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Deadlines:
Applications must be received by December 5. The department
admits students in the fall quarter only. The sooner all
your materials are submitted, the greater chance we have
to evaluate your application for centrally funded fellowships.
Second, each component of your application is important:
statement of purpose, all transcripts, three letters of
recommendation, GRE scores, your field of study preference
form, and your writing sample. Incomplete applications will
not be evaluated.
The Evaluation Process:
1. When your file is complete, it is sent to the faculty
member(s) in the field which you designate as your first
choice on the field preference form.
2. Faculty members read the complete file and make written
evaluations of the candidate. There are two key questions
which faculty members decide on a simple yes/no basis: (1)
should the candidate be admitted to the program, and (2)
will you be the major professor for the student. The latter
is the more important of the two questions, since no student
is admitted to the program without a faculty sponsor. Thus,
acceptance into the program means that you will be working
with a specific faculty member, who is designated your "mentor."
The graduate program in History is for doctoral training;
no student is admitted for the M.A. only. Faculty accept
students who show scholarly promise.
3. The grounds for not admitting applicants are diverse.
Even candidates with strong academic records are rejected.
No faculty member may be available in the field in which
the student is applying; or there may be no room for qualified
candidates in the program. On the form the department's
Director of Graduate Studies fills out for the Graduate
Division, the reasons for non-acceptance are: that the candidate
(1) is not competitive; (2) has inadequate preparation;
(3) lacks a faculty sponsor; (4) has interests not suitably
represented in our department; (5) is applying in a program
which cannot accommodate any more qualified candidates;
(6) has inadequate facility in English (foreign students).
4. Since the faculty members in the appropriate fields
do the work of selecting their graduate students, you should
pay the utmost attention to your statement of purpose, specifying
the nature of your research interests as precisely as you
can. Faculty give these statements very close scrutiny.
That is why drafting a cogent and careful statement is of
the essence, for it is your argument for wanting to study
a particular field of history here at UCSB.
Since no candidate is accepted into the program without
a major professor, you should examine the list of faculty
to see whether your interests coincide with those of our
faculty. Further information on faculty members is available
via e-mail, through the History departmental listing on
the web.
We realize that many candidates are applying to several
graduate schools and many are well-qualified for admission
to history programs. But in evaluating applications to our
program, we look for specific reasons why we should accept
a particular student at UCSB.
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