For many undergraduates, the idea of a masters or doctoral program can be extremely intimidating. As an undergraduate student myself, I try to get insight and advice for grad school anywhere I can. For today's blog post, I decided to interview someone with experience in applying to master's and doctoral programs as a history major. Kaelyn Apple is currently a doctoral student in history and African American Studies at Yale University. She has also earned a master's degree in history from Oxford, as well as a bachelor's in history and African American Studies from UCLA, after transferring from community college. In a recent interview, she gave copious amounts of information and insight into graduate school, the transfer process, and the study of history.
Q: When and how did you decide to become a history major?
A: I had started doin some external reading, just random history books, related primarily to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, because its what I found interesting. I knew I always loved history, so I started with that and then I really dedicated myself to it. I would say after discovering Annette Gordon-Reed’s Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy is what really changed things for me. It led me to recognize the importance of history in public discourse, and the way we talk about race and the involvement of the founding fathers in the institution of slavery.
Q: What is it about history (broad) and your specific research projects (narrow) that fascinates you?
A: My fascination with history is that you get to see human interactions and the way a society develops in slow motion. You get to see all of these little factors, and it’s never entirely solvable. You’re constantly speculating based on the sources. I just find it to be very intellectually stimulating. I really love the work and the research of it. One of my projects is on enslaved persons in Virginia who fled to the British side during the American Revolution. In undergrad I became fascinated with alternative views of the Revolution, like the implication of indigenous alliances, the Loyalist point of view, and women’s involvement. I find that project really interesting because I use quantitative data. As for my newer project, it’s legal history. It focuses on partus sequitur ventrem, which is the law that establishes that any child born of an enslaved woman would also be enslaved. It’s a Roman law, but is enshrined in the American legal context and establishes transgenerational system of chattel slavery.
Q: What has your favorite class been?
A: That’s a hard question. I have so many classes that have really shaped my thinking and my perception. I had an undergraduate seminar at UCLA that was about alternative perspectives of the American Revolution. And then I also took this history of sexual violence course. And that’s what kind of led to my current research. Those classes became the most influential based on who taught them and the relationships that I managed to develop with the faculty.
Q: What are some of the biggest ways being a transfer student has affected your university experience?
A: In terms of my undergrad experience in particular, I realized that time was of the essence. I had very little time there [at UCLA] and I needed to reap the benefits of that experience to the best of my ability. I remember making the very intentional decision when I got to UCLA of telling myself, “I will never take a single day here for granted.” I’d had so many conversations with other people who thought that it was going by too quickly, and it would be over and they felt like they didn’t take advantage of it. And I didn’t want that to be my experience. In terms of being a transfer in the graduate space, I felt apologetic. I felt like it was something against me in the application process. I felt that there was a lot of pressure for me to assert that I was a valuable candidate. I also had poor grades in community college that I felt I had to “make up for.” As I was applying to these programs, I realized that you don’t need to apologize. Your experience is your experience, no matter where you come from.
Q: Was there any kind of a “culture shock” when you got to UCLA, after the community college experience?
A: Yeah. Classes were so much harder. I had a very distinct study pattern for getting good grades in community college. But the way I had to engage with the material in UCLA was very different. The quality of the writing was required to be a lot better. The expectations were a lot higher. Also, in community college I was working full time, so I was so used to having a jam packed schedule. When I got to UCLA, I had all this extra time in my schedule and I didn’t know what to do with it. Learning to study effectively and learning when I needed to study and when I needed to rest, was an adjustment period. [Another thing that is different is that] in community college, most people are working. The demographic of who’s in community college is quite different. It’s often older, people are often working and have families.
Q: What’s the most important piece of advice you’ve gotten for grad school?
A: For grad school admissions, the most important advice I got was to demonstrate your way of thinking and your passion for the subject. The one thing that really stuck with me is that you want to demonstrate tot he committee that you are prepared for the pressures of grad school. And you want to be able to be self sufficient. In terms of advice for graduate school, I learned that if you want to be marketable at the end of the program, you have to publish, publish, publish. You have to be on top of your game, and network.
Q: Is grad school as scary or intense as it sounds?
A: I think it depends on what university you’re in and who your advisor is. I found that the expectations at Oxford were very challenging in terms of the way they graded. They expected you to be the best of the best, but didn’t provide much support. In a way, that prepared me for my P.h.D. I think if I hadn’t had that experience, I would’ve thought it was much more challenging coming here. Here [at Yale] I feel much more supported, I feel as though the faculty do try to make a point of being there for the graduate students.
Q: How is grad school and post-grad different from undergraduate history programs?
A: Graduate school is much more intense. The expectation of how much you are going to read, how much in depth you’re going to read, and how much you’re going to be expected to discuss that reading is much greater than in undergrad. You have to engage with the material in a much different way. In graduate school you really have to participate throughout, and demonstrate that you really are developing as an aspiring scholar. I would also mention the social aspects. Graduate school is much more isolating; if you want to have a social life you need to initiate that.
Taken with permission from Kaelyn's Instagram, @theredheadacademic
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