Questions from a Swiss student

[Paradeplatz]

Hi everybody

I'm planning to apply next year to some history PhD programs in the US and I have quite a few questions because I am from Switzerland with a very different system and therefore don't really know what to make of some requirements.

As the post is very long, I tried to structure it:

1. Introduction/Swiss university system
2. Marks
3. GRE
4. Languages
5. Research
6. LOR

My goal are the top 10-20 universities, choosing the programmes that appeal to me (otherwise I could stay in Switzerland. Zurich has a strong history department). Now my problem is: I don't know how US requirements translate into what a Swiss student can offer.

1. Currently, I study history and sociology at the universities of Zurich and Lucerne. First remark here: In Switzerland, there is no hierarchy between the universities. Most people just study at the university next to them, though Zurich is the largest and has the largest history department. (Exception is the well reputed ETH, but you can only study sciences there.) Second: There are no awards or honors handed out – people just study and receive marks, but that's about it – a disadvantage?

Next year, I will study at the University of Georgia as an exchange student, which should give me some insight into the American university system, but I want to start working on my application before, because when I'm in the US, there will be a lot of work to do.

-> Does it hurt to come from a country where universities aren't ranked at all and don't hand out any awards? Bonus question: How many student are there usually from continental Europe?

2. Marks: In the Swiss system, marks are awarded on a scale from 1 (worst) to 6 (best) with 4 being pass. In my subjects, just the papers (3 for history) are graded – and I'm really good at writing well rounded papers with both primary and secondary sources, utilizing many theories from the general field of cultural studies – I don't know that many facts, but I know how to reflect on the making of facts. At the moment I'm standing at a 6 in history, and 5,75 in the rest, which translates to an A (according to wes.org), but:

-> What would my GPA be?

3. GRE: I would have to take it. I don't fear the quantitative section, but I don't yet see myself getting through the verbal section. My English is ok (very good according to TOEFL) but the GRE-Words are a bit much, seeing that my mother tongue is German. Is this being considered when looking at GRE-Scores or are people from countries with other main languages just expected to be as good as Americans?

-> Are lower verbal GRE scores accepted from people whose first language isn't English?

4. On the other hand, my German is obviously perfect, my French is good and my Latin suffices to read the Bible and deal with most texts I come across. I hope this helps as my main field of interest is (early) modern history of science and knowledge in a broader sense.

-> Are languages proficiencies looked at on the application?

5. Research: This is the section, where I really don't understand the US system. Research is always mentioned in the Graduate forum, though mainly in science-related threads. In Switzerland, all papers should use primary sources and I a) always use many and have a background in methods an theory to use them appropriately. Would this count as research? And should I mention, that I have been working as a tutor for one of my professors?

6. LOR: The professor and assistant professor who rated my papers will both write an LOR for me and they will turn out very well. Both focus on aspects of my papers and therefore the way I research. This should help with grad-application, right? But as they are publishing their texts and books in German, they will most likely not be known in the US. How big a disadvantage is this? And should I try to get one LOR during my stay at the University of Georgia?

Also: I heard, US LORs should be really over the top with praising the student. Is this true? Swiss letters tend do me a bit more modest -> Could I lose here some points?

-> Are LORs from people unknown to US professors are problem?

SOP: I know what I want, where I stand and where I can stand out -> No questions here (yet).

Help on any of these questions is very appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[JustChill]

I'm afraid I cannot touch on all of the questions you asked, but first of all let me tell you that your English is excellent, and that your knowledge of German and French is going to be a huge plus. Admissions committees absolutely look at your language skills! By the way, what kind of history are you thinking of studying? Regarding the GRE verbal, don't worry -- they are going to be more than understanding of your circumstances, and not expect you to score as well as native English speakers.

Good luck!

[BlueandBuff]

I'll be glad to jump in and tackle a couple of these...

1. -> Does it hurt to come from a country where universities aren't ranked at all and don't hand out any awards? Bonus question: How many student are there usually from continental Europe?

