I am applying for a PhD History program and need help with my personal statement. Any suggestions?

Question

I am applying a few good schools and would like to make the best impression possible. Are there any good pointers on what I should add? Any cliches I should avoid? Also, some schools require that I already pick a concentration and write which professors I would like to work with. Does this really matter as far as me getting in? Will picking something that most people want to work on such as US or European history make me less likely to get in? Thanks

Answer 1

A successful personal statement is a literate, elegantly written essay in which the student highlights her strong preparation for her intended area of study, articulates her planned area of study and her goals after completing this study, and demonstrates her facility with current theory and practice in this area.

In other words, why do you want to go to grad school? How have you prepared for graduate study thus far? What will you study when you are there? What theories and methods do you find most congenial in terms of your area of study? With whom do you want to study, and why? (Name the scholars you've found most inspirational or influential. You've chosen the schools to which you're applying on that basis, anyway, haven't you? You must state your reasons for wanting to attend THAT particular graduate program.) And finally, what do you plan to do with this degree once you earn it?

It should be clear at this point that you MUST have a planned focus. The admissions commitee willl choose whom to admit in terms of "fit," which basically means that each professor will decide if s/he wants to work/is able to work with each candidate, in terms of both field of specialization, and methodology.

One final note: Make sure your writing sample is impeccable, and reflects your capacities for original scholarship. It would be best if this paper reflects your area of interest, and employs your preferred method.

Best wishes to you!

Answer 2

The most important part of your personal statement should be a clear articulation of your goals. If your selection of a field of study such as U.S. or European history will best further those goals, your choice will not be a deterrent to admission.

In your cover letter, highlight anything in your educational or work experience that is pertinent to your field. With their permission, you could even quote a favorable statement a professor or mentor has made about you.

If the university of your choice is especially noted for its expertise in one area of history, mention any background or interest you have in that area.

Enclose a resume. This is an excellent site for ideas for resume writing:
http://resume.monster.com/articles/declutter/

Have someone whose opinion you value critique your statement.

Answer 3

Well, I'm not too sure about history or other humanities, but here's a few things from when I applied to grad school for physics. The key things I talked about in my personal statement were 1) why I wanted to go to grad school, 2) the subjects I was interested in pursuing if I got in, and 3) pointing out a few things about my academic record (for me, I had a really bad semester which I tried to explain).

In the sciences at least, grad school is a kind of apprenticeship. The department and eventually your adviser will make significant investments of time and money in you, and want to be sure that they'll get some return. This return basically comes in the form of you doing work for them, including teaching but also supporting the research of your advisor. So, not only do they want to know that you'll be able to handle the work (this is where grades, GREs, and recommendations come in), but also that you'll try to pursue a subject which some of the faculty are actively researching and might need grad students for. So, at least in the sciences, knowing what you want to research, applying to places who are very active in that area, and letting them know about this correlation can be a bonus. Thus, saying you want to do something a lot of people want to do isn't necessarily a bad thing so long as there's a lot of research going on in that field.

Now, as I started by indicating, history may be very different from physics. I don't know where the funding for students comes from in history, while I know that in physics a lot of the funding is government grants for experimental research, experimental research being the research that leads most directly to practical applications in the real world, stuff that could lead to commercial products or technology. I don't think that history is similar to this, so I don't know exactly how that changes the position of grad students in history. (I'm not looking down on history, because as it turns out me and most of my fellow graduate students came into graduate school hoping we would be able to do theoretical physics; however, there's no money there, so most of us will end up as experimentalists; so just because it might never lead to any useful technology or product doesn't mean no one wants to do it... ;) ).

The one thing which probably you do want to do is discuss anything that's odd or out of place on your record. For instance, I had one really bad semester while taking some rather important courses, and ended up dedicating a part of my personal statement to explaining what happened that semester (I burned myself out in one of the first weeks of classes and never got back on track).

I hope that this helps some. And good luck.

Answer 4

Please do not ever use cliches. If the school requires you to choose a professor, try to find out who is who and pick one, but do so if asked. As far as the essay, Be consise, clear, add any community service, pump yourself up, you are selling yourself, you are your best advocate. They do not know you. Your paper must stand out. Therefore, have it proofread, use it for all of the schools, make it work. Do not be afraid to be bold, this is your chance to tell them who you are and why they should be lucky to have you there. HAVE IT PROOFREAD.

Answer 5

Writing personal statement is difficult as you have to be more specific and also engaging about it. So, in this case you can have some help from phd personal statement writing services online to get this thing done easily and on time. Good Luck!

Answer 6

My tutorial purpose is to receive a PhD in heritage with an emphasis on American heritage, a doctorate degree can help you me income my occupation purpose of changing right into a professor of u . s . a . heritage on the faculty aspect.