Fall 2018 Applicants

[khigh]

8 hours ago, VAZ said:

I have a last-minute question. Would you spell out in your SoP that this is your top choice school and you will commit if admitted?

The application for UMN specifically asked how many other/what schools you were applying to and why the U specifically. It also, however, asked if you were a Minnesota resident and planned on staying in the state post-grad.  That may just be a Minne thing because their big push right now is keeping people in state after graduation.

[ashiepoo72]

12 hours ago, VAZ said:

I have a last-minute question. Would you spell out in your SoP that this is your top choice school and you will commit if admitted?

I didn't outright say "hey, you're my top choice." The last paragraph of my SOPs was dedicated to fit, and for my top choice programs I concluded along the lines of "Professor X's research on [BLAH BLAH] and Professor Y's current work on [BLAH BLAH] would inform my research in xyz ways. This, combined with the history department's strength in [METHODOLOGY, THEMATIC FOCUS, ETC] and the university's [ARCHIVAL AND OTHER RESOURCES], makes Happyland University a singularly strong location for my growth as a scholar."

[TMP]

11 hours ago, khigh said:

The application for UMN specifically asked how many other/what schools you were applying to and why the U specifically. It also, however, asked if you were a Minnesota resident and planned on staying in the state post-grad.  That may just be a Minne thing because their big push right now is keeping people in state after graduation.

TBH, those application forms don't really get looked at too closely.  Those are really for the administrators to gauge their benchmark vis-a-vis peer institutions.  As for the MN residency, you're correct, but that's really for the government who clearly don't understand how academia works, meaning one must be mobile after graduation!  

[VAZ]

18 hours ago, Banzailizard said:

early admission in undergraduate

I really wish there could be such things (ED, EA, REA) for graduate school admissions ....to show your loyalty and make life a little bit easier...

[khigh]

7 hours ago, TMP said:

TBH, those application forms don't really get looked at too closely.  Those are really for the administrators to gauge their benchmark vis-a-vis peer institutions.  As for the MN residency, you're correct, but that's really for the government who clearly don't understand how academia works, meaning one must be mobile after graduation!  

I should have mentioned that I also got asked by a few profs when I went to a consortium meeting if I was planning on staying in the state even if that meant moving to Internatonal Falls. 

I will always be willing to be mobile, but if I get in, it’s going to be interesting to find a place with jobs for two historians. We also both love winter and won’t go back to the south, so that narrows down the choices. Then again, Minneapolis Public Schools pays PhDs more than a lot of universities I’ve seen, so there’s always that route. Or, there’s moving to Europe more permanently or working in the private sector. We have a lot of multinational company headquarters up here that love PhDs and don’t necessarily care which PhD. 

[TMP]

10 hours ago, khigh said:

I should have mentioned that I also got asked by a few profs when I went to a consortium meeting if I was planning on staying in the state even if that meant moving to Internatonal Falls. 

All I can say is, "!" and "what's the deal...." I wonder if any current UMN students have insights on this.

[khigh]

27 minutes ago, TMP said:

All I can say is, "!" and "what's the deal...." I wonder if any current UMN students have insights on this.

I'd love to know, too.  I hadn't heard that anywhere else I have visited and I went to a few universities in the states and in Europe to check out their programs over the last year and a half.  They were the first to ask anything like that.  Of course, I would LOVE to stay in Minnesota.  I have an obsession with winter and love the culture around the cities.

[khigh]

Weird question as I've been reading around about the application process (already submitted, so it's a curiosity).  Did any of your applications ask for something OTHER than an SoP? The U had specific questions to answer that did not sound like a research proposal instead of a typical SoP. I was wondering if that happened at other unis.

[ltr317]

Congrats to all those who have submitted Dec. 15 applications.  I want to caution anyone who is applying to programs which are using a third party website (such as Interfolio) for the submission of supplemental materials to send everything before the due date if possible.  I almost missed the deadline for Temple because I was waiting for a LOR and by the time it was sent to Interfolio, they had server issues and I only made it with a minute to spare.

Now on to the apps that are due in Jan.  It will be over fairly soon and everyone will be able to relax a little bit. 

