History/Philosophy Major, Graduate School Questions.

Graduate School
1

<p>Good afternoon everyone,</p>

<p>I am new to this website, but I am quite glad that I found it! I have several questions which I would like to hear a few answers on from people within my disciplines or just anyone with the appropriate knowledge. Thank you in advance for helping, some of these questions have been pressing me for a good while.</p>

<p>First, I should point out that I am undecided on which direction I want to go in graduate school past my Bachelors degree. My interests are both in European History and Philosophy, my school however, only offers a minor in Philosophy, but from what I have read, with the appropriate History of Philosophy Courses and some supplemental courses (I am taking around 27 hours of Philosophy or more) that I should be be able to do fine in a graduate program.</p>

<p>So, essentially having the courses to be prepared for either direction, I am uncertain which way to go though I am sure in the next two years I will make up my mind, (though I am open to persuasion on either side.) and my dream is to work in higher education. I have had a passion for training and teaching ever since my time doing so in the Military and really, now being in college, I really feel that this is my calling. I love to teach, I love to write, in my spare time I do research as a hobby and enjoy every moment of it.</p>

<p>I should mention that, currently, after two years, I am a 4.0 student and hope to remain so until the end of my undergraduate work here at Midwestern State.</p>

<p>My question is, being an eventual PhD seeker and graduate student applicant, how much will these particular things benefit me in reaching those goals me while perusing my undergraduate degree.</p>

<p>My school offers mentored under graduate research that we are able to take every semester if we so choose, I plan to do so, likely in both of my disciplines. There are opportunities at the end to present your research in a professional forum and even be invited to other events to present your work, conferences, etc.</p>

<p>One of the first projects I am planning to do has been proposed by one of my Philosophy professors. He is working on an anthology of Hippolyte Havel's writings and has asked me to help compile and work on the annotations with him on the book. At the end, once he turns it in to the publisher he has stated that I will receive credit on the book as a full co-editor.</p>

<p>As a potential philosopher, I believe that this could only really help me, or be a step in the correct direction towards later publishing my own works and as a potential historian the research that I have to do, digging through book after book at every reference Havel makes in order to work on the annotations can only help me in the future.</p>

<p>The question is, how does something like this help or look on a graduate school application, along with other research that I hope to do? My professor seems to think it will be helpful.</p>

<p>The second question, and I suppose the final question is, once I have decided on a route to go, just how many graduate programs should I apply to and having gone to a university that isn't one of the major ones in Texas completely prevent me from seeking Ivy League? (Not that I much care one way or the other, I am just curious about the options.)</p>

<p>Thank you in advance, once again.</p>

<p>JM</p>

2

<p>1) If you don’t know which one you want to do, then you aren’t ready to make a decision about graduate school. If you just finished your sophomore year, just continue to take classes and see which one you love. If you don’t have a clear passion for either, then don’t do a PhD.</p>

<p>2) Philosophy and European history are two of the <em>worst</em> fields to get a PhD in, with respect to the job market. About 43% of people who begin a PhD never finish it. For those who do, both history and English degrees take 9 years on average to finish, and only 1 in 5 of the people who do finish their PhD actually get a tenure-track professor job somewhere. Some say the market will rebound when the baby boomers retire, but we’ve been hearing that for a while. Meanwhile, administrators are replacing full-time tenure-track professors with contingent labor - doctoral students, adjuncts, lecturers.</p>

<p>If you truly have a passion for philosophy or history, then a PhD can be an okay idea for you. But that’s only if you are satisfied with the idea of spending probably around 8-10 years getting a PhD even if you never get a tenure-track job. Would you be perfectly okay getting a PhD and then ending up as an administrative assistant somewhere? Or a consultant? Or going back to get another degree to make yourself marketable? In actuality, that is <em>usually</em> what happens to people in history and English these days. I think philosophy is a bit more forgiving, but probably because fewer people opt to enter it.</p>

