Fall 2018 Applicants

[dr. t]

3 hours ago, NotAlice said:

Are there top tier programs offering funding to MA students? I'm undecided on the PhD and will most likely have to take time off in between if I opt to go that direction. 

I received 4/5ths tuition at Harvard Divinity School for my MTS, and I didn't have the best package. I know others who got full tuition and a stipend for a MA at Yale. The MAPS (but not the MAPH) at UChicago seems well-regarded and well-funded. So yes. 

[dr. t]

1 hour ago, VAZ said:

BTW, my question for you: what do you think about those big state universities, such as Rutgers, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio State and UIUC (Wisconsin and Michigan obviously should not count here, and possibly also excluding UNC and UVA), which lie closely to the top tier and have fabulous history departments, but they as universities are not comparable to the Ivys or quasi-Ivys. Does the general ranking / overall prestige also matter?

This is likely to be dependent on subfield. I would hesitate to speak about particular programs, but I have direct experience with OSU, and know that they have a pretty high teaching load (including being Instructor of Record) and not the best placement rate. 

Last year, I went into how to evaluate a program here.

To quote the most relevant bit here:

"These are the criteria that make a good program, in no particular order:

• Well-regarded professors to sit on your committee who are close enough to your interests to be able to provide competent guidance. 
• A livable stipend, granted for at least 5 years, including health care. Bonus points if there are easy mechanisms to acquire 6-7yr funding.
• Reliable, regular, and easily identified internal avenues for research, conference, and travel funding. I can wrangle ~$3k a year from internal grants, which means I get at least one conference per year and two weeks in Europe (for archival work) in the summer. 
• Manageable teaching load. Preferably TA ships, but opportunities to be IOR as you're finishing up are good. My university has a program through which you are made a VAP in your final semester (if you finish your diss the semester before). Good programs will also give you fellowship years (for me, years 1 and 4) to concentrate on your research. 
• Solid placement rate. Though really, this follows from all the other points.

It's not that the top schools have the brightest students, it's that they have the resources to provide the structure with the best guarantee of success. The list of schools that fit this criteria is very short. Depending on field, it can be as few as 3 and as many as 20, many of which are obvious (Ivies), but not necessarily so.

If you do not get into one of them, it is very much my advice that you should not go for your PhD elsewhere."

Edited July 3, 2017 by telkanuru

[NotAlice]

2 hours ago, telkanuru said:

I received 4/5ths tuition at Harvard Divinity School for my MTS, and I didn't have the best package. I know others who got full tuition and a stipend for a MA at Yale. The MAPS (but not the MAPH) at UChicago seems well-regarded and well-funded. So yes. 

Thanks. I'll take a look at those. I have been reading through several of the other posts on funding as well. 

[Martie0]

Hello All! 

I'm currently prepping to take the GRE in August. I graduated with my BA two years ago and have been working since. Any advice on going back to school after taking a break would be much appreciated. I had no idea what I wanted to do once I got my BA and I ended up hating the soul-sucking job I landed. So looking for a fresh start to relaunch my career with a Masters. 
I'm looking into Communications and Journalism masters programs, or variations since my undergrad was in English. I've also considered an MFA in Creative Writing. But I have no idea what I would do with that besides teach. When I would really love to work for non-profit or humanitarian organizations. 

So, any recommended schools or programs? 
What if my undergrad GPA was subpar? I haven't kept in touch with my professors so who do I reach out to for letter references? 

[VAZ]

19 minutes ago, Martie0 said:

Hello All! 

I'm currently prepping to take the GRE in August. I graduated with my BA two years ago and have been working since. Any advice on going back to school after taking a break would be much appreciated. I had no idea what I wanted to do once I got my BA and I ended up hating the soul-sucking job I landed. So looking for a fresh start to relaunch my career with a Masters. 
I'm looking into Communications and Journalism masters programs, or variations since my undergrad was in English. I've also considered an MFA in Creative Writing. But I have no idea what I would do with that besides teach. When I would really love to work for non-profit or humanitarian organizations. 

