Sigaba

I'd identify established grad students in the programs of interest -- post quals / ABD. Pre quals, grad students can run hot and cold on the whole enterprise and life in general. I'd stick to a brief introduction and solicit the person's interest in answering a few "quick" questions. I'd make it clear that I'd done some leg work of my own. I would consider the benefits of sending a physical note to the person care of the department. Then, I'd manage my expectations. IRT your anxiety, the process is stressful but do your best to focus on what you can control and leave aside what's beyond your power. For example, ask ASAP professors for LoRs, understand that they may not send them in until after the application deadline.

The purpose of this thread is for current and aspiring graduate students in history to collaborate and commiserate about the Fall 2026 application season. When posting, please introduce yourself in terms of your areas of interest, fields, and periods (like "the concept of victory in warfare during the early / mid nineteenth century in East Asia.") Try to write about topics and debates of interest/importance to you (what were the connections and policy implications between the "military revolution debate" and the "revolution in military affairs" and western military operations in the Middle East after 9/11) no matter how provisional. You want to show that you can expand existing historiographical debates. Understand that talking about "stats" (test scores, GPA, school ranking) are reflections of an undergraduate mindset. Successful applicants understand that the sooner one adopts the comportment of an aspiring professional, the better. Before asking questions, please consider the benefits of searching the fora for previous / existing conversations about the same / similar topics. The number of schools to apply, asking professors for LORs, application fee waivers, funding your education, great choices and ones to avoid, have all been discussed at great length over the years by individuals who have long since moved on to other media or gone silent altogether. Information about specific academics may be dated. Information about departments may still be relevant. Overall, the profession remains as it has been the last five, six...decades (Observation. Academic historians had known that some version of MAGA was coming for over a century but the AHA was still not ready for Project 2025. #notbitter) Please pay particular attention to the conversations centered around pursuing a career as a professional academic in the humanities in general and history in particular. While times have changed, circumstances haven't improved when it comes to the latter. Penultimately, start working on your writing sample and SOP right now. Previous threads provide guidance on approaches. Make sure you consider the source of information before incorporating any guidance. If you're applying to Happyland University, bust hump on the book review. Understand that certain genres of history / historians are better received than others. Waiting until the day before its due to write it may not be an effective tactic. Or so I've heard. Finally, the best sources of information for graduate school are professors and seasoned (post quals) graduate students at your current institution. Go to office hours as soon as possible and as often as necessary. Build rapport. Earn trust. Listen and think. History departments are collections of interlocked black boxes. Success and failure is often about luck / the politics of the profession/ departmental rivalries / and perception of a giving applicant as about ability and potential. Know that what is not said can be as important to your future as what is actually said. Historians are going to let you figure things out for yourself, especially if you're screwing things up. (To learn the hidden language of the profession, read scores and scores of book reviews then revisit the comments on your exams and papers....)

Understand that even established, award winning academics with storied careers struggle with confidence and imposter syndrome. (The best response to variations of the OP remains, "So, you think you're good enough to be an imposter?") Assume that one way or another, your journey to your professional academic aspirations will continue. Try to grab one or two of the "must read" books in your discipline and start working through them. If you have access to academic journals via Jstor, start going through the top three or four periodicals in your field(s) of interest. You can learn a lot by going article by article, review by review, through ten years. And/or you can start building "dossiers" on academics of note/interest. Collect everything written by or about Professor Xavier in a digital folder and then start reading. This collection process can also include masters theses/reports and doctoral dissertations the person has supervised. Penultimately, if you've not done so already, familiarize yourself with best practices to secure your identity, privacy, and credit. It may surprise you how quickly you can be found. You want to get rid of everything you can. Start scrubbing your presence from the internet of PII that can be used against you by hostile parties, including the current configuration of the American government. Start by googling yourself and maybe an often used catch phrase or username. If you have social media accounts that reflect your personal professional identity, make sure you don't say anything in a way that might cost you an opportunity. This is not a suggestion to not be true to your self. Instead, it's a reminder that what you think today may change tomorrow but your past can be used as a weapon against you forever. Finally, consider the benefits of taking deep dives into this BB as well as Reddit and other on line communities -- the questions you have today have probably been addressed dozens of times over the years. Some of the guidance may not be as useful due to changing tastes and technologies, but some others remain as good as NFTs. Or something.

Please consider the benefits of going here http://library.uvm.edu/collections/theses?search_type=dept&dept=33 and there https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/ and finding theses supervised by potential PIs and then finding out where graduate students went next. As an alterative, you could contact each program's DGS and ask questions centered around outcomes.

Hey, @BrotherB. Welcome to the GradCafe. You may find more information in the History forum. There's also a forum for Anthropology. Generally, your age should not be an issue in and of itself. As a holder of an endowed chair said to me, "History is an old [person's] game." By that, he meant that one doesn't enter one's prime as a historian until one's fifties. I would be less worried about your GPA because there's only so much you can do about it. I'd be more concerned about having professors willing to write strong LORs (letters of recommendation) on your behalf, a well crafted SOP (statement of purpose), and a writing sample that reflects your skills as an aspiring academic historian.

