dr. t Posted June 2, 2015 Posted June 2, 2015 Don't be scared of applying to reach schools! If Stanford really is a good fit for you, send in an application; unlike in undergrad, fit is the key factor here. I think the publications adage that "if you aren't rejected anywhere, you aren't aiming high enough" probably applies to graduate school admissions, too. (On the other hand, I am certainly going to rue saying that when my rejections start rolling in next year.) Even more extreme: whether or not you think you will get in should have no bearing whatsoever on your selection of schools. Pythia, ashiepoo72, Gambaosaka1 and 3 others 6
HalfMoonRise Posted June 13, 2015 Posted June 13, 2015 Hi everyone! I am new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself. I received my undergraduate degree in history from one of the top public universities in the country and am now working as a consultant in the financial industry. Though the money in my current job is nice, I really miss history and am eager to get back to my roots. The job market for academia is really daunting but I see how important it is to do something that I love! My background: 3.9 GPA, undergraduate research grant to travel to an archive in Europe for senior thesis, awarded best senior honors thesis in the history department, museum internship, worked for over a year at a historic preservation state agency in college. Still need to take GRE. Interest: early modern Europe, gender and economic history Any recommendations on programs? I just started doing my research. Berkley, Yale, UT Austin, and Johns Hopkins stand out.
TMP Posted June 13, 2015 Posted June 13, 2015 Hi everyone! I am new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself. I received my undergraduate degree in history from one of the top public universities in the country and am now working as a consultant in the financial industry. Though the money in my current job is nice, I really miss history and am eager to get back to my roots. The job market for academia is really daunting but I see how important it is to do something that I love! My background: 3.9 GPA, undergraduate research grant to travel to an archive in Europe for senior thesis, awarded best senior honors thesis in the history department, museum internship, worked for over a year at a historic preservation state agency in college. Still need to take GRE. Interest: early modern Europe, gender and economic history Any recommendations on programs? I just started doing my research. Berkley, Yale, UT Austin, and Johns Hopkins stand out. I assume you have languages under your belt?
HalfMoonRise Posted June 14, 2015 Posted June 14, 2015 I assume you have languages under your belt? Intermediate Norwegian (related to my field of interest - Northern Europe). Am working on picking up Swedish now (very similar to Norwegian).
twentysix Posted June 20, 2015 Posted June 20, 2015 Hey there! My area of interest is also Southern Women (primarily through the Civil War), though I also dabble in religious history. All of those programs (with the exception of Kentucky) were on my list when I applied this round. Mississippi is of course fantastic because of the Center for Southern Studies, but that program only offers four funded slots. You might want to look at LSU. I just accepted my offer there (MA program), and both my future advisor and current grad students have been absolutely amazing. As was already stated, MA funding is hard to get, though not impossible, especially if you look at sources beyond the history departments themselves. I had a professor that studied this same thing (women/gender/gender roles in the south, esp during the civil war) who came out of the PHD program at LSU. Definitely look into it.
twentysix Posted June 20, 2015 Posted June 20, 2015 (edited) what about U. Wisconsin at Madison or UCSC? They also have good public history programs Be aware of the political turmoil in Wisconsin. Funding that existed before the application deadlines for my program disappeared after Scott Walkers "super education killer" plans emerged. It's a really sad situation because UWisconsin is one of the best public universities in the world. *i just named the massive budget cut and potential removal of tenure within the state of Wisconsin. This is by no means the actual name of what is going on, but damn is it ever serious. Edited June 20, 2015 by twentysix
twentysix Posted June 20, 2015 Posted June 20, 2015 (edited) I have to say I disagree. Limit your search to the top-20, look for 3-5 programs, and be willing to not get in anywhere and move on. Your goal isn't to get into grad school. Your goal is to get a job after grad school. Agreed. Plus, applying to grad school is horribly expensive and excruciatingly time consuming. 5 applications/1 gre/ and a dual campus visit trip to SoCal (in which I had free housing) cost me about $1,500. At $60-110 per application 15 apps is a small fortune, if you can swing that and not even wince you may not even really need funding lol. Edited June 20, 2015 by twentysix
stillalivetui Posted June 21, 2015 Posted June 21, 2015 Agreed. Plus, applying to grad school is horribly expensive and excruciatingly time consuming. 5 applications/1 gre/ and a dual campus visit trip to SoCal (in which I had free housing) cost me about $1,500. At $60-110 per application 15 apps is a small fortune, if you can swing that and not even wince you may not even really need funding lol. Agreed. Applying to nine schools is going to run me $1146. What makes it even worse is knowing that I could easily be rejected by all of them.
