Am I just Crazy?

[thevillageidiot13]

So, I'm thinking about going to grad school. I'm currently a double-major in History and Creative Writing at UC Santa Cruz, second year. I have a 3.9 GPA, some decent work experience at a historical research center, and I've gotten a few honors and awards.

If I go to grad school, I'm probably going to try to get a Master's in History and eventually become a history professor or a teacher at an elite-level secondary school at some point.

I've been looking around, and some of the schools that've piqued my interest are Oxford University, Columbia University, NYU, BU, and University of Toronto.

Am I shooting too high in terms of where I'm applying? Am I screwing myself over by even considering a Master's at all? Should I be studying something other than history? What can I do to improve my chances of getting in? Any advice on applying to grad schools? What kinds of GPAs and GRE scores and work experience do typical successful applicants to these schools have?

Any input, insight, advice, tips, information, pearls of wisdom, etc. could be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[larysalove]

No absolutely not. I'm currently working on my masters and its been a wonderful experience.

I'm actually considering doing my PhD at Columbia, but of course I'm a science person.

Anyway that said your GPA is very good, but I do hope you have activities outside of school. Schools are looking for a well-rounded person. Greek life, as silly as it sounds, actually goes a long way. Or other clubs and activities that show what you're passionate in and what you will bring to their school other than another smart individual.

The one thing I can say is that if you want to teach at a college, you're as a whole going to need a PhD, not a masters, so I'd look into skipping the masters' and going straight for the PhD. Honestly if I'd done a little more research when applying to college in the first place I would have gone BS->PhD, skipping over the masters. To run your own lab you really need at least one doctorate.

I think studying history is fine, if that's what you want to study.

Advice? Dont stress out over your applications. FIll them out carefully and throughly, get recommendations from professors who have something more to say then "preformed well in my class," and study for the GRE. A lot of people know they should but don't for some reason.

The numbers on what kind of GRE scores and GPAs get admitted are out there. I don't know them off the top of my head, but your GPA really should be fine. As long as you do well on your GREs, the only thing you need to worry about is your work experience. There is no such thing as too much, but whether or not there is such a thing as too little is up in the air. Some people (the same as when you applied to college in the first place) get in with little or no work experience. This is not the norm. Most of my undergraduate classmates tried to get into labs and such on campus as soon as the professors would take them. I personally started working in a biochemical research lab the second semester (we were on trimesters) of my freshman year. I would say do some internet research. I'm sure there's got to be something that gives a more helpful opinion than that.

Well, that's all I've got, I think, unless you've got questions. I'm here to help, anytime :]

 

[Jordi]

Why do you ask if you should study history? That makes it sound to me like you don't really want it or something. What are we supposed to say? "No dude, you should study theoretical physics!"?

I think whether you should apply should depend on what you want. Do you want to be a history professor? Go for it! What have you got to lose? Some application fees and time? That seems like a small investment if it means you get to pursue what you want. Of course, there is always the chance that you won't get accepted, but then at least you tried.

About those chances and applications I don't really know a lot, as I'm not from the US (or UK, or Canada). Things work very differently where I live.
You should probably write a passionate letter about why you want to be a grad student at the university you're applying to. Personally, I would try to read up on the research that each university does exactly and detail how that fits well with your skill set, experience and ambitions. Optionally you should get your references to do the same (although they might prefer to write just one general letter of recommendation that you can use anywhere).
Also, I heard that it might be possible to get in if you know someone, so maybe you can search in your professional network for someone at one of those universities. Alternatively, you could look into approaching a professor directly about his research and how you would like to participate or something. But I don't know if that's considered appropriate everywhere.