Please clarify what you mean by "structured" and "unstructured." And what was the nature of the "onboarding"?

Hey, @kaw You might be better served were you to pose your question in this forum. https://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/48-mathematics-and-statistics/

To @jpbends's point, the "received wisdom" of this forum is that one should not pursue an unfunded terminal master's degree in history unless one has deep pockets. AFIAK, this guidance is more word of mouth/rule of thumb than the outcome of qualitative or quantitative research. The rigors being in a master's program while having to worry about funding and your applications for a doctoral program could limit what you get out of that program in terms of your development as an academic historian? Will professors care enough to bounce you off the walls so that you grow or will they just nod and smile with dollar signs in their eyes when you speak? Also, if you earn a master's at a program and then go on to a doctoral program, you'll most likely end up having to jump through many of the same hoops all over again--up to the point where you could earn a second master's in history. What are the alternatives? Maybe consider enrolling in a program in which you can earn a degree or even a certificate in what will be your outside field as a doctoral student. Maybe this path could center on developing a skill that will help you get part time work during the summers or full time work if you ultimately decide that things are as bad in the House of Klio as many say. Or, if you're not an Americanist, you could enroll in a language program that will allow you to knock out a requirement or two in a doctoral program.

Do what you can to pivot towards the sensibilities of an academic historian as soon as possible. Your UG GPA, your success rate in previous cycles, and the rankings of where you applied are not very useful to you. What kind of history do you want to do? How might your research impact existing historiographical debates of your specific field, your area/time period, and the overall profession? How do you see your career as an academic unfolding over the next thirty years? <==Talking about these kinds of questions is likely going to draw more initial interest than your backstory from academics.

Before you accept or decline, please consider the resources at your disposal for performing a vigorous due diligence for each of your potential options. Please way the benefits and challenges (not pros and cons) of each option. FWIW, The way I see it, you have at least five centered around attending graduate school defer accept with intent to push through to the doctorate with your intended fields accept with the intent to reassess after earning a masters with your intended fields accept with the intent to earn a master's degree while (covertly) developing skills for a job outside of history. You could use the outside field requirement to develop a skill in data science or project management. Just make sure that the skill isn't something with a very limited shelf life. accept with the intent to earn a doctorate with fields that will help you get a job outside of the Ivory Tower. As an example, if your top 10 school's name starts with a Y or a H or a P or a J, and your interests are anywhere adjacent to security studies/grand strategy you could put together a path of study that leads to a job with .GOV or .MIL For options in the private sector, I recommend that viable alternatives should comparable favorably to what you'd be giving up by not going to graduate school. That is, you have an offer of "guaranteed" underemployment with health insurance and great amenities (like the library) during an interval of intensifying great power rivalry, economic uncertainty, a pandemic that doesn't care if people think it should be classified as an endemic, political turbulence. Please also take a look at your theory that you're overthinking things. To what extent is "over thinking" a trait that that has kept you out of bad situations or a potential character flaw that has led you to walking away from opportunities for personal fulfilment and success. The latter can really become a grind if left unchecked. Or so I've heard. Please do consider talking to your professors candidly about your ambivalence. Before initiating such a conversation, make sure that you're going to be able to speak frankly about your hopes, your fears, and your understanding of their expectations. (On this last point, I think that @AP will prove to be right. I think that your professors like you personally.)

I think that you should confer with your professors. If you leave your program now, will their disappointment impact the quality of LORs they will write on your behalf as you look for work? What happens if you end up competing for these kinds of positions against applicants who the same academic degrees and career goals--and doctorates as well?

IME it depends upon the way the funds are disbursed. Sometimes taxes are withheld, sometimes it is assumed that the recipient is putting money aside to cover tax liabilities later.

As long as it was made clear that Han shot first, this sounds like a promising topic.

It's unfortunate that you continue to take things in this direction. It's not so much that I'm concerned about my reputation. It's that I am looking for ways to avoid responding to you in a tone similar to yours. If you want to continue going down this path of personal characterizations, shoot me a private message and we can figure something out. Otherwise, I urge you to consider the benefits of not attempting to denigrate my intellect or my character. IRT the topic of this thread, let me try once again to take things in a different direction. Klio is a hearbreaker. How each person deals with that heartbreak is different and how each person deals with the pain can change over time. For now, I'm dealing with mine by taking responsibility for what I could have controlled. I've shared my thoughts with a couple of professors, including a person in a position to make changes in his department. Beyond that, I'm working on sublimating a shifting constellation of thoughts and feelings about the historical profession and my experiences in graduate school.

I would like to think that we respect each other enough not to resort to making assumptions about views on topics unrelated to our comments on the topic of professional academic history. Your deployment of conjecture under the guise of logical appearances is bad form. I would prefer that you ask clarification if my comments are unclear rather than attempting to put words in my mouth or thoughts in my head.