So, any recommended schools or programs? 
What if my undergrad GPA was subpar? I haven't kept in touch with my professors so who do I reach out to for letter references? 

I guess you posted in the wrong thread/forum/place....This is the History sub-forum.  You should check out the Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition or the Humanities one...

[TMP]

13 hours ago, telkanuru said:

This is likely to be dependent on subfield. I would hesitate to speak about particular programs, but I have direct experience with OSU, and know that they have a pretty high teaching load (including being Instructor of Record) and not the best placement rate. 

Last year, I went into how to evaluate a program here.

To quote the most relevant bit here:

"These are the criteria that make a good program, in no particular order:

• Well-regarded professors to sit on your committee who are close enough to your interests to be able to provide competent guidance. 
• A livable stipend, granted for at least 5 years, including health care. Bonus points if there are easy mechanisms to acquire 6-7yr funding.
• Reliable, regular, and easily identified internal avenues for research, conference, and travel funding. I can wrangle ~$3k a year from internal grants, which means I get at least one conference per year and two weeks in Europe (for archival work) in the summer. 
• Manageable teaching load. Preferably TA ships, but opportunities to be IOR as you're finishing up are good. My university has a program through which you are made a VAP in your final semester (if you finish your diss the semester before). Good programs will also give you fellowship years (for me, years 1 and 4) to concentrate on your research. 
• Solid placement rate. Though really, this follows from all the other points.

It's not that the top schools have the brightest students, it's that they have the resources to provide the structure with the best guarantee of success. The list of schools that fit this criteria is very short. Depending on field, it can be as few as 3 and as many as 20, many of which are obvious (Ivies), but not necessarily so.

If you do not get into one of them, it is very much my advice that you should not go for your PhD elsewhere."

Actually, I am at Ohio State and I should correct some of your information, @telkanuru and give @VAZ an opportunity to consider.

Our teaching load is actually lower than most of our peer programs.  Teaching one's own course is optional but one gets paid the same as a TA in the same stage of the program.  Students who claimed that they "had"/"were required" to teach their own courses are making victims of themselves.  They tend to be those who just want to teach after finishing (not go to a research institution but to teach 4 courses/semester).  They also prefer not to be working for a professor as a TA (i.e. they don't really want to be told how to teach but just try for themselves).  In any event, the department chair recently instituted maximum of 2 semesters of Instructor of Record to help students focus on their dissertations and finish (students can get more if there's a real need for a particular course but that's not even guaranteed).  That stipulation has worked to move people along in the past year.  It is true that you do not need to teach so much in graduate school.  Your job is to prove yourself as a scholar first and that means researching and publishing (and applying for monies).

Also, undergrad demand has fallen (due to external economic pressures, it's not news) so a TA can be grading anywhere between 35 and 70 students.  So if one gets luck with a small grading load, it's not all  that bad.  Most of our professors are very reasonable "bosses" and are mindful of students' need to complete coursework and dissertation.

Finally, about the placement record.  Our program does better with teaching institutions because of our strength in teaching.  Also certain fields perform much better than others (European, African American, Asian, and Ottoman do the best) because of variable opportunities existing in those fields (top-notch professors, multiple funding opportunities).  It is possible to get a job at a research institution if you can package your PhD program around research like peers at Michigan if you focus on being a TA and applying for tons of research grants/fellowships.  Because of the department's longstanding connections to DC, we also place our graduates in the that area with comfortably salaries.  Our placement rate is excellent because of the diverse paths that our graduates have taken.  For academic jobs, it's honestly no better than most programs (roughly 50% overall).

I should also point out that we have very generous summer funding which one applies for each year.  Without a car, our living stipend is quite reasonable for Columbus.  I'm happy to discuss details via PM.

[dr. t]

7 hours ago, TMP said:

I am at Ohio State and I should correct some of your information

I wasn't trying to beat you up, but I'm unclear what corrections you offered. What you've given here sounds to me like a high teaching load and not the best placement rate.

[TMP]

16 hours ago, telkanuru said:

I wasn't trying to beat you up, but I'm unclear what corrections you offered. What you've given here sounds to me like a high teaching load and not the best placement rate.