Edited December 17, 2017 by ltr317

[AP]

21 hours ago, khigh said:

Weird question as I've been reading around about the application process (already submitted, so it's a curiosity).  Did any of your applications ask for something OTHER than an SoP? The U had specific questions to answer that did not sound like a research proposal instead of a typical SoP. I was wondering if that happened at other unis.

What type of questions?

If I remember, none of my SoPs were a research proposal per se. But I might be getting ahead of myself here.

[khigh]

8 minutes ago, AP said:

What type of questions?

If I remember, none of my SoPs were a research proposal per se. But I might be getting ahead of myself here.

It’s the only program I applied to, so I don’t really know what goes into an SoP other than what was asked. Maybe they just spell it out or have an outline. The questions are below. 

 

How would you like to grow as an historian and intellectual during your time in graduate school? How has your understanding of history changed in the course of your studies thus far?

What problems of understanding or interpretation are you most interested in engaging during your time in graduate school? What was the most interesting and formative class you took as an undergraduate outside the history department, and how did it shape how you look at the past and at historical writing?

Many people become aware sometime during their youth of the power of the past. How is history different from the past?

What is the most difficult dimension of studying and practicing history? What are examples of difficult historical problems? Why should we pay attention to them?

[AP]

5 hours ago, khigh said:

It’s the only program I applied to, so I don’t really know what goes into an SoP other than what was asked. Maybe they just spell it out or have an outline. The questions are below. 

 

How would you like to grow as an historian and intellectual during your time in graduate school? How has your understanding of history changed in the course of your studies thus far?

What problems of understanding or interpretation are you most interested in engaging during your time in graduate school? What was the most interesting and formative class you took as an undergraduate outside the history department, and how did it shape how you look at the past and at historical writing?

Many people become aware sometime during their youth of the power of the past. How is history different from the past?

What is the most difficult dimension of studying and practicing history? What are examples of difficult historical problems? Why should we pay attention to them?

Oh, ok. Yes, these look fairly along the lines of what a SoP for a history PhD would look like. Maybe others have different wording but basically you are thinking about why you want to become a historian, what influences your work, what questions you have. In some cases, this may look as a research project, but not always. If not addressed in the SoP, these type of questions may appear in your interview, so it's great that you shared them! Good luck!

[Account6567]

Does anyone know if they ask for you to show your relevant language skills during interviews? I'm at the intermediate level for one, but I'm very rusty right now (and pronunciation has always been my weak spot anyway) so I'm not sure if I should be working extra hard on it during winter break in preparation just in case.

[TMP]

2 hours ago, Account6567 said:

Does anyone know if they ask for you to show your relevant language skills during interviews? I'm at the intermediate level for one, but I'm very rusty right now (and pronunciation has always been my weak spot anyway) so I'm not sure if I should be working extra hard on it during winter break in preparation just in case.

They won't.  They usually don't care because they'll expect you to figure out how to get your language proficiency up to speed when you're ready to take the reading exams and language evaluations for dissertation fellowships.

[dr. t]

9 hours ago, TMP said:

They won't.  They usually don't care because they'll expect you to figure out how to get your language proficiency up to speed when you're ready to take the reading exams and language evaluations for dissertation fellowships.

If you claim conversational ability, you shouldn't be surprised if a professor attempts a conversation.

[khigh]

21 hours ago, telkanuru said:

If you claim conversational ability, you shouldn't be surprised if a professor attempts a conversation.

So, should I expect to speak my primary language or all of the ones I can claim conversational ability in? Do you know what they usually say about dialects that do vary quite a bit from the parent language? In my case, that would be Frisian and Afrikaans for the dialects and in order by competency, Dutch, German, French, and Italian for the languages. Like, let’s say fluent in Dutch and can get around Rome in Italian, if that gives you an idea. I have a love of languages and minored in foreign languages (and political science), so I don’t know if that makes any difference.

Just having a freak out moment this morning. I haven’t heard of the U doing interviews, so I don’t know if I even need to worry about it. 

