Find the information and guidance you need regarding advising, research requirements, plan of study, departmental guidelines on dissertations and more. For further details, consult the Columbian College Doctoral Student Handbook.
Find the information and guidance you need regarding advising, research requirements, plan of study, departmental guidelines on dissertations and more. For further details, consult the Columbian College Doctoral Student Handbook.
History faculty with new PhD Mark Alexander (second from right) after his dissertation defense.
In addition to the Columbian College’s application requirements, graduate program applicants should follow these guidelines.
Applying ahead of the deadline allows time to send in any missing information or further details that might strengthen your application before the deadline. It also gives reviewers more time to read your application carefully before the final rush, and ensures that your application will be considered before all the slots for a given year are filled (whether or not you apply for financial aid).
Because we seek to determine your potential as a historian, letters of recommendation should be solicited primarily from historians with whom you have worked during your academic career. If you did not major in history and therefore cannot get many (or any) letters from historians, then letters from professors in the field in which you majored are the next best thing. Letters of recommendation from employers, family friends and the like are useless to us, unless your employer or friend is a historian (or perhaps an archivist or a curator), has a graduate degree in history (or a related field) or works closely with historians.
Your statement of purpose must answer three questions:
We prefer a history paper written during an applicant's undergraduate or master's studies, and research papers are especially helpful to the admissions committee. Between 10 and 20 pages is ideal, though longer is acceptable.
Take the GRE months before the application deadline. If you are disappointed with your score, you will still have plenty of time to take it again. The GRE score is especially important for applicants whose undergraduate degrees are from less well-known institutions, as the admissions committee will not be as familiar with the grading standards at those schools, nor with the faculty from those colleges who write your letters of recommendation.
In addition to the Columbian College’s Doctoral Student Handbook, doctoral program applicants should follow these guidelines.
The advisor determines your course of study and signs off on comprehensive exams, advises on the dissertation and helps make other decisions throughout the degree program. The advisor will also write your main letter of recommendation when you apply for jobs. It is therefore important to develop a strong intellectual rapport with your advisor.
When you first begin the PhD program, you will work with the director of graduate studies until you are assigned an advisor. Spend some time learning about the full-time faculty and recent research that overlap with your interests. Graduate study is collaborative, and it is important to invest some time getting to know the faculty who will guide your work.
Give priority to 6000-level reading and research courses taught by faculty members likely to serve on your committee or as your advisor. You should also prioritize courses in areas related to your comprehensive exams.
You may enroll in consortium classes or courses in departments other than history as long as they are related to your program of study at GW.
In consultation with your advisor, you should choose a dissertation topic and write a prospectus (proposal) that includes:
The typical dissertation prospectus is 15–20 pages long, plus a bibliography. Ask your advisor for a more detailed explanation of what he or she expects.
Once your advisor has approved your prospectus, you should distribute it to your committee members at least two weeks before the defense. There they will question you to determine the feasibility of your project. If the committee approves your prospectus, you may advance to candidacy.
Before starting to write their dissertation, PhD students must:
See the appropriate section in the Doctoral Student Handbook.
You should budget at least four months between completing your dissertation and depositing it. Check well in advance to make sure your advisors and committee members will be available during your finishing months. Your advisor should read and comment on your dissertation before you distribute it to the entire committee.
You should distribute hard copies of your dissertation to all readers. Your dissertation should be formatted, proofread and footnoted perfectly before you distribute it to your committee. It should be a draft to your readers but a finished product to you. You will be judged on the dissertation you hand in, not what it might become by the time you deposit your final draft.
Month 1: Advisor Review
Submit your final draft to your dissertation advisor, who will read and suggest revisions before it is ready to go out to the committee. Faculty members need at least one month to read your dissertation carefully.
Month 2: Revisions
Complete revisions suggested by your advisor. You will likely need at least one month to do so.
Month 3: Committee Review
Distribute dissertation to the committee and two outside readers (a total of five or six), and schedule the defense.
Month 4: Defense
Defend your dissertation, make any required changes, format it according to specific university requirements and deposit it. The dissertation defense is an oral examination that normally lasts about 90 minutes. Your director presents you at the defense but does not participate in the questioning, which is done by the other committee members.
Once the examination part of the defense is completed, you leave the room while the examiners and your director evaluate your work. They may choose to accept the dissertation as is or recommend revisions, which could entail anything from fixing a few typos to a major overhaul.
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