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Only 3 classes (the most boring) and a theses and I will be finished with my MA. ;D The end is finally in sight as I don't plan on pursuing a PhD right away. I will take a year or two to write some articles to pad my CV and take a breather from school. I hope to be done next summer. I am taking it easy with courses right now because I am expecting deployment orders and don't want to be in the middle of 2 classes when I have to drop so I will take them one at a time. I would like to knock them out and be done by the spring but I don't think I will have my theses research done by then.I have already settled on a topic and I picked my theses adviser early in my MA studies and have been working with him ever since. I have done a lot of research so far and have about 65 pages of my first draft done. I expect my theses will run to between 120-150 pages and be easily scalable into a book project upon completion. I am excited because towards the end of August I plan on visiting the battlefield in the Czech Republic of the battle upon which I am writing my theses. It is only about 3 1/2 hours from where I live and I will go there with my wife and son and camp for about 4 days, which is probably just enough time to let me formulate questions and start planning another trip before I finish my paper.How is everyone else in school doing on progress? It seems like school goes fast and slow at the same time. But I am glad to be approaching the finish line for now.
Where are you going to be deployed? Afghanistan? That's cool you are going to visit the battle field you are writing about. Who is your advisor if you don't mind the question?I'm almost 1/2 way done with my BA. I scheduled the rest of this year. I do feel like I need a month off soon though, maybe next summer, yet I also feel like I want to get this done with as quickly as possible so I can go on to graduate school (and change careers before I get too old). Philosophy is a little..uh...different than I thought it would be, not as interesting as history classes, but not totally boring. It's going by slow now, but maybe because it's the summer. Taking an Amer Hist (colonial) course next, then a Medieval class.
After I complete my summer course I'll have five left to finish my MA (one of those classes is the qualifying paper class). Right now I'm feeling like things are slowly crunching down on me…classwork, a book review, preparing for conference presentations, looking for an internship, learning a foreign language, and exploring phd schools. Things aren't quite as fun when there's a ton of things I feel like I need to do. But I've been in this situation before, and so I think I can handle it.
Where are you going to be deployed? Afghanistan?
If anywhere, it will be Afghanistan. I have a friend of mine over there on a MIT team advising tha Afghan Army rght now and he says it is a blast. He gets enough contact to keep it exciting but he says the most fun is training the Afghans and seeing how they are improving.The best thing about Europe is being able to visit all the places I have studied. I am writing about the Battle fo Koniggratz. I have been planning to go since I got to Europe last year and I am finally going to make it happen. My wife and I are also planning a trip to Greece at the beginning of September while my son is on summer break form school. We will be spending ten days there, a week in Corfu and a 3 days in Athens if I can swing it.Phid, The language part is pretty hard isnt it? I know I have struggled learning German and I took four years of Latin in high school. I know what you mean about things weighing down, that is one of the main reasons besides possible deployment that I have lightened my course load. i got tired of spending all of my time doing schoolwork. It started to feel like all I had was work and school and it was making my wife grumpy. The last two months of no school has been a great refresher. I feel like I am ready to plunge back into schoolwork. Next week I start a class on Modern European History so start to expect me to post on the last two hundred years or so.
My wife and I are also planning a trip to Greece
Your assignment is to find all 95 references to Hadrian in Athens and take lots of pictures. ;D
My wife and I are also planning a trip to Greece
Your assignment is to find all 95 references to Hadrian in Athens and take lots of pictures. ;D
I will try to keep you in mind as I am goggling at the Acropolis and the field in Marathon if I can make the Athens trip work out. ;D I will even take some pictures for you. ;D
Some info on cheap hotels in Athens would be great too. 🙂
I will see what I find out. One curious thing I have discovered is that you can often get better deals on the exact same flight and hotel through European websites than you can through American ones. For Example: the last time we flew from the States to Germany and back before we moved we bought our tickets through http://www.opodo.de and payed almost $300 less for the exact same flights than if we had bought them through expedia or travelocity.
Hey Scout – congrats on getting closer to being done.I finished my graduate certificate in WWII studies back in the spring, took some time off, transferred the credits from the certificate into an MA in Military History, and will start my next class on Monday.Enjoy your time in Europe and keep your helmet buckled when you deploy - stay safe.
I thought about Military History because that is what I got my BA in but then went with European History because I figured I would have better chances of employment at a European school with that degree. My big interest is still the military side of history though.I start my next class on monday as well. One question, if you transfer the cert. classes you still have the certificate though right? Is it analogous to getting an associates and then moving into a bachelors program?
I completed my certificate before enrolling in the master's – so yes, I have earned and will keep my certificate.Generally, you can earn a certificate along with the degree, provided the certificate is not embedded in your major - but generally that means more classes - or that they take up elective credit. For me, only three classes transferred in for credit
I have thought about getting the certificate in Land Warfare but am not sure what benefit having a certificate would be when I apply for teaching positions. I guess education is generally the more the better but am not sure.
I am going to try and get into a PhD program here in Germany after I retire. I would like to teach at the Undergad and Grad level when I eventually finish school. My long term goal is to be able to make a living writing, but that is probably a pipe dream, but also one I will not give up.
My long term goal is also to teach at the college level, and perhaps take some study tours to Europe (e.g. during the summer months) on the side. Maybe write an occasional book on the side. I don't mind if I don't teach at a big or prestigious institution…in fact I'd probably prefer to teach at a smaller school. I don't really like the politics of academia that I think are associated with large programs. 🙁