I don't know about the bonus question, but the ranking issue shouldn't hurt you.

4. -> Are languages proficiencies looked at on the application?

Oh, yes. This will really help you.

5. Would this count as research?

Yes. Qualitative historical research requires an ability to analyze primary sources and select and critique secondary sources. There usually isn't a quantitative analysis component, although since you stated an interest in science, an understanding of scientific methods and research might help you.

6. -> Could I lose here some points? -> Are LORs from people unknown to US professors are problem?

Adcoms know that European referees tend to be less effusive in their praise, and adjust accordingly. My strongest LOR writer is European (study abroad), and I was assured by everyone that a modest LOR would be looked on favorably. Also, while American referees will often agree to write LOR's out of a sense of obligation, I think that's less prevalent across the pond. At the least, mine questioned me extensively on my goals and rationale, and informed me that I was one of very few students that they were willing to recommend. It was a little like running a gauntlet, whereas my US referees were falling over themselves to write letters and asking me what I wanted them to include. It's just different, IMHO.

[JerryLandis]

-> Does it hurt to come from a country where universities aren't ranked at all and don't hand out any awards? Bonus question: How many student are there usually from continental Europe?

I don't know much about the awards/ranking thing either, but coming from a department that almost never gives out awards, I understand your worry here! I don't think they necessarily expect hundreds of awards from everyone - it's certainly not the main focus of the application. However, given your essay writing skills may I suggest trying to publish some of them? Even publishing something in an undergraduate history journal would be good to put down in the awards or publications section. I personally gathered up a bunch of my best essays and sent them off to undergraduate journals, for the sole purpose of having publications to list in my application. Most undergrad journals seem to be American, so you'd have to translate your coursework into English, but it seems you have the skill to do that.

-> What would my GPA be?

I don't know what your GPA would be, but people from non-4.0 universities apply all the time, so the admissions committees must have some sense of how to view other systems. My university also works on a completely different grading scale, but fortunately they provide a conversion chart for North American grading systems. Perhaps you should ask around and see if your university offers something similar?

-> Are lower verbal GRE scores accepted from people whose first language isn't English?

I've heard that they do take that into consideration. However, despite appearing to be at a disadvantage, you may actually find yourself doing surprisingly well on the verbal section. Since it mostly seems to test your knowledge of random, obscure vocabulary (or your ability to guess what such words mean), your language background could be a great asset. Knowledge of French, German, and Latin will probably help you guess the meanings of words that people who just speak English will not be able to figure out. Still, I recommend working on just memorizing vocabulary lists if you're worried about the GRE verbal.

-> Are languages proficiencies looked at on the application?

YES, and I'm so very jealous of you for your language experience! From what you've described, it sounds like you already meet the basic requirements not only for enrolling in a PhD program for history, but for completing such a program. I personally fear that admissions committees will toss out my application before even reading my writing sample or SOP once they see that I only (gasp, how horrid!) speak one foreign language. Knowledge of German and Latin seem to be the most important for medieval/early modern European history, so that's definitely a huge asset for you.

Research: It sounds like you're fine in this regard. I too was very confused by the constant advice to "use primary sources" and whatnot in my writing sample. I guess the European system is different (I study in the UK, don't know how similar our programs are) from the American, because I have NEVER handed in a piece of writing that didn't employ primary sources. I'd be immediately failed for doing that. So I think that as far as writing is concerned, you and I may be at a bit of an advantage because we're trained more specifically to produce articles and long essays (more useful for the application) instead of book reviews and multiple shorter essays.

-> Are LORs from people unknown to US professors are problem?

If you get letters from professors who are well known in Switzerland and among German speakers, there's a good chance they'll be known by those reading your application. Remember, professors were once PhD applicants and students as well, so they had to learn all the language skills we are expected to learn! One of my professors is always going off about his interactions with foreign (i.e. non English speaking) scholars at the conferences he's attended abroad. So just because your letter writers don't publish in English, that doesn't mean they won't be well regarded by those at English speaking universities.

