Comments | applyingtograd: Take only offer or try again?

beckalex in applyingtograd

Take only offer or try again?

Apr 02, 2011 17:51

I applied to many Ph.D. programs in history and I was only accepted to my bottom choice school. At this school I'd be able to work with a professor who researches my interests and I'd be able to design my major focus in pretty much the exact way I want. However, the school does not offer secondary and minor fields in my interests. I was not offered ( Read more... )

decision, declining admission, acceptance

Comments 11

spilledfiction April 3 2011, 00:52:40 UTC

You don't exactly sound happy about this school. Would you be happy being there in the long run?

Also, as I understand it, you shouldn't go for a Ph.D in humanities if you aren't given funding.

beckalex April 3 2011, 00:58:09 UTC

I'm not particularly happy about this school. I had actually decided to not apply there, but right as I decided that my professor emailed me to say he'd sent off my LOR so I figured I might as well send my stuff in.

I don't know if I'd be happy there. My friend thinks I am just making up excuses and that I should be happy with having an acceptance in an extremely competitive application climate.

spilledfiction April 3 2011, 01:11:22 UTC

I would say that if you're not happy with it, then you shouldn't go there. However, you shouldn't listen to me because I'm just a person on the Internet :) But, for that matter, you shouldn't listen to your friend--he/she isn't the one living your life. You are. If you're going to put yourself through the long haul of a PhD, make sure it's at a place you love.

kuniklos April 3 2011, 01:08:43 UTC

You don't seen thrilled about this school. And they aren't offering funding.

If I were in your shoes I wouldn't waste my time or money. I would take from GRE prep classes and apply again in the fall. I wouldn't want to settle.

dreadnought April 3 2011, 01:15:01 UTC

My advice about PhDs is always: don't go anywhere without funding unless you're independently wealthy. The job market is abysmal, for history in particular, and graduating with a load of debt to pay off would be insane ( ... )

tisiphone April 3 2011, 01:16:58 UTC

Let me re-ask the question for you. Is grad school important enough to you to actually pay for an education in what is probably the worst-paid social science field, at a personally (and perhaps absolutely) low-ranked institution in a tiny, isolated and strange town?

If it were me, I'd turn it down. I'm not absolutely against self-funding, I'm doing it. But self-funding at your bottom choice seems like a poor financial decision. I'd try improving your app and trying next round (and do not assume it's your GRE scores that were the problem, unless they were really really atrocious and everything else was brilliant. Not to say don't try and retake, but GRE scores are usually not all that important in the grand scheme of things.)

shaydlip April 3 2011, 12:23:46 UTC

surreal_soreal April 3 2011, 06:04:34 UTC

Many people turn down better offers than yours because the fit isn't quite right. The point of getting a PhD is placing yourself in an environment where you can do really righteous research in exactly the subject matter you care about most. And yes, with the job market the way it is, it's (usually) pretty crazy to go into massive debt in the process ( ... )