<p>With that said -</p>

<p>Mentored research projects, and projects with professors, are very very good for admissions. Those are the kinds of things you need to get in, and this book project sounds great for that. I will warn you that books take quite a while to complete and your name probably won’t be on it for some time, probably not before you apply to grad school. But you can talk about it, definitely, in your statement and any interviews you have.</p>

<p>How many programs you should apply to is really up to you. I think that about 7 PhD programs and 2-3 MA programs (just in case) is a good number. Some may say more or less. Your undergraduate school doesn’t matter much and won’t prevent you from getting into the top programs. And in fact, you should care. The placement rate into jobs (especially tenure-track positions) is much better at top history and philosophy programs, so you should definitely go to a top PhD program - I would say at least the top 25 for sure, if you want to stack the deck in your favor.</p>

<p>Personally, I am of the mindset that in an oversupplied field like history or philosophy, there’s little point in going to a non-top PhD program (below top 25ish). The market is so glutted that even small regional colleges can take their pick from the 200+ applicants to the individual jobs they have. But others may disagree.</p>

3

<p>Wow, what a fine answer from Juillet! Everything he says is true. I’d only add that in searching for schools, should you choose the PhD route, that you abandon reflexive undergrad ideas of what the “best” schools would be for your area. “Ivy” means only so much in an undergrad search, and less so for grad. For example, in both history and philosophy. U of Mich and Rutgers have very strong programs. Your specific area of research, or a certain professor you hope to work with, may take you to some places you would never consider using an unsophisticated gauge of prestige. </p>

<p>The sad truth, as Juillet cautions, is that finding a tenure track position when the dust settles is unlikely. Something you might think about as well is that you have indicated an eagerness to teach, and many tenure-track profs do very little teaching and spend most of their energy on research, farming out many teaching duties to TAs. If you really want to teach, perhaps you should research the other kinds of educational careers out there.</p>

4

<p>Thank you for the replies, I will take all of it into consideration. There is certainly time :)</p>

5

<p>The first problem is that you aren’t sure what you want to study. I’m currently in the process of getting my masters in American history, and I have a more specific focus on early American history, but if I were to apply to get my Ph.D, even this wouldn’t be specific enough to warrant serious consideration from most programs, despite the fact that I have a 4.0 in graduate school thus far, am going to be published, and have a decent internship.</p>

<p>Whatever you choose is literally going to consume your life. You’ll try to fight it, you’ll devise ways of managing your time so you still have friends, interests etc. outside of your field, but you’ll only be successful to varying degrees…so you want to make darn sure you’re positive.</p>

<p>As has already been mentioned, the job outlook for history or philosophy Ph.D’s are really not stellar. I go to a state university, they had one posting for a European history professor and we had applicants who received Ph.D’s from Harvard and other Ivy league schools, people affiliated with globally respected museums and universities…the competition is tough.</p>

<p>That being said if you happen to be interested in more unique fields, you can increase your chances. If I were to get a Ph.D I’d be just another fish in the school of early American historians. My friend on the other hand, is about to begin a Ph.D. program for History of Science. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in history and a bachelor of science in Biology and is uniting those fields for her Ph.D. If you can do something unique in an up-and-coming subdivision of either field, you can raise your potential job outlook. </p>

<p>The most important thing is to figure out your passion and narrow it down specifically, so you can tell professors as you visit potential graduate schools which courses helped propel this dream, and how you’ve altered your undergraduate experience to further your goals and interests.</p>

<p>When applying for programs I’d look for two things. The research interests of the professors. (Think of it as applying to work with a professor, not attend a school. Especially if it is a Ph.D. program you should really be going to a school for the opportunity to work with an individual whose interests match your own, not for the name of the school itself).</p>

<p>You should also look for funding. I’m lucky and go to one of the few masters programs that are funded, more schools offer funding for Ph.D. candidates, but the market is tough so if you can avoid graduating tens of thousands of dollars in debt, you’ll do yourself a favor.</p>