Best of luck to you! You sound like you are very well prepared, so keep working hard and thinking about how to improve your applications.

[LifeIsGood]

Good teamwork, people! Let's get these questions answered!

About your GPA, if we assume a linear scale, and if I'm reading you correctly that there are never any zeroes given, only 1s, this should be how to calculate your GPA.

Your history GPA would be a 4.0. That one's easy

Your cumulative GPA would be:

(5.75-1)/(6-1) = X/4

If X is the GPA. So X = 3.6

Disclaimer: I'm just going on the logical math, not on any particular knowledge of the system.

[Paradeplatz]

First of all thank you all for your answers! Much appreciated!

By the way, what kind of history are you thinking of studying? Regarding the GRE verbal, don't worry -- they are going to be more than understanding of your circumstances, and not expect you to score as well as native English speakers.

Thanks! That's nice to know.

At the moment I'm more interested in a specific approach to history than in a specific topic: I like theory-heavy interdisciplinary reasearch. My current heroes are Foucault (discourse analysis, power, genealogy) and Luhmann (evolutionary view, code driven communication, functional differentiation of society, reality as a system-immanent construction based on own observation, roundup of many theories; is he known at all in the US?) but also semiotics (Saussurian twofold sign, applied to cultural codes), cognitive science (subject as a problem, functioning of humans), anthropology (possibilites of humans), distinction in a Bourdieuan sense, constructivism (operational and radical), narratives (eg. White).... next goal: psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan, Zizek).

Basically I like to write on writing. For example I wrote a paper utilizing discourse analysis to find out what Nazi historians wrote on the Carthagians and their conflict with Rome, how they made sense of the conflict, what internal and external requirements for their writings were, what the archive for that time was and which kinds of narratives they employed.

History of early modern science is something I have been interested in for quite a while but I very much dislike most of the stuff I find because manly Nat-Sci-people write these books and their training as historians is rudementary at best. Still there are some good books on cultural history of science or knowledge and its distribution and that would be my path. My main interest here is astronomy/astrology. But as I have this focus, most history of science programs do not really fit me. At the moment I feel, I would best fit in at the University of Chicago as they focus on interdisciplinary research and have some great theoreticans.

(Ok, that was a bit long)

5. Would this count as research?

Yes. Qualitative historical research requires an ability to analyze primary sources and select and critique secondary sources. There usually isn't a quantitative analysis component, although since you stated an interest in science, an understanding of scientific methods and research might help you.

6. -> Could I lose here some points? -> Are LORs from people unknown to US professors are problem?

Adcoms know that European referees tend to be less effusive in their praise, and adjust accordingly. My strongest LOR writer is European (study abroad), and I was assured by everyone that a modest LOR would be looked on favorably. Also, while American referees will often agree to write LOR's out of a sense of obligation, I think that's less prevalent across the pond. At the least, mine questioned me extensively on my goals and rationale, and informed me that I was one of very few students that they were willing to recommend. It was a little like running a gauntlet, whereas my US referees were falling over themselves to write letters and asking me what I wanted them to include. It's just different, IMHO.

Both things good to know! Thanks!

-> Does it hurt to come from a country where universities aren't ranked at all and don't hand out any awards? Bonus question: How many student are there usually from continental Europe?

However, given your essay writing skills may I suggest trying to publish some of them? Even publishing something in an undergraduate history journal would be good to put down in the awards or publications section. I personally gathered up a bunch of my best essays and sent them off to undergraduate journals, for the sole purpose of having publications to list in my application. Most undergrad journals seem to be American, so you'd have to translate your coursework into English, but it seems you have the skill to do that.

-> What would my GPA be?

My university also works on a completely different grading scale, but fortunately they provide a conversion chart for North American grading systems. Perhaps you should ask around and see if your university offers something similar?