Academic placement rate isn't any better than Brown's.  Also, consider the fact that Brown has had smaller cohorts than OSU.  We have just begun to admit less than 15 students each year.

As for teaching load, what's it like at Brown?  Also, consider the fact that we are talking about public vs. private universities with different class sizes in lower-level courses.

[guest56436]

Wow, I can't believe how poor some of these placement pages are. OSU just lists some schools without names and dates while Brown's list hasn't been updated for 5 years.

[laleph]

On 7/3/2017 at 11:41 AM, lordtiandao said:

Yes, Chicago is probably going to be dropped from my list, unless Pomeranz is willing to take students who do Mid-Imperial history.

I know next to zilch about Chinese history, but I do know something about Chicago, having applied there last year. Chicago does not have a waitlist, so if you are unable to convince your POI that you will come if you are admitted, your chances of being admitted drop. When my POI asked me if Chicago was my top choice, I said, "one of my top choices." Later – after I'd been offered a funded masters instead of the PhD – she told me that the admissions committee didn't want to take the risk of admitting me, as they believed I had a good chance of accepting an offer from another program. 

[TMP]

1 hour ago, Comparativist said:

Wow, I can't believe how poor some of these placement pages are. OSU just lists some schools without names and dates while Brown's list hasn't been updated for 5 years.

Unfortunately it's not just "some" schools.  Many don't bother to update.  We've had some fabulous placements (Michigan State, SUNY Binghamton, University of Utah, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, etc. in the last few years).  Your best bet, really, is to be in touch with the graduate coordinator or graduate studies chair who will have the most up-to-date information.  Also, it doesn't hurt to ask your POI where his/her students have gone after finishing.  But bear in mind, not everyone wants to go into academia and you cannot judge the adviser for their choices. I think half the people I've been in graduate school with who have finished whether at OSU or elsewhere (including Michigan, Yale, , NYU, Stanford) were fortunate to land a tenure-track job while others realized that academia wasn't really for them or got too frustrated with the job market and changed careers.  Regardless, all found happiness.

[VAZ]

1 hour ago, laleph said:

I know next to zilch about Chinese history, but I do know something about Chicago, having applied there last year. Chicago does not have a waitlist, so if you are unable to convince your POI that you will come if you are admitted, your chances of being admitted drop. When my POI asked me if Chicago was my top choice, I said, "one of my top choices." Later – after I'd been offered a funded masters instead of the PhD – she told me that the admissions committee didn't want to take the risk of admitting me, as they believed I had a good chance of accepting an offer from another program. 

Thank you for sharing this experience. Is that the case for most history programs, in order to get high yield rates? And do you think the admission committees of different universities talk to each other? Would the POIs discuss with your other POIs on where this student can get best training from or ask your referrers secretly about your chance to commit? If some professor / program believes to take you, then others will step back?

[TMP]

8 minutes ago, VAZ said:

Thank you for sharing this experience. Is that the case for most history programs, in order to get high yield rates? And do you think the admission committees of different universities talk to each other? Would the POIs discuss with your other POIs on where this student can get best training from or ask your referrers secretly about your chance to commit? If some professor / program believes to take you, then others will step back?

From my understanding, @VAZ, it all depends on the POI.  Sometimes they talk, sometimes they keep to themselves and hope for the best.  Everyone knows that you're going to apply to multiple places.  

The reason behind "are you SURE you're gonna come?!" anxiety from the professors is the Graduate School.  The Graduate School doles out only so many fellowships and it wants to see its money being used every year to its maximum.  If the Graduate School notices a significant drop or consistently declining yield rates, it'll rethink its commitment to PhD education.  When the Graduate School sees a department losing students to other programs, it's going to say, "You want 18 fellowships next year?  I don't think so. Only 10 of the fellowship nominees came to your program.  We're going to give you 12 for this year.  Show us that you can fill that 12 and we'll reconsider."  In any case, the Graduate School has to report to its higher up: the University and its Budget Office who makes the big decisions about where the money is going to go (football program? Counseling center?  Undergraduate writing center?  Dorms?). 

