<p>F517,</p>
<p>Your efforts won't be viewed as immaturity. The deal is that you won't get the benefit of doubt if you do anything the admissions folks don't like - choice of words, sentence construction, interview behavior. So, get someone older (maybe even ancient with gray hair?) to read your written materials, and say in the mirror ten times a day that "like" is not a conjunction, not a pronoun, not a noun, not a verb....that will be good interview prep.</p>
<p>So I guess by going an additional semester (albeit with 12 credits) isn't a bad thing since I am doing it for health reasons (not to overload myself after a change in major) and so I can take some advanced courses, plus to get all next summer and possibly parts of the spring to do internship work?</p>
<p>(By additional semester, I am referring to having a total of 9 semesters).</p>
<p>ets, </p>
<p>Yes, I would say so. Just don't slack off and do less well.</p>
<p>fanatic, would you be willing to take out a loan in your name for your seventh semester? You can really get a lot out of being in graduate classes (to demonstrate you can do well) if you're going to be finished with everything else. I've seen this particular kind of suggestion across this board when people run out of things to do after they've pretty much finished their major by the end of their junior year and it can be quite favorable..</p>
<p>tickleme, I attend a liberal arts college. That's one of my regrets about where I go--I don't have that possibility in my last year. Of course, there are plenty of courses that I would love to take (I can't even come close to exhausting the interesting classes in my majors of history and politics in three years, much less in other departments), but we have no graduate level work here. I could certainly continue research, and do an honors project (though I may still be able to do that), but I don't know about taking on that much more debt for that.</p>
<p>I have the same problem plus the fact that my LAC is very small. There is almost zero internship placement. I talked to one of my profs about it and all she could do was give me a website that led to a bunch of places. I think I'm going to ask around with the psychs I know in the area--especially the ones who have worked with me before since they already have some idea of where I come from.</p>
<p>The most that can be done at my school is a senior seminar (which everyone does except ed majors, who student teach instead); basically it's a big research paper. My hope is that I can get a jump start on it next summer when I'm interning so that I don't have a whole lot of work to do in the fall (which may mean I can continue my internship plus have time to max out the GREs...I'm aiming for pretty much perfect scores).</p>
<p>Ah got it for both of you. I'm also at LAC and I have spoken about this particular situation of being at a LAC versus big university with my advisor, actually just yesterday! Two big things she's mentioned about being at a LAC versus big universities- limited research opportunities and availablity of coursework.</p>
<p>Senior projects really count for graduate school. I had originally sent in a writing sample from research I had done in the archives last summer and when I asked a grad school professor about what went wrong with my application, she said, "I would've really liked to see your honors thesis and it'd show that you can do compelling research." Boom, I sent her my final draft as a writing sample when I transferred my application for MA consideration instead of PhD. She loved it- at least that's what I've gathered. What you show to the graduate school must be of your own project and accord to demonstrate your independent thinking and ability to carry out a project on your own with supervision by a professor/advisor.</p>
<p>At a LAC, senior projects and extensive lab research are really the only way to demonstrate your ablitiies to grad school. Otherwise, you may have to beef up your application with a couple of grad level courses at your local state university. If anything, there is a chance that the PhD programs may tell you that you'll need to go for your MA first to prove to them that you can do the work (and additional coursework never hurts, it'll only make you a much more solid applicant). I would most definitely recommend talking to a professor in the graduate school area (perhaps through your advisors/professors' network) who can talk to you about applying straight out of LAC and doing the undergrad in three years. I did- the guy told me that I should have my MA first before embarking the PhD. Idiotically, I applied to PhD programs only and after 2 rejections, I realized this guy was right so I quickly applied to MA programs, and got in them. I haven't regretted my decision- I'm actually really happy about going for MA instead of PhD for now.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is the reality of the situation of being at a LAC. I don't regret going to Colgate at all because I like having these small classes, the feel of the community, and close interactions with my professors. Grad schools do appreciate LAC students very much and even more so when these students go for their MA before applying for PhD because now they've got the best of both worlds if you follow me. So yeah, 2 more years of schooling, yuck...</p>
<p>I consider myself very lucky, actually. While a lot of my friends still aren't even certain what they're majoring in, I've already declared majors, love my majors, and know that I want to pursue grad school in history. And knowing that already has opened up opportunities for me--being able to do research has been fascinating, and I may be presenting a paper at a conference next semester. There may be less organized opportunities certainly (coursework isn't a problem though, my majors of history and politics are two of our largest and best departments), but having initiative and interest has opened up a lot of things.</p>
<p>Ohhh that's another story with history. I'm a history major too and going for MA in another field related to what I eventually want to do for my PhD (it's not a really good idea to get a MA in history if you're going for a PhD as you pick it up anyway).</p>