Research: It sounds like you're fine in this regard. I too was very confused by the constant advice to "use primary sources" and whatnot in my writing sample. I guess the European system is different (I study in the UK, don't know how similar our programs are) from the American, because I have NEVER handed in a piece of writing that didn't employ primary sources. I'd be immediately failed for doing that. So I think that as far as writing is concerned, you and I may be at a bit of an advantage because we're trained more specifically to produce articles and long essays (more useful for the application) instead of book reviews and multiple shorter essays.

Thanks! Great tips on publication and grading. I anyway have to translate one or two of my papers so I can also do that right away (though translating Nazi-terminology or describing the meaning is a real pain in the ass).

Good teamwork, people! Let's get these questions answered!

About your GPA, if we assume a linear scale, and if I'm reading you correctly that there are never any zeroes given, only 1s, this should be how to calculate your GPA.

Your history GPA would be a 4.0. That one's easy

Your cumulative GPA would be:

(5.75-1)/(6-1) = X/4

If X is the GPA. So X = 3.6

One more question. In Switzerland, I have to get 90 credit points in history, 60 in sociology, 30 in medieval archaeology. For grading, a mark is calculated for each subject and the final mark is the average with history counting 3 times and sociology 2 times.

Is this the same with the GPA or all marks thrown in the same pot? I'm asking because only 27 of my history points are graded, but 18 of my medieval archaeology are -> medieval archaeology gets much more important in my GPA than it is in my curriculum.

[American in Beijing]

I spent a year studying abroad at a German university, and the Swiss system you are describing is very similar (with the exception that in Germany the grading system is the exact opposite: 6 is low and 1 is high . .. so when I first glanced at your "GPA" I was wondering how you could apply if you'd flunked out of history, lol). I also had a lot of friends in my undergrad who were international students, so I'm familiar how much of a pain it can be to apply from a system that is radically different from the American one.

About GRE scores: don't worry about it. In reality, admissions committees don't really take them into consideration for international applicants. I know international applicants who have scored in the 400s on the verbal section of the GRE and still gotten into top humanities programs at Ivy League schools. Do the best you can, though, because scoring like a native speaker would obviously enhance your application a lot.

About research: The German style of research and the American style of research and writing are in reality a bit different, as I unfortunately had the pleasure of finding out when I started university there. A great German writer is almost the opposite of a great American writer, and vice versa. The American style is direct, simple, and often tries to entertain. Germans are, from my experience, a lot more concerned about aesthetics and less concerned about the direct line of an argument. However, Germans will also put a lot more detail into their argument than Americans do, although this can in many cases be considered excessive by American standards. In short, the styles are different. I think it's a fantastic idea that you're doing a year of study abroad in the US. Use the time to become familiar with the American style so you can write a fantastic American-style writing sample.

About recs: I would strongly advise against using a letter of recommendation from a German professor unless this professor is either very famous or very familiar with the American higher education system/way of writing recommendations. As people have mentioned on this board, European recommendations are not as effusive as American ones. A good German recommendation can be as simple as: "This student is very good" (a friend of mine actually had a German teacher write this one-sentence recommendation . . . which she obviously could not use). In America, that won't fly.

Yeah, professors will be familiar with the fact that European letters don't have the American flare to them. They probably won't put it against you that your letters from European professors don't extol your virtues as if you were a student-god. However, it more than likely will not be in your favor either. It will more than likely just be a neutral point on your application. As an international student, you're probably going to have a whole lot of "neutrals" on your application. Your undergrad institution has no reputation for excellence (neutral). Your grading system is different (neutral). Your GRE scores aren't as good as native speakers (neutral). You need to stock up on all the positives you can get!

I would highly recommend using your time abroad to ingratiate yourself with a few American professors. This will show the admit committee that you can survive in an American institution, and give them stellar recommendations that they'll actually remember.

[bleistift]

6. LOR: The professor and assistant professor who rated my papers will both write an LOR for me and they will turn out very well. Both focus on aspects of my papers and therefore the way I research. This should help with grad-application, right? But as they are publishing their texts and books in German, they will most likely not be known in the US. How big a disadvantage is this? And should I try to get one LOR during my stay at the University of Georgia?

