, Australia, Canada), although we have a few PhD students from China, India, and especially Germany. We also have several people in our cohort who are US citizens but were born and spent their childhood/teens in other countries, in this case Mexico and Morocco. I'd say the foreign diversity is pretty solid, but the domestic ethnic diversity leaves something to be desired (I think there are two Latinos and ten Asian-Americans in my entire department of 150 students, and not a single black student).

I have also noticed that domestic ethnic minorities don't really pursue history degrees. In France, I haven't seen one in seven years of study. They tend to go in Law and Business departments.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Cpt Jo

[kotov]

 I'd say the foreign diversity is pretty solid, but the domestic ethnic diversity leaves something to be desired (I think there are two Latinos and ten Asian-Americans in my entire department of 150 students, and not a single black student).

 

Literally all of the domestic students in my department are white. Then again, if you've ever been to that part of Michigan, it's not exactly unrepresentative of the area...

[dr. t]

I can think of exactly one black medievalist. He's the senior faculty member in medieval history at Princeton, but still, only one.

[kotov]

There are very few minorities in Jewish history/Holocaust studies, and very few in Eastern European as well. I'm not really sure why this is.

[maelia8]

The depressing thing is that I live in a part of California that is extremely ethnically diverse, so the minute I leave campus and go downtown, the streets are filled with black, latino, and asian americans. It makes going in to my mostly white department feel like I took a flight to another state.

[danwaterfield]

Good job with Durham.

 

The problem with the US PhD is that they don't recognised EU masters and I didn't want to start a 6-7 years long degree.

 

I have also noticed that domestic ethnic minorities don't really pursue history degrees. In France, I haven't seen one in seven years of study. They tend to go in Law and Business departments.

...you're not josb on the student room are you?

[Cpt Jo]

...you're not josb on the student room are you?

Yeah   but I'm currently banned   so I come here.

[Jezzlin]

Personally, I received my BA from a UK institute and my MA from a US institute, and found that higher education in the US is by some distance more academically rigorous.

 

This application cycle I applied mostly to US institutes but also went ahead and applied to a couple of UK institutes to keep my geographic options open. With some notable exceptions (Oxford, Cambridge), funding is more competitive and limited for international students whereas a top 30 US institute is likely to admit you with a pretty decent funding package. Also, the fact that international students pay substantially higher fees in the UK is a massive obstacle, and internal funding opportunities almost always only cover the UK/EU tuition rate and expect that you will somehow pay for the difference, which amounts to around 10,000 quid.

 

As for being an international student pursuing a PhD in History, I recall that my MA department was overwhelmingly white and I struggled to find students with similar research interests, but within history departments that actively seek out students within a variety of regional subfields, they will always have a strong cohort of international students.

[danwaterfield]

Yeah   but I'm currently banned   so I come here.

Ah, unlucky! Doubt i'll be going to Durham though. That silence on the AHRC nomination front has continued, and seeing as the deadline for getting the form in has now passed... bah. There's still the DDS though, so I guess I'll bother with the colleges; fingers crossed for st chads.

[Cpt Jo]

 

Personally, I received my BA from a UK institute and my MA from a US institute, and found that higher education in the US is by some distance more academically rigorous.

 

This application cycle I applied mostly to US institutes but also went ahead and applied to a couple of UK institutes to keep my geographic options open. With some notable exceptions (Oxford, Cambridge), funding is more competitive and limited for international students whereas a top 30 US institute is likely to admit you with a pretty decent funding package. Also, the fact that international students pay substantially higher fees in the UK is a massive obstacle, and internal funding opportunities almost always only cover the UK/EU tuition rate and expect that you will somehow pay for the difference, which amounts to around 10,000 quid.

 

As for being an international student pursuing a PhD in History, I recall that my MA department was overwhelmingly white and I struggled to find students with similar research interests, but within history departments that actively seek out students within a variety of regional subfields, they will always have a strong cohort of international students.

 

I answered this on another thread:

 

Oxbridge have the best funding for Internationals with specific scholarship programs:

Cambridge: Gates

Oxford: 140 Clarendon, 32 Rhodes, 10 Ertegun and 4 Wolfson (Arts & Humanities only for the latter two), and many country/subject/college specific bursaries.

 

Funding is scarce for internationals elsewhere. I've found that prestigious unis in the UK such as KCL, UCL, LSE and Durham have pretty rubbish funding for them. Bear in mind that master's funding is close to non-existent for foreigners, unless in a 1+3 scheme(MA+PhD).

 

However some other unis also have university wide scholarships that are open to all students. The most generous ones (generally with more than a hundred scholarships) are found in the red brick unis: Manchester (100 President's Doctoral Scholarships, but only four in the Arts ), Sheffield (a few University Prizes, a few Faculty Studentships, 2 Worthington, 6 Wolfson in the Arts), and Leeds (amazing funding there).

 

 

Ah, unlucky! Doubt i'll be going to Durham though. That silence on the AHRC nomination front has continued, and seeing as the deadline for getting the form in has now passed... bah. There's still the DDS though, so I guess I'll bother with the colleges; fingers crossed for st chads.

Sorry to bring bad news, but I think the DDS is only given to internationals, or to complete a fee-waiver only award from a research council. I am a bit shocked that prestigious unis only rely on external funding for their PhDs, it's the same at KCL. I hope you have other options.

[danwaterfield]

I answered this on another thread:

 

Oxbridge have the best funding for Internationals with specific scholarship programs:

Cambridge: Gates

Oxford: 140 Clarendon, 32 Rhodes, 10 Ertegun and 4 Wolfson (Arts & Humanities only for the latter two), and many country/subject/college specific bursaries.

 

Funding is scarce for internationals elsewhere. I've found that prestigious unis in the UK such as KCL, UCL, LSE and Durham have pretty rubbish funding for them. Bear in mind that master's funding is close to non-existent for foreigners, unless in a 1+3 scheme(MA+PhD).

 

However some other unis also have university wide scholarships that are open to all students. The most generous ones (generally with more than a hundred scholarships) are found in the red brick unis: Manchester (100 President's Doctoral Scholarships, but only four in the Arts ), Sheffield (a few University Prizes, a few Faculty Studentships, 2 Worthington, 6 Wolfson in the Arts), and Leeds (amazing funding there).

 

 

Sorry to bring bad news, but I think the DDS is only given to internationals, or to complete a fee-waiver only award from a research council. I am a bit shocked that prestigious unis only rely on external funding for their PhDs, it's the same at KCL. I hope you have other options.

Nah - not for English Studies, must be different for the History department there - I checked ). But I've been nominated for AHRC funding at York and Cambridge have said I have a good chance, so on va voir.

[Cpt Jo]

Nah - not for English Studies, must be different for the History department there - I checked ). But I've been nominated for AHRC funding at York and Cambridge have said I have a good chance, so on va voir.

Do you have an answer from Cambridge? Oxford likes to take its time...

[danwaterfield]

Do you have an answer from Cambridge? Oxford likes to take its time...

AHRC wise, no. I won't hear until the 16th of march. It'll be an anxious two weeks. Decision wise, yes; had an offer in mid january, and the college allocation very shortly afterwards.