<p>Get a reality check first. I've looked back in your old posts. Follow some of Prof X's advice on those, especially with language study. If anything you should take a year off after you graduate to really study one of the languages (or two) intensively. For example, I'm interested in modern Jewish history and it is absolutely required to have Hebrew, no ands, ifs, or buts. So I had to go to Israel for 7 months in my junior year and that totally took off 3 semesters of Hebrew at Colgate. I had to keep up with the language through independent study even though it's really hard now not being immersed in it all the time. Now I am planning on going back this summer for 4 weeks to catch up so I can enter in Advanced Hebrew in the fall and be able to start Yiddish (hopefully...). Languages are soooo important- it was one of the biggest reasons why I got rejected from every PhD program. Professors will say "Don't worry too much about the languages, we've admitted people with lower levels..." They're lying.</p>
<p>Another thing is that you mentioned you want to do world history. That's just too broad. I don't know what you want to get- MA or PhD. If you want to do MA only- NYU has a MA in World History (there are seriously fantastic scholars there). If you want to do a PhD, I would hold it off until you can narrow down your interests to a specific field. You need to come up with ideas and they're what PhD programs really value when they're looking at applications. However, a professor at Yale told me recently that he's starting to see a lot of people crossing borders- getting more interested in transnational stuff (Like the Southwest US and Mexico). I am sort of in that as I'm also really interested in 20th Century US but I will get that straightened out as to how I want to market myself for specific programs as a 20th C Americanist or Jewish historian. Departments have alotted spots for each field and they'll want to know where exactly can they put you in.</p>
<p>That said, study French or German for now because they're easier to learn in less-immersed settings unlike Chinese or Arabic where it's much better to have language intensive courses in those two to get them hammered in your brain. Read, read, read A LOT. Ask questions and talk with different professors about their interests. If you do end up choosing wanting to study the Middle East, Russia, or any other countries with very difficult languages, plan on taking a year off in between and go there and do intensive study. You will be in a much better position and with your commitment to the language, you can make a great argument for why you're a good candidate. </p>
<p>Lastly, before you go through all this trouble, ask yourself, why grad school? Is the PhD going to be worth 7-10 years of living in poverty, being a slave to your PhD advisor (okay, exaggerated a bit), and being in solitude with your research? You'll definitely miss huge economic opportunities as by the time you're five years in it and when you lose your department's funding, your friends are making $60-80K while you're scraping by with grants. But at the end, you will get a lot of respect for getting that PhD.</p>
<p>Sorry for a big post but I'm just trying to show you what I've learned through my PhD admissions process this year. Unfortunately, there really isn't a great guide on how to get in grad schools so you'll have to do a lot of talking and learn on the way. Nothing's a sure bet. But in terms of your situation, you'll just have to do what you need to do to get what you want, including taking out loans for programs and looking for financial aid and scholarships for language study. In this case, that $40K that would've been spent for your senior year would definitely go in a long way for foreign travels, especially in non-EU countries.</p>
<p>This year, I've gotten to work pretty closely with a professor, and his advice has been great--he's been giving me suggestions on which courses to take, which other professors to work with, how to manage language work. He specifically said that I'm going to have a terrific GPA, great letters of recommendation, and good research experience, but that it won't matter if I don't have the languages I need. Thus, this summer I'm hoping to take some intensive Arabic courses, and then next summer, immerse myself abroad. I took three years of French in high school, and am going to go back to it next year, auditing intermediate courses to relearn, and then taking an advanced class the next year to show proficiency. Of course, there are more languages I'd like to learn (Chinese and Spanish), but they'll have to wait until I can fit them in. </p>
<p>As for my field, world history/transnational/global/international history is simply the broad way that I would categorize it. I'm not as much interested in traditional national histories, because I feel that everything takes place within larger systems, and without that context, without broad perspectives, the smaller scale histories loose their potency. Of course, there are several specific issues that I'm interested in within that broad category--right now, I'm doing research on the trans-Pacific silk exchange, and insect-produced commodities. </p>
<p>As for why grad school? I love research. When I started working for my professor, it was interesting certainly, but nothing special. Then I made a connection...I had one of those moments where you discover something, where you connect two different things and feel the thrill and excitement of true learning. I know that academia is a rough road, and there are other things that I'd love to do--work in public policy or international development in some manner--but the prospect of graduate work then teaching is amazing.</p>
<p>Just konw that your interests will very much be likely to change as you discover new things. So don't expect to do trans-Pacific stuff by the time you apply because sometimes your current research can take you to new questions putting you on a different path. I never really expected to consider 20th Century US until I had to do a project at my internship relating to American Jewry and the Holocaust (my original interest-Holocaust) and I was shocked by some of the things I learned about American Jews. And here I am... coming up with lots of creative ideas for that field (though <em>sigh</em> more specific).</p>