Also: I heard, US LORs should be really over the top with praising the student. Is this true? Swiss letters tend do me a bit more modest -> Could I lose here some points?

-> Are LORs from people unknown to US professors are problem?

I just wanted to add a few thoughts to this. You may get lucky if members of your admissions committee happen to read German and study the same field as your letter-writers, but I would not depend on this possibility. To mitigate this, I'd highly suggest you work closely with professors during your stay at UGA and, if possible, get more than one LOR. Even though your stay is short (1 year?), that should be sufficient for a very good recommendation if you take seminars, participate, go to office hours, and finish research papers involving primary sources. That will give the full range for your professors to evaluate you.

Also, yes American letters tend to heap praise. I don't know if it's acceptable in Swiss culture to do this, but you may want to express this concern to your Swiss professors and perhaps imply they should write a letter to match American norms.

[LifeIsGood]

One more question. In Switzerland, I have to get 90 credit points in history, 60 in sociology, 30 in medieval archaeology. For grading, a mark is calculated for each subject and the final mark is the average with history counting 3 times and sociology 2 times.

Is this the same with the GPA or all marks thrown in the same pot? I'm asking because only 27 of my history points are graded, but 18 of my medieval archaeology are -> medieval archaeology gets much more important in my GPA than it is in my curriculum.

Hmm, this may throw out my calculation, since your marks are not linear. Every mark given in the US (for every place I'm aware of, anyway) has equal weight based on the number of credit hours. You could probably generalize that each of your courses is worth the same amount (unless you have a bunch of laboratory or short seminar courses). If you go back and use your raw credit points to calculate an average that gives each subject equal weight, that should help. If there isn't a description of how your original marks are calculated somewhere in your application packet, you may want to send one as an addendum to your file.

[StrangeLight]

as a student from a non-american university, you will NOT have to calculate your GPA. ever. you will simply submit a transcript (with a notarized translation into english, if the transcript is in another language). all top universities employ people whose sole job is to understand international grading systems and convert your grades for you.

in the US, schools hand out As and 4.0s like they're going out of style. *waits to get attacked by american students who insisted they worked really hard for their grades... i'm sure you did, but i've been told by countless professors that have taught at duke, unc, yale, princeton, ucsd, ucla, etc. that a paper that would receive a B at an american school would get a C at a canadian one.

i can't attest to the difficulty of grading scales in europe, but i can assure you that each school will have a specialist that knows what a 6 or 5.75 means and how easy or difficult those scores are to obtain. they won't do a straight numeric conversion of your GPA, it will be weighted based on the perceived difficulty of your country and your university's reputation. so don't sweat it. it sounds like your grades for your major are perfect, and your grades overall are near-perfect. keep them as high as you can and that will be fine.

as others have said, GRE scores aren't that critical for non-native english speakers. do your best, definitely study, but a score in the 500s won't knock you out of the running at any top school. make sure your grammar in your SOP and writing sample is flawless and you'll be fine.

yes, your work with primary sources counts as research. working as a tutor is also good experience that can be added to your CV/resume, but isn't quite what is meant by "research" in history. working with primary sources is the important part. getting something published looks great but very few applicants coming straight out of undergrad will have any publications.

Edited February 17, 2010 by StrangeLight

[cleisthenes]

...I anyway have to translate one or two of my papers so I can also do that right away (though translating Nazi-terminology or describing the meaning is a real pain in the ass).

As someone who has worked in the field of anglophone Nazi-era cultural history quite a bit, I can tell you that most scholars writing in English and referring to Nazi terms actually *leave them in German*. You can certainly offer a translation, but unless it's a particularly obscure term, you should footnote that translatation and your explanation of its relevance rather than worrying about complete clarification. In many cases, if you're dealing with a term that's widely known, then it's not necessary to translate or make mention of the term's meaning at all. Most historians can read German, and historians of modern Europe definitely can.