Heimat Historian Posted June 22, 2015 Posted June 22, 2015 I had a professor that studied this same thing (women/gender/gender roles in the south, esp during the civil war) who came out of the PHD program at LSU. Definitely look into it. There are funding issues with LSU as well. Jindal and the LA legislature slashed higher ed spending to the bone.
dr. t Posted June 22, 2015 Posted June 22, 2015 Wisconsin, Louisiana, and North Carolina are all particular shit-shows right now. Heimat Historian 1
gsc Posted June 22, 2015 Posted June 22, 2015 I feel like at the application stage it's too early to cross schools off your list because of funding/budget cuts/etc, unless that program offers no funding for its students at all. At this point you really have no way of knowing what the funding will look like for you or what your options will be. If Wisconsin, LSU, or UNC is your dream program, and you can swing the application fee, then still apply; just be realistic about what could happen once you have actual offers in hand. L13 and mvlchicago 2
TMP Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 Agreed. There are still fellowships from the Graduate School at each of the universities. Just apply.
mvlchicago Posted June 23, 2015 Posted June 23, 2015 the other fact is that, politically speaking, it looks much better to knock off funding for anthropology (I know Walker's been focusing on that) than history.
scrivere Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Just wanted to say hi and join the discussion. Like everyone else here, I'm getting ready to apply to PhD programs this fall. I posted a couple months ago in the Political Science forum, when I was still trying to figure out what kinds of programs to apply to. After a fair amount of research, I've decided to apply in history even though I majored in poli sci. I'm looking at American history programs that are strong in political and cultural/intellectual history. I'm particularly interested in the history of the right wing in the U.S. I've already developed a short list of schools and have been (very slowly, very nervously, very cautiously) emailing a couple POIs, but I'm curious what people here think about which programs I should check out?
dr. t Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 the other fact is that, politically speaking, it looks much better to knock off funding for anthropology (I know Walker's been focusing on that) than history. Yeah, but he's also hitting nursing and IT, so some of that "focus" is a smokescreen.
scirefaciat Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 From what I have gotten from the Wisconsin DGS, things are perhaps not quite as dire for the history department as they could be. From now on, funding for accepted students will be for a full five years guaranteed, and they have adjusted their admissions quotas accordingly. This has not been the case before. Additionally, from what I hear, no professors in the history department have any plans to leave. Make no mistake, it is a very serious issue, but this history department seems to have planned for it. I will know more when I get there I suppose.
mvlchicago Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 ^ Had they never guaranteed five years of funding before?
ashiepoo72 Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 Not everyone at UW received full funding, or even first year funding. Some people were admitted with no funding and had to apply for TAships every year, term to term, hoping they could cobble together a full package after paying for the first year. They started admitting people with multi-year packages in 2014 I believe. Madison used to admit somewhere around 60 people, but that was cut in half or more when they switched to a full-funding structure.
mvlchicago Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 Wow. Like with the quality of UW-M students, I thought that they had to be one of the standard five year-funded programs. I'm like almost more impressed by their placements now.
scirefaciat Posted July 3, 2015 Posted July 3, 2015 ^ Had they never guaranteed five years of funding before? Yeah, from what I understand, 2015 is the first year that every student had a full five years. I believe they only accepted around 20-24 applicants this year.
Puppiesrule35 Posted July 15, 2015 Posted July 15, 2015 I figured I come here. I study Africa (East Africa after independence to be precise.) I applied to schools based on P.I. as opposed to programs; I figured that research fit was more important (but certainly not the only factor!) I am applying to Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern, Illinois, WashU, Michigan State, Michigan, and Indiana. Good luck to everyone!
stillalivetui Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 I figured I come here. I study Africa (East Africa after independence to be precise.) I applied to schools based on P.I. as opposed to programs; I figured that research fit was more important (but certainly not the only factor!) I am applying to Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern, Illinois, Wash U STL, Michigan State, Michigan, and Indiana. Good luck to everyone! As it should be, always apply based on fit. And you have six B1G schools, you'll be taken great care of!
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