<p>Im a college student who is considering getting a Ph.D. in History. I have a couple of questions:</p>
<p>1)Do graduate schools look at your major GPA or your Overall GPA? Currently In my major I have a 3.9, but overall I have a 3.0. Assuming this trend continues(which it probably will), what will graduate schools think?</p>
<p>2)How much does graduate school cost, on average? Is it structured like an undergraduate school, where I take classes all the time or do I get to do more research/teaching type things?</p>
<p>3)Finally, do you guys know of good history graduate schools that are good in economic history? Not modern econmic history, pre-industrial revoulution.</p>
<p>1) From what I've heard from my professors and graduate students, you are in the best situation possible. Yeah, it's weird, and I don't know if I believe 'em, but I've heard one of them even say that they would prfer stellar major grades and good (as in B) level non-major grades. I think you're probably fine there, really, unless you've failed a lot of classes or something.</p>
<p>2 and 3) I'm not sure, but I'd like to know (2 because it might affect me, 3 because it's fun to know things like that). I think that PhD programs are very well funded, and many offer their students ways of getting money to pay for the program. Many teach or do research to help pay as well. I think you begin with class taking in the first year, finish with it and take qualifying oral exams in the second, then, if you have more classes, take them and, if you don't, do your thesis. The timeline varies by student (although many schools will kick you out or start charging you a lot after a certain time).</p>
<p>I think you're probably OK since your major GPA is so high but it depends where you are applying. I applied to history Ph.D programs this year but only to the top schools (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, you get the picture) and got rejected from every one of them. I have a 4.0 overall and fine GREs though my quantitative was lower than I would have liked. </p>
<p>You also may have something of the same problem I had which is that your topic is not necessarily hot right now. I'm study Modern European but not modern, modern, more mid-18th century through mid-20th. I think economic history is much hotter than Euro. and there may not be that many people applying for that specialty, but doing an earlier period may be a disadvantage. </p>
<p>Many of the top programs (not only the Ivies but places like Michigan and Wisconsin) have economic history specialties so if you can get into one of those you can't go wrong. Of course, there are very few spots each year in each specialty. On a slightly lower difficulty level I don't really know what programs are best for economic history.</p>
<p>Finally, the good schools usually basically give Ph.D students a full ride, though you have to do assistantships and stuff like that. If you spend forever writing the dissertation though the funding usually cuts off after about 6 years. Student usually take fewer classes than in undergrad but usually the first 2 years of a Ph.D are coursework, then the rest is exams, dissertation, research, and assistantships. </p>