[Paradeplatz]

Once again:Thanks for all the answers!

About recs: I would strongly advise against using a letter of recommendation from a German professor unless this professor is either very famous or very familiar with the American higher education system/way of writing recommendations. As people have mentioned on this board, European recommendations are not as effusive as American ones. A good German recommendation can be as simple as: "This student is very good" (a friend of mine actually had a German teacher write this one-sentence recommendation . . . which she obviously could not use). In America, that won't fly.

Yeah, professors will be familiar with the fact that European letters don't have the American flare to them. They probably won't put it against you that your letters from European professors don't extol your virtues as if you were a student-god. However, it more than likely will not be in your favor either. It will more than likely just be a neutral point on your application. As an international student, you're probably going to have a whole lot of "neutrals" on your application. Your undergrad institution has no reputation for excellence (neutral). Your grading system is different (neutral). Your GRE scores aren't as good as native speakers (neutral). You need to stock up on all the positives you can get!

Could somebody provide some examples of LORs? I have one LOR here and would like to compare it to some American LORs.

I just wanted to add a few thoughts to this. You may get lucky if members of your admissions committee happen to read German and study the same field as your letter-writers, but I would not depend on this possibility. To mitigate this, I'd highly suggest you work closely with professors during your stay at UGA and, if possible, get more than one LOR. Even though your stay is short (1 year?), that should be sufficient for a very good recommendation if you take seminars, participate, go to office hours, and finish research papers involving primary sources. That will give the full range for your professors to evaluate you.

Unfortunately my one year at UGA will be the last one of my undergraduate studies. Therefore I will send my application at the end of the fall semester there. Still that should suffice for at least one LOR.

as a student from a non-american university, you will NOT have to calculate your GPA. ever. you will simply submit a transcript (with a notarized translation into english, if the transcript is in another language). all top universities employ people whose sole job is to understand international grading systems and convert your grades for you.

in the US, schools hand out As and 4.0s like they're going out of style. *waits to get attacked by american students who insisted they worked really hard for their grades... i'm sure you did, but i've been told by countless professors that have taught at duke, unc, yale, princeton, ucsd, ucla, etc. that a paper that would receive a B at an american school would get a C at a canadian one.

i can't attest to the difficulty of grading scales in europe, but i can assure you that each school will have a specialist that knows what a 6 or 5.75 means and how easy or difficult those scores are to obtain. they won't do a straight numeric conversion of your GPA, it will be weighted based on the perceived difficulty of your country and your university's reputation. so don't sweat it. it sounds like your grades for your major are perfect, and your grades overall are near-perfect. keep them as high as you can and that will be fine.

getting something published looks great but very few applicants coming straight out of undergrad will have any publications.

Thanks for the clarification concerning the grades.

About the publications: When is a publication a publication (worth mentioning)? For example we don't have undergraduate journals, but we have a magazine published by history students with small 2-4 page articles. No critical apparatus, but some literature at the end. To mention or not to mention?

As someone who has worked in the field of anglophone Nazi-era cultural history quite a bit, I can tell you that most scholars writing in English and referring to Nazi terms actually *leave them in German*. You can certainly offer a translation, but unless it's a particularly obscure term, you should footnote that translatation and your explanation of its relevance rather than worrying about complete clarification. In many cases, if you're dealing with a term that's widely known, then it's not necessary to translate or make mention of the term's meaning at all. Most historians can read German, and historians of modern Europe definitely can.

Thanks! I wanted to use the translations also to show, that I am able to transfer nuances of meaning into English. Shouldn't hurt.

One very open question which arose from scanning different department websites: Can anybody tell me how progressive methodologically the various departments are/ how large the emphasis on interdisciplinary is? Looking at the websites can be rather tedious and does not help that much. So I'm just looking for general, subjective opinions and recommendations, because one thing I couldn't take would be a conservative, narrow-minded department, however famous.

I'm interested in history departments and if existing history of science.