University bureaucracy is very nasty that way when it comes to graduate education. How to game this?  Be honest but phrase carefully.  Demonstrate how the program is very appealing to you in ways you can't imagine being anywhere else.  Do whatever you can to avoid naming other programs/professors and generalization (really, what's the difference between Princeton's and UCLA's library holdings?).

Remember, when a POI asks you  or makes a conversation about "is this your first choice?", it's a signal that there's something much bigger going on than the POI herself/himself, especially if it's a public university.  It's not you, it's the university that's looking out for itself during times when state budgets are cutting education.

I suspect that my POI initially rejected me because she didn't get the sense that I really wanted to go to OSU (and she picked someone who had roots in the local community who did come).  When I finished the cycle with only two waitlists, I contacted her again for help.  After more research, I realized that my POI and OSU were absolutely right for me and I told her that.  Then I got in the next cycle. Even though I wavered for weeks between OSU and another program, I accepted the offer.

[love2read]

TMP and telkanuru always have the best and most pertinent advice!  Thanks to both of them and all of the other current PhD students for taking time to post on this forum.  When I was applying to grad programs last year, I, too, was frustrated by the lack of information regarding placements from the different schools.  Most of the information (the AHA's most comprehensive data is very dated) and I was warned to be very specific when asking about the TYPE of academic placements that recent graduates had secured.  Some schools will count any position- part time, adjunct, short term etc. as evidence of their ability to place their graduates in teaching positions.  That isn't deceitful necessarily, but students applying need to be very aware of what outcomes could occur.  I found these two articles recently that were very interesting. (one discusses what was shared with me by one of my UG profs) 

https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/february-2016/the-troubled-academic-job-market-for-history

https://theihs.org/blog/how-to-understand-your-phd-programs-job-placement-rates/

This one from the Chronicle of Higher Education speaks to (even though it is based on small - one year- data) the higher percentage of jobs being filled by those ABD's and recent PhD graduates:

http://www.chronicle.com/article/On-the-Academic-Job-Market/233683

When I was interviewing at Notre Dame, all on the interview committee were very forthcoming about the current academic hiring climate and the recent placements from their department.   As one who tends to see the glass half full, it was important for me to hear their honesty.  I was impressed by their transparency and candor. Subsequently, I have been digging deeper into the current placement/hiring trends in order to make decisions about possible career paths.  I'm not ruling out trying to become a professor; (I wasn't set on that being my ultimate career goal to begin with) but compiling advice given by those on this forum, talking at length to trusted former professors, and taking time to critically read articles such as the ones listed above, I feel I am more aware and knowledgeable about my future path and prospects.

There is so much to consider when starting this journey!  It is a bit overwhelming at times, but I do believe it all works itself out in the end!  Best of luck to everyone this year!

 

 

[dr. t]

11 hours ago, TMP said:

Academic placement rate isn't any better than Brown's.  Also, consider the fact that Brown has had smaller cohorts than OSU.  We have just begun to admit less than 15 students each year.

As for teaching load, what's it like at Brown?  Also, consider the fact that we are talking about public vs. private universities with different class sizes in lower-level courses.

I have a 1/1 TA load (~30 students per semester), with years 1 and 4 being on fellowship. OSU offered me a 4 year deal with no fellowship years. 

For placements, I have some internal data - most schools do, and don't post it. If you're applying, you should ask for it, and don't take "no" for an answer. Approximately 90% of grads from 2006-2016 are in, as you said, "academic jobs". That's a pretty nebulous grouping, though: 17% are TT, 15% are on postdocs, 47% are contingent faculty, and 8% are in administration. 

I understand the reasons why OSU offers what it does, wrt cohort sizes and the need to shoulder the teaching load of a state institution. I don't think that makes it any more appealing.

Edited July 5, 2017 by telkanuru

[laleph]

3 hours ago, VAZ said:

Thank you for sharing this experience. Is that the case for most history programs, in order to get high yield rates? And do you think the admission committees of different universities talk to each other? Would the POIs discuss with your other POIs on where this student can get best training from or ask your referrers secretly about your chance to commit? If some professor / program believes to take you, then others will step back?

