After speaking to the Graduate Director at CU, I have some more insights on why I got the rejection letter. University policy requires that a faculty member agree to serve as your (research) adviser before you can be admitted. The only Prof on my committee from my specialty (Diplomatic History) was the lone faculty member I met with on my campus visit that I didn't connect with. The other Diplomatic History faculty member is on a Fulbright Grant in Japan all year. So I had no one to agree to work with me.
There were also lots more applicants in Diplomatic History than usual, which didn't help any.
Dr. A suggested a couple of ideas - take a class this Fall as a non-degree seeking student to gain some visibility and hopefully an advocate for admission, get a fourth letter of recommendation from a Historian when I re-apply (I had three Historians, a Mass Comm Prof, and a PhD candidate), add some additional foreign language skills, and schmooz some more faculty members. I can also try to get re-consideration if I can find a faculty member to agree to work with me, and Dr. A gave me some ideas of who to talk to regarding that.
At this point, I'm trying to decide what to do. I'm leaning toward waiting, developing some more coherent research ideas, adding to my language skills, and trying to develop some relationships with CU Faculty members. That approach will also let us pay off more bills, get more money in the bank, and maybe pay off one of the cars.
I'm still going to talk to the faculty members that Dr. A mentioned to me. It certainly doesn't hurt to start developing the relationships - and I'm really bad at the networking aspects of this type of thing. I just don't enjoy it. I feel awkward doing it, partly because I'm kind of shy, partly because I don't like bothering people that don't know me from Adam.
I also got some feedback regarding the value of the online MA from SHSU from Dr. A. On one level, it's no big deal that it's online because it's a properly accredited program. However, because you don't get the same level of classroom interaction, and you aren't challenged as quickly on your stances, they might not allow as many transfer credits for previous coursework. On one level, that sucks, because it would be nice to have five classes less to take for the degree. On the other hand, though, at least they accept it as a valid degree. And there's nothing wrong with additional learning, is there?
I've pretty much decided that I'm going to shutdown this blog and start a new one focused on History, teaching, research, and historiography. I'm not sure when that will happen, or what it will be called. Right now I am looking for good names, and starting to work on site design, so I'm open to suggestions.
Over the next couple of weeks I'm also going to start looking for other History PhD programs to apply for - the challenge will be finding one that works with my research interests and is also near a law school that my wife is comfortable at. The debate is already brewing: she is oriented toward University of Florida, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Georgetown, etc... I, in the other hand, am looking toward University of Texas-Arlington, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Notre Dame, George Mason, and Alabama. It will be interesting to see what happens.
I just got my official rejection letter for the PhD program at CU. Although I'm bummed, I can't say that I'm all that surprised - in fact I can think of several reasons my application was turned down. The big one may be that while my primary interest is in Military History, no one at CU does Military History. It's alos possible that the problem was that my MA from SHSU is considered 2nd or 3rd tier, or that they weren't comfortable with the fact that I did it online. They may not have liked my writing sample (on the My Lai Massacre), or my personal statement. Who knows? I'll probably give the Dept. Chair a call in a few weeks to ask for feedback. That way I can evaluate things for my applications to other programs.
To be honest (and this will sound like sour grapes), CU was not my first choice - it was a fall back because my wife is a student at CU, and we hoped that she could go to law school while I worked on the PhD. So we go back to the drawing board and try to find law school / history combinations that we have a good chance of agreeing on. In the meantime, I teach, work, and use the time to get a Master's in Library Science.
So I'm smack dab in the middle of the third week of my first teaching experience, which means that there are maybe six or so weeks left until the end of the semester - it's only a ten week course - and I'm both enjoying it and frustrated by it.
On the one hand, I'm happy to be teaching and using at least some of what I've learned in the truly ridiculous number of History courses I've taken. I'm also glad to be able to use my experiences as a student in a completely online graduate History program (BTW, SHSU recently applied to the State of Texas to develop a PhD program). I think I've got some insights into the online learning environment that a lot of other instructors don't.
On the other hand, I'm incredible frustrated: by my students; by the short session; that I'm teaching a course that someone else developed; that there's not an incredible amount of space for my own individuality other than how I interact with student in discussion posts, emails, and grading of exams and papers; that I frequently am at a loss at how to deal with student issues like problems accessing the quizzes, attempts at cheating, laziness, and preparation.
The gripping hand is that I have a great faculty mentor (thanks LM) to help me through some of the frustrations above; I teach for an organization that was willing to give a newly minted MA, with a degree from an online program, who had zero prior teaching experience a part-time job; that we're changing text books for Western Civ, which requires course re-development that I get to be part of; that I will also get the opportunity to teach some U.S. History in the future; and that I will hopefully get to develop some World History courses for my institution. In other words, this is a great opportunity for someone in my position.
The most frustrating bit is that I have a few students that are motivated and try hard; a few that are good at being students, but don't try so hard; and a few that are neither good students, nor interested in really trying. Maybe that's the special consequence and challenge of Community Colleges. I was certainly not prepared for the types of students I'm facing - but, then, how could I be?
I'm sure things will get better. After all, I'm already more confident in dealing with my students - although a large number of them have dropped the class.
Work and teaching have been keeping me quite busy, so this is the area that fell off. I'll be posting some more later this week, including first impressions from online teaching, an idea for a journal article that occured to me while driving to work, and hopefully whether I get into the PhD. program, or not.