The following list is just what I looked at. If you know about other (especially innovative ones) departments, please list them.

Chicago, Berkeley, Columbia, Penn, Yale, Princeton, Bonus for Oxbridge.

One last thing: Why is studying at multiple colleges mostly seen as a disadvantage on this forum?

[StrangeLight]

if your publication was academic, a research article that included primary source analysis, include it in your CV. when they don't recognize the name of the publication, they'll realize it wasn't a major paper, but it at least demonstrates that you've spent your time working on research.

if you want to avoid "conservative" faculties, you should be very critical of the ivy leagues. yes, there are some progressive and cutting edge profs at the ivy league schools, but the overall departmental culture can be conservative. this isn't to say that all ivy leagues are that way, simply that you should look very carefully at the type of research each faculty member in your field is doing and decide for yourself if it feels conservative. i know a lot of professors at harvard pretend the haitian revolution never happened or, at best, it was a "revolt" or a massacre. that may not bother some people but it drives me nuts and i wouldn't be able to work in that sort of intellectual environment.

for cutting-edge/progressive/interdisciplinary places, michigan-ann arbor, wisconsin-madison, and indiana-bloomington are usually pretty high on the list.

my recommendation for finding appropriate schools would be to look at your favourite books. where are those authors working and where did they get their PhDs? that's where you should apply.

[Nytusse]

First of all thank you all for your answers! Much appreciated!

Thanks! That's nice to know.

At the moment I'm more interested in a specific approach to history than in a specific topic: I like theory-heavy interdisciplinary reasearch. My current heroes are Foucault (discourse analysis, power, genealogy) and Luhmann (evolutionary view, code driven communication, functional differentiation of society, reality as a system-immanent construction based on own observation, roundup of many theories; is he known at all in the US?) but also semiotics (Saussurian twofold sign, applied to cultural codes), cognitive science (subject as a problem, functioning of humans), anthropology (possibilites of humans), distinction in a Bourdieuan sense, constructivism (operational and radical), narratives (eg. White).... next goal: psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan, Zizek).

Basically I like to write on writing. For example I wrote a paper utilizing discourse analysis to find out what Nazi historians wrote on the Carthagians and their conflict with Rome, how they made sense of the conflict, what internal and external requirements for their writings were, what the archive for that time was and which kinds of narratives they employed.

History of early modern science is something I have been interested in for quite a while but I very much dislike most of the stuff I find because manly Nat-Sci-people write these books and their training as historians is rudementary at best. Still there are some good books on cultural history of science or knowledge and its distribution and that would be my path. My main interest here is astronomy/astrology. But as I have this focus, most history of science programs do not really fit me. At the moment I feel, I would best fit in at the University of Chicago as they focus on interdisciplinary research and have some great theoreticans.

(Ok, that was a bit long)

Both things good to know! Thanks!

Thanks! Great tips on publication and grading. I anyway have to translate one or two of my papers so I can also do that right away (though translating Nazi-terminology or describing the meaning is a real pain in the ass).

One more question. In Switzerland, I have to get 90 credit points in history, 60 in sociology, 30 in medieval archaeology. For grading, a mark is calculated for each subject and the final mark is the average with history counting 3 times and sociology 2 times.

Is this the same with the GPA or all marks thrown in the same pot? I'm asking because only 27 of my history points are graded, but 18 of my medieval archaeology are -> medieval archaeology gets much more important in my GPA than it is in my curriculum.

In terms of what you just described, and given that I'm also interested in textual analysis of Nazi documents (from a less theoretically-based perspective than your own), I would recommend you take a look at Peter Gordon over at Harvard, who is an intellectual historian of Modern Europe, mostly Germany and France.

Foucault and Bourdieu seem to be pretty big in the Harvard history department in general, and Professor Gordon is heavily interested in theory. The Harvard German department also tends in that direction, which would give you an excellent opportunity to take some cross-registered classes and really get deep into the textual analysis in the original German.