All is shrouded in mystery! It turns out that a POI at one of the schools I was accepted to was a former student (unbeknownst to me) of one of the people I am going to start working with this fall. I know now that they discussed my application, but I'm not sure how that affected the results. I was accepted to both programs – thus the logic, "We know he's going to go elsewhere so we'll reject him" doesn't work here. When I was deciding between the two, both POIs were extremely gracious and laudatory of the other's program – which made deciding even more difficult than it already was. 

As for waitlists: I have no idea, unfortunately. I had been under the impression that all schools had them. I found out only after the Chicago mishap that Chicago doesn't have one. It seems really silly not to have one, but I suppose there's some esoteric logic at work. I was told one reason Chicago was so competitive in my field this year was that the school accepted "too many" people last year. (Usually Chicago accepts 5-6, but this year they had only 3 spots to fill, with 2 of those spots set aside for people already in the masters program and who had applied only to Chicago for the PhD – so the school was certain they'd come.) This year, then, they had only 1 spot open for an outside-of-Chicago person. I do know that they were able to fill the single spot – but I also know that the person hesitated a great deal before accepting (I happened to meet him at another visiting day event). If he hadn't accepted, then the cohort in my field would have dropped precipitously year to year. Seems strange not to have a backup for that kind of situation.

Edited July 5, 2017 by laleph

[gsc]

On 7/4/2017 at 3:41 AM, TMP said:

Actually, I am at Ohio State and I should correct some of your information, @telkanuru and give @VAZ an opportunity to consider.

I'm at Rutgers, and I find my experience to be very similar to what @TMP describes. Our teaching loads are very low, as are our cohort sizes; everything on @telkanuru's (extremely accurate) list of "what makes a good program" is available to me here. It really is program by program. 

It's true that in academia you ignore prestige at your peril. But it is equally perilous to tunnel your vision such that you focus only on names, brands, and proximity to the Ivies. Day in and day out, what will make or break your graduate experience is not whether other people think your program is fancy and prestigious, or whether you think your program is fancy and prestigious. It's whether or not you're at a place where you feel you're doing your best work (and where doing your best work will result in an outcome you want post-PhD). That's what keeps you coming into the grad office each day and that's how you finish the program. 

It's possible to do your best work in the Ivies. It is also possible to do your best work outside of them.

You truly cannot know the answer unless you apply widely and see where you get in. So much of the information that will ultimately influence your decision — teaching/fellowship ratio, placement, cohort size, summer funding, personality of your advisor — you won't get until you hear back from schools anyways. Since you haven't, the prestige discussion is a bit of a red herring, and it's too easy to get wrapped up in it when it's still pretty hypothetical.

Apply to places where 1) you would be willing to go if you got in, 2) where there is five years of some kind of funding for all students, and 3) the work that the faculty does excites you and is a good fit for you. Consider things like ranking and prestige, but within reason; don't discount a public university just for the sake of it being public, or apply to a university that is obviously not a good fit just because it's an Ivy. Then, when you have applied and heard back and you have concrete numbers and figures to look at, you can go back and think about things like placement, summer funding, cohort size, teaching load, etc.

Edited July 5, 2017 by gsc

[dr. t]

1 hour ago, gsc said:

It's true that in academia you ignore prestige at your peril. But it is equally perilous to tunnel your vision such that you focus only on names, brands, and proximity to the Ivies

Yeah, I want to make it very clear that I'm not saying to just pick big names. Many prestigious schools will check all the boxes above, but some will not, while many "non prestigious schools" will do quite well.

[lordtiandao]

9 hours ago, laleph said:

I know next to zilch about Chinese history, but I do know something about Chicago, having applied there last year. Chicago does not have a waitlist, so if you are unable to convince your POI that you will come if you are admitted, your chances of being admitted drop. When my POI asked me if Chicago was my top choice, I said, "one of my top choices." Later – after I'd been offered a funded masters instead of the PhD – she told me that the admissions committee didn't want to take the risk of admitting me, as they believed I had a good chance of accepting an offer from another program. 

