ความคิดเห็นที่ 1
It's nice to know there is still somebody else who also wants to become a historian!!! I assume you're thinking about going abroad. I don't know about schools in Europe, but I can give you some advice about how things work in America.
My advice is as follows:
1. Try to find out about the Fulbright scholarship. The website is www.fulbright.org. I don't know about KoPo scholarship, but Fulbright is where people in Humanities go to for financial support in humanities research.
2. The chance of getiing an assistantship is not so dim but you gotta work very hard. If you want to get it since the first semester, you might have to try the following:
2.1 you must have excellent scores on both the TOEFL and the GRE. This is because you need to read tons of books, write papers endlessly, and discuss your ideas a lot in graduate seminars.
2.2 your undergrad GPA and academic background can be a problem. You need at least three good letters of recommendation from your previous professors, who should vouch for your intelligence, diligence, strong interest in history, and most importantly you have to think about some issues in history that you're particulary interested in and believe you can give some knowledgeble comments on them. You will also need a WRITING SAMPLE, which should be about your thoughts on the historical issues of your interest. Basically the committee needs to make sure you have a critical mind and language skills to study in the program.
2.3 what kind of history are you interested in? Early European, Modern European, Asian, American, Diplomatic ? Find out WHAT field you want to focus your graduate work on and start looking for the universities that have the strength in such field. Like if you want to do Thai history, or Southeast Asian history, Cornell and Berkeley are best places to go. Check their websites and see if their programs match your interest. If they do, get the contact info of the graduate director of the program, who might be able to tell you on how to prepare for the application package. This is very important!!!!! Because if you go to universities where the field of your interest is not their strength, even though they let you in, you might have hard time finding professors to supervise your work and convincing them your work will contribute something to the university! On the other hand, if you, for example, want to study Southeast Asian history and go to Cornell, you will have a lot of prominant professors in the field to direct your work. Your chance of getting funding from the school is also easier (but you also have to prove yourself by showing them you can do it, and you might not get the funding after the first year).
Ph.D. study is about a clear aim to conduct research that will contribute to the pool of existing knowledge. History is fun to learn, but might not be so fun to study for a Ph.D. degree, this I sincerely warn you. If you really want to do it, you really need to put ALL YOUR EFFORTS in it.
Other schools that are famous in history that I can think of now include U.of Wisconsin-Madison (where a Thai professor Thongchai Winichakul is teaching and has produced a lot of research in Thai history), U.of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Stanford, and Ohio University, where there's a center for Southeast Asian Studies. You can also go to their websites and look for the faculty members and see who have done the work in your field of interest. You can even write them e-mails and ask questions!!! Just tell them you're interested and want to get more info. Professors here think it's their job to answer questions from students...so usually they will reply. Who knows, you might be able to form some kind of contact with them, which will make it easier for you to get in and receive the funding!
Anything is possible, but certain things can be more possible if you put your heart in it!
จากคุณ :
Mike
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21 ก.ค. 47 14:05:06
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