<p>I am seeking advice on which graduate schools would be best for my specialization. I am wanting to get my MA and go on to get my PhD. I am looking to specializing in medieval and early European history. I have always been interested in the Classics as well, but I know that it is not possible to get a degree with 3 specialties under it! </p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone had any advice. I was looking at Vanderbilt. I am also in the South-East and would like to remain fairly close!</p>
<p>Take a look at Georgetown College in KY. They have a very strong History graduate program, and I believe that they offer a specialization in late medieval/early modern European history.</p>
<p>Georgetown College has only 6 faculty members in its history program, which is not what I would call very strong. Furthermore, only 1 (perhaps 2) works in the OP’s area of interest. If that faculty member goes on leave or switches to another university, Steph would be effectively screwed.</p>
<p>For a better representative of strong offerings in medieval studies, look at Duke:
[Duke</a> University CMRS](<a href=“Front Page | Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies”>Front Page | Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies)</p>
<p>I suggest talking to your professors. I’m sure there’s at least one Medievalist or early modern Europe person on staff, and (s)he should be able to point you in the right direction. </p>
<p>It’s also helpful to scan the journals in your area of interest. Find out where the professors with interesting articles teach.</p>
<p>Perhaps I should clarify my statement: when I said “strong” I wasn’t referring to the size of the faculty (I’m honestly not personally familiar with the program), I was referring to the fact that a PhD from Georgetown is highly respected in the academic world, much more so than many PhDs from institutions of comparable size and prestige.</p>
<p>Know that a MA is NOT a guarantee to a PhD program. It increases your chances but only so much, depending how you make out of the MA program as in bringing up languages, making new connections with academics, obtaining strong letters from better-known faculty, etc. If you were pretty much “perfect” in undergrad, I would just apply for PhD once you have Latin/French/German up to par and read more articles/books to figure out what you really want to study.</p>
<p>for medieval history, you will need a few years of greek, a few years of latin, and one or two years of either german or french under your belt to be competitive. language preparation, or lack thereof, is what kills most applications, but especially for medieval history. as tickle suggested, if your languages are in order, apply directly to a PhD program. if your languages are on their way, look for MA programs that allow you to improve your languages (some focus on history coursework instead of language prep, and if they do, you won’t have time to work on 2 or 3 languages). if your language prep is really lacking, then just take a year or two to work on that and then apply directly to PhD programs later on. a friend of mine took two years after her BA to work on her languages (4 years of latin, 3 years of greek, 2 years of german, 1 year of french). she’s now studying medieval history at princeton, admitted directly to the PhD program. in your field, i’d say that language acquisition would probably help you more than a terminal MA would.</p>
<p>also, georgetown college is not the same as georgetown university. the respected school in the academic world is georgetown university, not georgetown college.</p>
<p>to find programs that are good for you, look up your favourite books and articles on medieval/“early” europe. who wrote them? find out where those people teach now and find out where they did their PhDs. take that list of schools and show it to a professor in your subfield at your current school and get his/her thoughts. refine from there.</p>
<p>ultimately, you want to study with an academic whose work you respect and admire. you want to read their work and think, “i’d like to write something like this.” it’s really important (in my opinion) to have a strong working relationship with your advisor. it helps if s/he thinks about “why and how you do history” the same way you do. once you’ve figured out where your favourite historians are teaching, look at those departments’ strengths in your subfield. if they have a handful of faculty and a decent number of grad students in your subfield, that’s where you want to apply. if that favourite academic is the only medievalist at that school and none of the students study medieval history, save yourself the application fee.</p>
<p>only the very largest programs (like UCLA) build strengths in every subfield. medium-sized programs (that take around 20 students a year) will be good at 4 or 5 things, smaller programs (that take 10 or fewer students a year) will be good at 2 or 3 things, max. really small programs that take on 4 or 5 new students each year will probably only have one strength. ideally you’d like to go somewhere where there are people working outside your subfield as well, but really small programs that specialize in exactly what you do make for excellent “safety” schools.</p>
<p>Georgetown College is very well-respected - I’ve heard it be praised by faculty members at both Yale and Cambridge.</p>
<p>just because someone at yale has heard of a liberal arts college does not mean it is an appropriate place to complete a graduate degree, especially when georgetown college does NOT offer a graduate degree, either PhD or MA.</p>
<p>you said a PhD from georgetown is highly respected in the academic world. yes, a PhD from georgetown UNIVERSITY. you cannot get a PhD from georgetown college. they don’t have a graduate program.</p>
<p>I am well aware of the difference between Georgetown University and Georgetown College, thank you. I’m also well aware that someone from Yale having heard of a school does not make it great, and I never implied that this was the case. I do admit, I stand corrected in my suggestion - Georgetown College was praised for its undergraduate quality and it was entirely a mistake of mine thinking otherwise.</p>
<p>Then why did you suggest to someone who ALREADY received her/his BA to a LAC that doesn’t offer a graduate degree in other things besides teaching? (Yes I looked it up. It offers graduate degree in TEACHING at elementary and secondary level.)</p>
<p>Because I was under the impression that a graduate program existed. Hence the “I stand corrected.”</p>
<p>UPDATE:</p>
<p>I recently visited Vanderbilt’s campus. I loved the Parthenon being so close to campus, but that was about it. Vanderbilt, being in the center of Nashville, was very overpopulated for me. It was on a Saturday, but I still feel that the campus is just a little to busy for me. </p>
<p>Does anyone know of another university in the Southeast that has a great graduate program in Late Antiquity/Early-Modern European History. I was looking ot Auburn, but they do not fit my needs as well. I am really stuck at the moment and was hoping that someone could shed some light on schools that I may not have thought of before!</p>
<p>Expand your geography if you really want to go for a PhD. There are lots of great programs in Medieval and Late Antiquity history like Notre Dame, UCLA, etc. You also might want to check out UNC-Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>if you are really particular about what region you live in, and what size of city/town you live in, and whether or not the campus is integrated into the city or separate and self-contained, then graduate school in general may not mesh with your lifestyle. while it is totally reasonable to say “i want to live within a day’s driving distance of my family” and restrict your geography that way, it isn’t reasonable to cross strong programs off of your list because the town seems too busy, or not busy enough. we’re specialists, and we need to work with other specialists that can adequately mentor us. that means living wherever those people happen to be. similarly, once you’re hired as a professor (IF you’re hired, which is no guarantee for any of us in history), you’re going to live wherever the job is. the nature of this work is that you have very little control over your geography.</p>
<p>you need to be more flexible on location and size of school otherwise you’re not going to apply any programs that fit your interests well enough to get admitted. fit is more important than anything for gaining admissions, so i would very strongly suggest letting go of city and campus size right off the bat. you’re severely handicapping yourself otherwise. once you apply and have a few admits, then you can make your decision based on which campus or town you liked. but before you even get in? don’t limit yourself so severely. you need to follow the top professors. if the city life isn’t for you, then you can live 30 minutes out and just commute. you’re not spending all day every day on campus anyway. most of your work can be done from home, and classes only take 6-8 hours a week.</p>
<p>that said, duke and UNC are both strong in late antiquity/early modern. i would echo tickle’s recommendations too.</p>