Graduate School Information

Choosing an Advisor 

This is perhaps the most important decision you will have to make regarding graduate school. A good advisor can make all the difference. Some things to consider include:

Your potential advisors relevance to your topic area; their activity in field; reviews of his/her supervision (ask former students); the average length of time to complete the degree under your potential advisor; your potential advisor's drop out rate; whether the advisor is old or new faculty (advantages to both).

Applying

Make sure you know your potential graduate school's cut off date to be considered for funding and to be considered for admittance. You will want to have your application in early so that you can be considered for scholarships.

Finding A School/Program

Some ways to get information about various graduate programs:

Guides to finding graduate programs in history:

Other Programs and Directions 

Archival Studies

Library and/or Archival and Information Studies

Public History (and related)

Military Studies

Funding/Scholarships

In addition to school and departmental based funding there are some national sources:

The Department of Canadian Heritage also has funds for the study of immigrant and ethnic subjects.

Print Resources

These printed works may also be of interest to potential applicants to graduate school:

Basalla, Susan and Maggie Debelius. "So What Are You Going to Do With That?" A Guide to Career-Changing For M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s.(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,2001).

Bradley, James E. and Richard A. Muller. Church History: An Introduction to Research, Reference Works, and Methods. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995).

Caplan, Paula J. Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide for Surviving in the Academic World. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

Clark, Robert E. and John Palattella. The Real Guide to Grad School: What You Better Know Before You Choose Humanities and Social Sciences. (Lingua Franca Books, 1997).

Derricourt, Robin M. An Author's Guide to Scholarly Publishing. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996).

Guide to Scholarly Publishing in Canada. 5th ed. (Ottawa: Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, Canadian Federation for the Humanities, 1995).

Heiberger, Mary Morris, and Julia Miller Vick. The Academic Job Search Handbook (3rd edition). (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001).

Howe, Barbara J. Careers for Students of History. (Washington: American Historical Association, 1989).

Locke, Lawrence F., Waneen Wyrick Spirduso, and Stephen J.Silverman. Proposals That Work: A Guide for Planning Dissertations and Grant Proposals (4th ed). (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications,2000).

Mitchell, Lesli. The Ultimate Grad School Survival Guide. (Princeton, NJ: Peterson's, 1996). Peters, Robert L. Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or a PhD. (New York: Noonday Press, 1992).

Resource Guide for Teaching and Marking Assistants in History. The Graduate Students' Committee of the Canadian Historical Association (2001).

Rudestam, Kjell Erik, and Rae R. Newton. Surviving Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process (2nd ed). (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001).

Sternberg, David. How to Complete and Survive a Doctoral Dissertation. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981).