Wow that's really good to know. Thank you! In any case, I don't think I'll be applying to Chicago.

Edited July 6, 2017 by lordtiandao

[hippocleides_doesn't_care]

Hi everyone!! I am a current student at a small liberal arts college, and I'll be getting my BA in December in History and Classics. I'm applying mostly to History PhD programs (possibly some Classics, but not ideally) in Late Antique Mediterranean Studies. My (current) area of interest is the Late Western Roman Empire and Roman-"barbarian" relations. I would so appreciate any advice anyone has, and I hope the camaraderie of this thread will ease the pain of writing personal statements...

[dr. t]

6 minutes ago, hippocleides_doesn't_care said:

Hi everyone!! I am a current student at a small liberal arts college, and I'll be getting my BA in December in History and Classics. I'm applying mostly to History PhD programs (possibly some Classics, but not ideally) in Late Antique Mediterranean Studies. My (current) area of interest is the Late Western Roman Empire and Roman-"barbarian" relations. I would so appreciate any advice anyone has, and I hope the camaraderie of this thread will ease the pain of writing personal statements...

Jonathan Conant, Brown University

Michael Kulikowsky, PSU

Michael McCormick, Harvard University

Helmut Reimitz, Princeton University

Kyle Harper, University of Oklahoma

 

The job market for late antiquity is really, really crap, FYI. Even by the regular standards of the current job market.

Edited July 7, 2017 by telkanuru

[VAZ]

 

7 hours ago, hippocleides_doesn't_care said:

Hi everyone!! I am a current student at a small liberal arts college, and I'll be getting my BA in December in History and Classics. I'm applying mostly to History PhD programs (possibly some Classics, but not ideally) in Late Antique Mediterranean Studies. My (current) area of interest is the Late Western Roman Empire and Roman-"barbarian" relations. I would so appreciate any advice anyone has, and I hope the camaraderie of this thread will ease the pain of writing personal statements...

 

7 hours ago, telkanuru said:

Jonathan Conant, Brown University

Michael Kulikowsky, PSU

Michael McCormick, Harvard University

Helmut Reimitz, Princeton University

Kyle Harper, University of Oklahoma

Conant and Reimitz definitely! McCormick (Conant's advisor) himself is more reputed as a historian of early climate and economics though.

How about Ralph Mathisen (UIUC) (1947~), Edward Watts (UCSD), David Brakke (OSU), Noel Lenski (Yale) and Susanna Elm (Berkeley) maybe? If only Thomas Burns (Emory) and Walter Goffart (Toronto) did not retire. Two big "barbarian" scholars! 

I think you should include the UK schools in your list. They have much better late antiquity programs.

Edited July 7, 2017 by VAZ

[Banzailizard]

I went back to around page 5 looking at threads and this seems closest to what I am looking for, which is some general advice.  If this is the wrong place I am sorry. This is my second time applying for PhDs but first for history. 

As background I graduated in 2013 from a small-ish state school (6k students in total) with a double major in History and Economics.  GPA was 3.5 with a 3.7 in my history major.  I took the GRE's and got 169 Verbal  162 Quantitative 4.5 Analytical writing.

I have been working full time since graduation to pay off student loans.  Last fall I started applying to PhD programs in economics, with a particular interest in economic history and ultimately working in academia.  I was not accepted to any of the PhD Programs. I was told my quantitative score was far too low. I also definitely applied too late and rushed the application process.  I was accepted for an unfunded masters which could progress into a funded PhD. I (quite literally) calculated I could not afford the debt of unsubsidized student loans and politely declined.

I had a nice call with my econ advisor, and she asked why I had not also looked into history.  Truthfully, I figured Econ, with its heavy mathematics and public policy connections, would hedged my bets better for a fall back to non-academic work (think-tanks, finance, and tech firms) since the academic market is questionable. I reached out to a history professor I took a number of classes with, and who works in economic history.  History might be a better fit based on my interests.

