<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I’m in the process of being readmitted to graduate school (History, M.A.). I was in graduate school ten years ago with a nice GRA position and good grades, but after one semester got the crazy idea to go to law school. I did that, got the JD, had two children in the process, and have been a licensed attorney for several years (my husband graduated and passed the Bar with me as well). However, we haven’t found practicing law particularly enjoyable, and that’s putting it <em>very</em> mildly. So, I decided to go back and finish my MA (even though I’ll be starting all over because my credits are from 2003), while he has gone back for an M.A. in Spanish.</p>
<p>Now we’ve got this new crazy idea to apply for a PhD program once we complete the MAs. I dont see him having much impediment in the PhD field. He has an outstanding undergrad GPA and good GRE scores (along with multi-continent study abroad, military service, and a law license),but I’m not feeling particularly hopeful for myself. Here are the problems I foresee standing in my way:</p>
<ul>
<li>I attended five colleges before graduating because my husband was in the Army. I still finished in 3.5 years, but I have a lot of transcripts to show for it. All of my schools were well-respected private liberal arts schools, though.
-My undergrad GPA was low (2.98). That was partly due to my first college allowing me to take Spanish as an incoming freshman when I’d had 4 years of French in boarding school, and partly due to overloading myself every semester. One F in Spanish a couple of Cs elsewhere can really hurt your GPA.</li>
<li>I will have to retake the GRE because my scores are so old. Granted, after the Bar exam, the GRE looks like a walk in the park, but I still haven’t done math in 15 years. </li>
</ul>
<p>So, is it totally unrealistic to hope for admission to a (funded - I have two kids) History PhD program? Will my law license help give any sort of credit to my application? I plan to try to get as many publications as possible while working on my M.A., and have already devised my general thesis topic. But I would like to know if I should put these thoughts of PhD work out of my head now.</p>
<p>Thanks for all opinions!</p>
<p>You will do better getting those answers from those you know in the field. My very close friend’s daughter just went through this process, and her chances were very much affected by the work she was doing with those in the field, who gave her recommendations, and also because she could show what she was doing and those in the programs could assess where it would fit into what they were doing. </p>
<p>She got into a top level funded program, but even “funded” means that there is a gap between her living expenses and what she gets as a stipend. This is about as good as it gets, and she is single No kids, living in a boarding house where other grad students are, in the student ghetto, hardly an option for you with a family. Plus, you say your husband want to do the same? Which means he needs to get something at the same school or a school in the same area. </p>
<p>The only way to find out is to give it a go. But really, colleagues and others in the field are the ones you should be consulting with these questions.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. Yes, we would try to get into a program at the same school (we have done that with the M.A. programs we are attending, but PhDs aren’t offered in our fields here). Our house and cars are paid for, and we have no student loans from our other degrees, so I think we could reasonably live very cheap on two decent stipends. It’s just getting them that’s the problem! As I said, I don’t think he will have much trouble, and if he got a good offer somewhere and I didn’t, I suppose we’d go there and I’d look for a job. I’d like to think I have a chance, but as you said, I’ll ask around the department.</p>
<p>Your undergraduate GPA won’t be as important, given that it’s many years behind you and you will have a history MA and a law degree to testify to your ability to complete post-college level work. The colleges can be explained by your husband’s military career, and I think universities are typically very forgiving of that.</p>
<p>The main question is - do you have an interest in an area of historical research, and do you have any experience doing historical research and a writing sample that you can show for that? Do you know of schools and programs that will be a good fit for your area of historical interest? Those qualities are far more important than your GRE score, and can even make up for a mediocre GPA (not a bad one, but a mediocre one).</p>
<p>The other question is, why do you want a PhD? You should know that the academic job market in history is very poor, and if you and your husband are both planning on academic careers in the humanities - getting one humanities job is difficult. Getting TWO humanities jobs within commuting distance of each other is even harder.</p>