<p>How hard is it to gain admission to top programs at Ivy's and the like. Is there anything one can do, aside from good grades, to enhance thier chances at getting into these programs.</p>
<p>It's a complete crapshoot - I'll be doing the same in 3 years (doing an MA first). GPA and GRE scores are important, as is research experience, conferences, publications (if possible), etc.</p>
<p>Those are the things that will get them to look at your app. To get accepted, it's a nebulous process of examining your SOP and matching your research interests with available staff. If you're applying to the top schools, apply to a lot, and do your research beforehand.</p>
<p>There's other threads on this topic - run a search and you'll find more info.</p>
<p>What area of history are you looking for?</p>
<p>Well, it is four years off but i am most interested in Central-Eastern Europe in the Early Modern Time Period. Austro-Hungarian Empire and what not. Or maybe a focus on Military History.
My college (St. John's College) doesn't offer majors but thay have a high rate of PhD production so i'm sure it will work out. And thanks for the conferences tip i'll try and persue that.</p>
<p>Central-Eastern is a bit less competitive, but any of the top schools are tough. If you can get in some language training first, too, that would help.</p>
<p>maybe try to do some research abroad in one of the countries you are interested in.</p>
<p>Well Language training in French and Greek is required so that is already taken care of and the school has programs for learing German. But study aboard isn't availible so i will have to take a year in between or do summer programs</p>
<p>I would think that for central European, you would need a central European language. Double check the requirements in several schools. They are loath to accept people without significant language training in areas that need several languages. Ex. I have to know French, German, and Latin before I so much as apply as a medieval history PhD.</p>
<p>You may want to consider languages like Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, and Polish. Also Russian, Serbian, and Slovenian.</p>
<p>If your school doesn't offer any of these, look into summer intensive programs. Pitt has one (I did their Hungarian program) and a few of their programs offer study abroad......a couple have it half in Pittsburgh and the other half abroad. Also, Indiana University has a similar program of Central and Eastern European languages.....all intensive summer programs.</p>
<p>It is very hard to get into the top history programs. I applied to history Ph.D programs this year at the Ivies plus Stanford 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. Also,there are very few spots each year in each specialty. I study Modern European but that covers a lot of time and I tend not to do contemporary history, like you I do a lot of work with Central Europe. </p>
<p>You will definitely need languages, French, German, maybe Russian or another Central/Eastern European language. I have French, German, some Russian. Other than having the basics, grades, GREs, languages, all I can say is research experience may make the difference. Good study abroad stuff might also be helpful. But it really is difficult to predict who will get in where, I know my professors were shocked I didn't get in anywhere. It depends entirely on what the department already has students and professors in and what they think they need a particular year.</p>
<p>Good luck though.</p>
<p>wow josephine, I'm sorry you didn't get accepted anywhere :( thats rough. that's scary...thats why I am applying to a variety of different programs....many of the programs I am looking at are at hoity toity schools so I anticipate rejection but will at least give it a shot....one school, at least, I know I have a good shot at getting into but thats the only one...well, maybe one more but only because its in state. I will apply to at least 10 schools and I think so far only one will be an Ivy while most of the rest will still be at pretty elite schools...like NYU and Northwestern. </p>
<p>Anywaym, hope you find a program that suits you and is comptable with your interests............if it make s you feel any better, my cousin applied to 25 PhD programs and was rejected by ALL but 5......ithat means 20 said no to here despite good stats......you relaly dont knwo what people want these days.</p>
<p>Yeah, well in retrospect I should have applied to some easier programs but one of my professors scared me into thinking I would never get a job without a Ph.D from a very top program.
On the up side though, I did get accepted to two IR programs so I'll be working on my masters at UChicago next year and then we'll see. I'm surprisingly okay about the whole thing, actually. I'm looking forward to Chicago, it's a great program for me, very much history and IR together, and I can always reapply for a history Ph.D in the future. </p>
<p>Just don't make the same mistake I did and have realistic expectations. I think you're on the right track .</p>
<p>Wow.. Josphine you are killing my dream! Where did you do your undergrad and how much does that weigh in your opinion</p>
<p>I'm graduating from George Washington University, and yes, I think it mattered, this might not have happened if I had gone to Yale. But who really knows. Also, I'm told it might have hurt my application that I am graduating a year early and spent a year abroad (in Austria, incidentally, which is where I did a lot of my Central European history). </p>
<p>I don't want to kill you dream. I certainly hope you will have better luck than I did. I just wish someone had warned me what could happen before I embarked on the process.</p>