Law School Drop Out turned History Graduate Student Hopeful

Graduate School
1

<p>After having a good undergraduate education in Middle Eastern Studies from a respected public institutions, including 2 study abroads, developing advanced proficiency in Arabic, conducting research in the region, having my senior thesis featured by university, and graduating undergrad with a 3.8…I made a mistake - the biggest mistake of my life.</p>

<p>I should have followed my heart as I knew I wanted to be a Historian of the Middle East. That being said, I was pressured to do something “practical” and went to law school…a good one, but by no means Harvard. Needless to say, the law was not for me. I realized that after my first year as I hated the subject matter and my grades were pretty lousy, so I am a drop out. On top of that, law schools grade on a forced curve so my GPA would have been better at a school that has a higher set median GPA. I was also working close to full time during my 1L year - another big mistake.</p>

<p>As I finish up my grad school applications, this huge blemish on educational history is starting to give me quite a bit of anxiety. Will I be able to get into Masters/Doctoral Programs in Middle East Studies or Middle Eastern History? I’m applying to both MA and PhD level although my ultimate goal is the PhD.</p>

<p>For the schools that want statement of interest, I address it and try to explain it while taking responsibility, but I am unsure as to how they will view it and the best way to phrase it.</p>

<p>For schools that want research proposals, I may just send in an addendum to my application to explain the situation.</p>

<p>Needless to say, I am worried that dropping out of law school and having an abysmal 2.7 Law School GPA will end any hope for an MA program, let alone a PhD program. Or that if I do get into a terminal MA and apply on to PhDs when done, there still won’t be any hope. If only I could turn back time.</p>

<p>Help!</p>

2

<p>You’re not the only one. There are far more people who quit law to study history than you think. Adcoms are used to that transformation. So you’ll be stacked against those people.</p>

<p>Because you did just one year of law school, your UG GPA is still fairly important so they’ll take that into account. Your languages are very important so if you have documentation of your advanced level through LOR, transcripts, or senior thesis, they’ll praise you for that. </p>

<p>You may think that dropping out of law school is your “biggest” mistake of your life… that’s within the context of “so far” as you MAY realize in a year or two that going to graduate school for history may be an even bigger mistake. Of course, you won’t know until you go.</p>

<p>Why? Why do you want to get your graduate degree in history? There are far more people out there in history graduate programs who go in without any real idea or experience of knowing what being a trained historian is really all about. Being a trained historian is vastly, vastly different from what one imagines while an undergraduate.</p>