His general advice was 1. Find a good mentor, meteors can make or break you. He suggested reading books by people I was interested in working with. 2. Assuming I get to graduate school, publish like crazy. He had 26 papers published by the time he defended his dissertation. Admittedly easier said then done; his mentor gave him a big boost by co-publishing with him at first to get his foot in the door.

That was in May, so I have been looking through programs, starting with higher ranking ones, specifically at faculty, and have been reading books of the people I might be interested in working with.  I have only really started getting into this research seriously though, with a shift from more-then-full-time to part-time work.  I do have some problems:

1. I know the emphasis placed on good LOR.  I was closer to the econ faculty at my school and had 3 LOR from them for the econ applications. My history professor offered a LOR, I might have one other I could ask for a LOR but I only had one class with him.  I am not sure if it is better to ask two of my econ professors again and then have my history professor be my third or try to get a letter from a history professor who does not know me as well.

2. My undergrad classes were unfocused, and related, I am still narrowing my topic down.  This is a list of what I took:

Early Russia (Kievan Rus), Byzantine History, Empire and Democracy in Athens (Peloponnese War), History of the Czech Republic (while abroad), Framing Pre-modern World History (seminar on how to teach pre-modern history, historiographic in nature), Early Imperial China (ending at the Song dynasty).  In addition I was required to take two general world history courses (pre-modern and modern) and a historiography course.  For my economics degree I was required to take a intellectual history course in economics.

I did my thesis in history on the Egypt under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, specifically about their westernization and entrance into the world markets, and in econ I did a economic history paper on the effect of British hegemony on global trade in the 19th century by trying to draw conclusions using a linear regression model.  It was not a great paper, but got me used to working with historical statistical problems (mostly that historical statistics are hard to find and have lots of holes).

As for a topic I am trying to narrow down but in general my interests fall in the late Medieval, Early Modern, Early Industrial Era in Europe, and in particular economic and quantitative history (maybe eventually complexity theory), demographics, labor history, and the development of early capitalism and global trade.

3. In terms of languages other than English I have one: German and I have not done any primary source work in it.

Other than these problems I have some general questions:

1. How narrow does my focus have to be in terms of time, place, and topic?  My inclination is to as broad as possible, but I understand that is not how academia works, so its a balancing act.

2. Assuming I can narrow my topic down and put together a strong SOP, should I be applying for the 2018 term? Would an attempt at a funded MA be better to focus my research?

3. Assuming yes to either of these, are there individuals or programs outside of the LSE which have a strong economic and quantitative history offering, or would be supportive of quantitative and interdisciplinary approaches to supplement more traditional sources?  I have found, so far, only Michigan which offers an "Economic / Societal History, Quantitative Methods" focus, and maybe some of the faculty at Berkley, Northwestern, and MIT. I might be looking for the wrong terms though.

4. Does anyone has a reading list in these topics? I have some background from all the world history I took, but I am trying to read as much as I can to get a feel for what questions have been answered and how.

[dr. t]

6 hours ago, Banzailizard said:

This is my second time applying for PhDs but first for history. 

Why do you want a PhD in history, and no longer want one in economics? Be explicit.

Edited July 7, 2017 by telkanuru

[dr. t]

9 hours ago, VAZ said:

Conant and Reimitz definitely! McCormick (Conant's advisor) himself is more reputed as a historian of early climate and economics though.

This is a point worth emphasizing, since you come so close to grasping it, only to slide off: McC was indeed Conant's adviser (and at least a committee member for Harper, IIRC), and thus has the expertise to advise those wishing to go in similar directions. But McC has also recently advised dissertations on crowds in Merovingian Gaul and the intellectual influence of 9th century bishops. And he has not, as far as I can recall, advised a single dissertation on climate science. 

Put more broadly, don't worry too much about finding an adviser that's doing exactly what you want to do. Look for quality programs (criteria above) with professors who are within a stone's throw of your interest. You're looking to make someone's ears perk up with your project. For really good scholars, this sort of thing is often not exactly what they're working on themselves. 

Edited July 7, 2017 by telkanuru