Comments | nor_am_uk_ac: Applying to history Ph.D. Programs

beckalex in nor_am_uk_ac

Applying to history Ph.D. Programs

May 03, 2012 12:41

Hello ( Read more... )

question: phd, !admissions, #university college london, #university of edinburgh, #university of york, #king's college london, interest: history, personal statement, #cambridge, question: postgraduate, !advice, #university of sheffield, applications

Comments 12

ashkitty May 3 2012, 21:00:35 UTC

1-2: It's not too late, but do it soon--and being an overseas student with your own funding has been attractive to universities in the past. Things are changing this year though as the home fees are going up as well, so they may be less dependant on that as a source of funding. But especially for things like history where the departments are usually a bit small, they will find space for you if they want you.

As for the other things they'll depend on the individual university, so your best bet is to get in touch with the department ahead of time and ask them your questions. I assume you already know who you want to work with anyway, so send them an email, say you're looking at applying there and have some questions, and they'll surely help you out!

beckalex May 3 2012, 22:58:56 UTC

Thanks! I've contacted professors and I'm filling out applications for the schools where they said they'd be interested in supervising my topic. I'm almost done with my apps - I am just trying to put the finishing touches on my research proposals for each school. That part is always the hardest.

seasontoseason May 4 2012, 00:15:17 UTC

i don't know if this translates to a principle, but for me getting into really well-respected programs seemed like the easy part. I couldn't pay, though, and once that came out .... well, I couldn't go.

But I got in. So if you can pay....

seasontoseason May 4 2012, 00:15:42 UTC

(I was applying to PhD programs in the humanities)

tyopsqueene May 4 2012, 06:47:39 UTC

1. No, it's not too late.

2. Being an American isn't a disadvantage. Not having all your funding available upfront is. When you say 'at least for a while', do you mean you'd be reliant on getting funding for part of your PhD? That is extraordinarily hard and competitive; if you can't get funding up front, you are unlikely to get it mid-way through ( ... )

lareinenoire May 4 2012, 12:41:45 UTC

What she said. I did all of my graduate work in the UK (Cambridge M.Phil. and Oxford D.Phil.) and despite working as an adjunct in two major US research universities and publishing my thesis with a reputable academic press, I haven't even made it to a campus interview. Part of that is the horror of the current market, but from what I can see, the people who get US jobs are the ones whose supervisors do their networking for them. It's patently unfair but there it is.

loverain May 5 2012, 00:55:12 UTC

I would like to second this. I chose my supervisor based on many factors, but one being that I knew she would root for me and network for me, etc etc.

I have also come across brilliant academics that studied in the UK that cannot get jobs in USA.

lareinenoire May 5 2012, 15:23:44 UTC

I chose my supervisor based on many factors, but one being that I knew she would root for me and network for me, etc etc.

I wish that was something that had even occurred to me when I first applied to do a PhD! It is possible that I was simply naïve, but I started my degree in 2006, when things were not nearly as bad as they are now, and I knew people with UK degrees who had managed to get jobs in the US. As far as I'm aware, the only person from my year who managed to land a job in the US (and a three-year visiting job at that, not even TT!) was a Rhodes Scholar. A number of them picked up jobs in the UK but most have apparently just left academia.

It's tremendously frustrating.

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