<p>I'm currently getting ready for my first year of college, but I'm looking at the long run.</p>
<p>I'm doing two years at a California community college, then transferring to a California State University or University of California. I'm aiming for degrees in history/social studies teaching and anthropology. I'm doing this completely on federal (and maybe state) financial aid. I can take this and go teach high school, which isn't a bad thing, but I really want to be a college professor. With a family that can't afford to give me any money, is there any way to pay for a PhD without crippling debt?</p>
<p>If you have a high GPA and GRE and good extracurriculars, Ph. D programs will pay full freight for you, plus give you a living stipend. </p>
<p>If you haven’t transferred yet, we assume you’re a freshman or sophomore… Meaning even if you posted a GPA, it would be subject to drastic change, so we can’t really help much.</p>
<p>My high school GPA doesn’t matter for PhD programs, right? It’s a 2.65, and I didn’t take any college prep classes. I was very lazy as a teenager.</p>
<p>I know it’s ironic that I have a lukewarm high school performance and want to be a teacher, but I enrolled in Job Corps a few years after high school to get out of my mom’s basement, and the place taught me the value of hard work and constant learning and gave me massive respect for teachers.</p>
<p>I can maintain a high GPA in community college and university. No reason I can’t. I’ve got a much better work ethic than I used to and a very deep passion for history and social studies. I’m also intelligent (I got a 30 on the ACT, with 25s in Math and Science, a 34 in English, and a 36 in Reading Comprehension), and I’m willing to learn as much as possible.</p>
<p>What is a GRE?</p>
<p>I know it’s early to be asking about graduate school, but transferring colleges is really hard, so I’m trying to figure what I want now so I can work towards that for the next four years.</p>
<p>You will need to take the general (quantative and verbal reasoning) GRE. Plus depending on the specific programs you apply to, you may also need to take a subject specific GRE in your field of intended graduate study.</p>
<p>A full ride in grad school is less common in the soft sciences and very competitive. Work hard now and do what you can to get into one of the higher ranked UC’s. (Extracurriculars are not that important.)</p>
<p>My husband, in engineering, went to work with his SB and after a couple of years started working on his PhD at UCLA “part-time” while working full-time (and in the last couple years being a great dad to two kids). He managed to finish in seven years though it was pretty grueling. His company paid his tuition. </p>
<p>I have one son who is a PhD candidate with an NSF fellowship. It’s a pretty deal. They are very competitive but available in social sciences. [Homepage</a> - NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP)](<a href=“http://www.nsfgrfp.org/]Homepage”>http://www.nsfgrfp.org/)</p>
<p>What about the second article’s idea of getting a Master’s and trying for public history or teaching? I know you can teach high school off of a BA, but isn’t it easier with an MA?</p>
<p>Whether it’s easier to get a high school teaching job with a Masters largely depends on the local market. In some regions, yes; in other regions, no. Please realize that to teach in public school districts you will need to have or be eligible for a state-specific teaching certificate. Usually, this requires X education courses plus student teaching.</p>
<p>Many states now require teachers to earn a Master’s in order to get permanent certification. But often a school district will help pay for a teacher’s graduate degree. (Not upfront, but you will often get full or partial reimbursement for grad courses taken to meet certification requirements.)</p>
<p>Public history jobs are interesting, but you need to remain flexible, willing to relocate and do stuff in addition to just history. (Like public outreach, fund-raising, archival management, records management, etc)</p>
<p>Essentially, you’ll need to have a very high GPA (as close to 4 as possible without collapsing :p) + research with professors + if possible TA/tutor for 1st years + get to the highest level of language you can. Typically for history you’ll need to know at least one European language + one more from the area you’re interested in OR the period you’re interested in (ie. if you’re going to do research on Elizabethan England you need to have a good grasp of Elizabethan English) + if possible a study abroad in the country where your specialized area will be (ie. if on intend on studying whether English treatment of local French-Native people qualifies as genocide, you better have been on the trail to see archives; if you intend on studying the MauMau revolts in Kenya it’s a good thing if you’ve actually BEEN to Kenya and studied there for a term, started on gathering material; if you plan on doing living history of an area/group in the US, you better have met people from the area/group… ) leading to an undergraduate thesis.
During your senior year you’ll have to look into specialties (some are good at military history, others at colonial, etc) and apply to a variety of schools.
All of this, combined with judicious choices (you can’t just apply to top10 schools :p), should allow you to get a stipend for your PHD, meaning they pay you to study
Your high school GPA will have ZERO weight :in the grad school committee’s decision.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking hard, and I’ve decided to study the one thing I enjoy as much as history/social studies, which is engineering. My lackluster high school performance will be somewhat of an obstacle, since I never bothered to learn geometry, much less calculus, but with a ton of hard work and dedication, and maybe an extra year at the community college, I can do it.</p>
You may need another 2-3 years of community college to get an A.S. in engineering. 1 year for remedial classes in math & science and 2 year for engineering A.S. degree. Most people are aim for a B.S. degree in engineering, so you may need another 2-3 years at 4-year schools too.</p>