[dr. t]

1 hour ago, khigh said:

So, should I expect to speak my primary language or all of the ones I can claim conversational ability in? Do you know what they usually say about dialects that do vary quite a bit from the parent language? In my case, that would be Frisian and Afrikaans for the dialects and in order by competency, Dutch, German, French, and Italian for the languages. Like, let’s say fluent in Dutch and can get around Rome in Italian, if that gives you an idea. I have a love of languages and minored in foreign languages (and political science), so I don’t know if that makes any difference.

Just having a freak out moment this morning. I haven’t heard of the U doing interviews, so I don’t know if I even need to worry about it. 

I don't think UMinn does interviews - few places do, these days. But if you say you can speak Afrikaans, French, and Italian, you should expect a professor to test that (though they might not). 

[khigh]

23 minutes ago, telkanuru said:

I don't think UMinn does interviews - few places do, these days. But if you say you can speak Afrikaans, French, and Italian, you should expect a professor to test that (though they might not). 

Thanks! I could pass a test in any of those. My listening, reading, and writing are better than speaking, but that’s only because of my accent. It’s a wonderful blend of Oklahoma/North Texas/Minnesota. My Dutch is very Amsterdaamer (hard k, extended vowels- think Minnesota vowels) and Groningers didn’t appreciate that. 

[psstein]

2 hours ago, khigh said:

Just having a freak out moment this morning. I haven’t heard of the U doing interviews, so I don’t know if I even need to worry about it. 

Most programs don't interview. The two that I know of who do are Penn HSS and Hopkins HoS.

[khigh]

15 minutes ago, psstein said:

Most programs don't interview. The two that I know of who do are Penn HSS and Hopkins HoS.

That's good to know.  The only thing I had heard about was a get-together in February and inprocessing in August.

[rosiereal]

Hello!

I got an interview for Penn HSS. Any tips? I'm from more of a sociology/anthropology background, so I'm not sure what a history professor might be looking for! Anything would be helpful.

[TMP]

5 hours ago, rosiereal said:

Hello!

I got an interview for Penn HSS. Any tips? I'm from more of a sociology/anthropology background, so I'm not sure what a history professor might be looking for! Anything would be helpful.

You'll want to go back to previous threads, especially Fall 2017 and Fall 2016 when posts are made around January discussing interviews (use the search function for this forum only).  There are questions similar to yours and people have reported the outcomes of their conversations.  Primarily, these professors want to know how you actually think and what kinds of questions you have for them/the program and you would like to explore during your time at Penn.  Your cohort will be small and they want to get a sense of who you are and how different people will mesh.  Good luck!

[khigh]

Made the mistake of looking at my SOP again.  I left out the article 'the' in one spot and misspelled Utrecht in one spot. 

One part did make me smile, though, so that counts for something.  I love the word phenomenological and got to use it in the SOP. Hopefully being able to explain the phenomenological approach to history makes up for the misspelling and missing article.

[psstein]

17 hours ago, rosiereal said:

Hello!

I got an interview for Penn HSS. Any tips? I'm from more of a sociology/anthropology background, so I'm not sure what a history professor might be looking for! Anything would be helpful.

Congratulations! Penn is a damn good program and the only HSS department I know of.

The interviews are more designed to ascertain if you're a good fit for the program and vice versa. The results can be disappointing (I got along really well with my potential advisor at Hopkins, but was rejected). If you meet with grad students, don't be afraid to ask about whether or not the stipend is livable. Don't be afraid to ask about alt-ac resources or placements either. Both sides are supposed to find out about each other in these interviews.

Just be yourself and show that you have a passion for the subject. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk some more about this.

Edited December 22, 2017 by psstein

[khigh]

Question for y'all.  Would you publish or present a paper at a conference outside your major/minor field? Something way outside what you normally would do? I've been revising one of my papers from last year about baseball rules in the late 1800s and would love to submit to and possibly present at SABR's 19th Century Baseball Conference in 2019. However, my field, if I get into grad school, would be more 17th century European politics.

Does it either help or hurt grad school chances or people's perception of you in grad school? Or, does it not matter either way? Is it okay to have a "guilty pleasure" side project?