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So I met this afternoon with Professor Immerman the Chair of Graduate studies in Temple's History program. It was a very interesting and also terrifying meeting.
The positive:
Temple has a very well supported and competitive History program
There are professors there working in almost exactly the areas I'm interested in, I'd mesh really well with their program.
My non-traditional background could work for me, I'm not the usual student
Getting into the Masters is significantly easier than the Ph.D. but has zero funding
Enrolling as a non-matriculated student is highly encouraged (I wanted to do that anyway)
If I apply for the Ph.D program and don't get in I can still be considered for the masters, if that goes really well they have in the past "jumped" students into the Ph.D without them finishing the masters, which could then make me eligible for funding.
He gave me several professors to look up, read up on and contact, as well as try to take their classes in the Spring.
The terrifying:
It's a competitive program and I'm not the textbook history student, it's possible my non-traditional background will work against me, he told me the faculty would be "divided"
I could get into the Ph.D. and not be offered funding
I could not get into the Ph.D. program at all very real possibility.
So there seem to be more positives than terrifying things, but I'm still terrified. I want this SO BADLY.
Especially as I'm soon to be unemployed. I kick myself that I couldn't make it work. But everyone has a breaking point, mine was reached. It's hard to remember how AWFUL I felt when looking at a stack of bills. But I'm gonna have faith and send out a billion resumes and it'll all work out!
The positive:
Temple has a very well supported and competitive History program
There are professors there working in almost exactly the areas I'm interested in, I'd mesh really well with their program.
My non-traditional background could work for me, I'm not the usual student
Getting into the Masters is significantly easier than the Ph.D. but has zero funding
Enrolling as a non-matriculated student is highly encouraged (I wanted to do that anyway)
If I apply for the Ph.D program and don't get in I can still be considered for the masters, if that goes really well they have in the past "jumped" students into the Ph.D without them finishing the masters, which could then make me eligible for funding.
He gave me several professors to look up, read up on and contact, as well as try to take their classes in the Spring.
The terrifying:
It's a competitive program and I'm not the textbook history student, it's possible my non-traditional background will work against me, he told me the faculty would be "divided"
I could get into the Ph.D. and not be offered funding
I could not get into the Ph.D. program at all very real possibility.
So there seem to be more positives than terrifying things, but I'm still terrified. I want this SO BADLY.
Especially as I'm soon to be unemployed. I kick myself that I couldn't make it work. But everyone has a breaking point, mine was reached. It's hard to remember how AWFUL I felt when looking at a stack of bills. But I'm gonna have faith and send out a billion resumes and it'll all work out!
