Admissions
Procedures and Information
Standards
and Criteria for Admission
Application
Process
Progress
of Your Application
Items
to Send Directly to Graduate Advisor
Standards
and Criteria for Admission
Detailed information about
"Graduate Admission Procedures and Policies" may be
found in the San Jose State University Catalog, 2002-2004, pp.
436-444.* University policy requires that, except under special
circumstances, all applicants for graduate school have a minimum
gpa of 2.5. As a general rule, the history department requires
a gpa close to, or above, 3.25, and grades for history courses
are scrutinized for signs of promise.
The History Department makes
its admission decisions not solely on the above criteria, but
also in relation to the department's resources and the number
of new graduate students it believes it can accommodate. In
years where the number of students applying significantly exceeds
the estimated capacity of the department, not all students meeting
the minimum standards can or will be admitted.
Most applicants with a B.A. degree
in history will be accepted as fully classified graduate students,
that is, without being required to take additional classes beyond
the 30 unit M.A. requirement. Promising applicants who do not
have a B.A. in history may be admitted as conditionally classified
students and required to take a minimum of
two courses: History 102 (Historiography) and History 200 (Graduate
Methodology, Research, and Writing). These course units will
not count toward the 30 unit requirement for the M.A. degree.
The Graduate Advisor also may require additional prerequisites
of non-history majors up to a combined total of 15 units.
* A copy of the most recent issue
of the San Jose State University Catalog may be purchased
from the Spartan Bookstore. Orders may be placed over the
web with a credit card. Go to www.spartanbookstore.com.
Once at the site, click on "SUPPLIES" from the top
menu. Then look to your left in the column headed "MERCHANDISE",
and click on catalogs/schedules. The phone number of the bookstore
is (408) 924-1800. The catalog may also be read online at
http://info.sjsu.edu/home/catalog.html.
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The
Application Process
The History Department
Does Not Require the GRE Exam.
Beginning in the academic year 2003-4,
the History Department will be accepting graduate students
only once a year, in the fall semester. Students will no longer
be able to start our program in the spring semester.
In addition, beginning in the 2003-04
academic year, we will be collecting and holding all applications
until mid-spring so that we can monitor our enrollment numbers
and quality in relation to our resources more effectively.
Consequently, the following application and admission schedule
will be posted by Graduate Studies for our program:
The application deadline for the fall semester will be March 15 for the following. Thus, people applying for
admission in fall 2010 must apply by March 15, 2010. The
deadline for receiving all supporting documents will be March 15 (e.g. March 15, 2010 for fall 2010 applications). Please
check the Graduate Studies and Research website for any future
changes in admission deadlines: http://www.sjsu.edu/gradstudies/Prospective/Index.html.
Applicants will be notified
as to whether they have been admitted in the last two weeks
of April, but no earlier. Please keep this in mind, and do
not call either Graduate Studies, the Graduate Advisor, or
the History Department to find out whether you have been admitted
until after May 30.
To apply for university graduate admission
one must apply online. Go to http://www.csumentor.edu/.
For further information about the application process at SJSU
go to the Graduate Studies website http://www.sjsu.edu/gradstudies/
and click on "Prospective Students," where you will
find all pertinent information.
The Graduate Division cannot process your application
until it receives your fees and copies of all your
official transcripts. It is highly recommended that you have
your sealed transcripts sent directly to you, and that once
you have collected all of them, send them as a package to
the Graduate Studies Office. This way you will know whether
your previous educational institutions have sent out your
transcripts AND they will not have to be collected one at
a time at Graduate Studies.
BE SURE TO SEND THE OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTS
TO GRADUATE STUDIES AND NOT TO THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT
OR THE HISTORY GRADUATE ADVISOR.
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How to Check
That Graduate Studies Has All Your Documentation and on the
Progress of Your Application with Them
After your application has
been received by Graduate Studies, you will receive an email
containing a User I.D. and instructions on how to check on
the status of your graduate application. This email will be
followed by a letter containing your own personal Password.
Once you have received your User I.D. and your Password, you
can check on the progress of your application by logging on
to: http://www.myeducation.sjsu.edu/
At the outset, remember that the
History Graduate Adviser cannot act on your application until
it is fully processed by Graduate Studies.
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What You Should
Send to the History Graduate Advisor AND NOT TO GRADUATE
STUDIES
PLEASE ASSEMBLE
THE ITEMS BELOW AS ONE PACKAGE AND MAIL TO THE GRADUATE ADVISOR.
PLEASE DO NOT SEND THE ITEMS SEPERATELY.
INCOMPETE APPLICATIONS WILL
NOT BE CONSIDERED.
1) Two letters of recommendation: Please have two
letters of recommendation sent to the Graduate
Advisor at the history department. These may be sent direct
by your referees or by you once you
have received the sealed letters from your referees.
People who received their
history degrees from San Jose State need not have professors
send letters of reference, but must
list three San Jose State professors who can speak to your
qualifications.
2) A statement of purpose:
In evaluating your application your statement of purpose will
be very important. Please take time
to address all of the following thoroughly and thoughtfully.
You may do this in any order. Please
fully double space your written answer.
• Why you now want
to pursue an M.A. degree in History? Do you want to teach
in a Community
College or in the public schools, or enhance an existing teaching
credential? Do
you want to work in fields outside of teaching with your degree?
Do you intend to work toward
a Ph.D.? Or, do you want to obtain the degree for your personal
edification? In evaluating
applications, the Graduate Committee does give preference
according to your reason
for wanting to enter an M.A. history program. (For example,
applicants stating that they
intend to go into a Ph.D. program will not be at an advantage
over applicants who are applying
for other reasons). It does, however, request as clear a statement
as possible from
applicants as to why they want to pursue an advanced degree.
•
What areas (U.S., European, Asian, Ancient/ Medieval et al.)
and periods of history do you
intend to study? If possible, suggest your primary field of
study from those that we offer.
If you have topical interests in these fields or periods,
mention them and explain how you
developed the interest (s). What prior training or interest
do you have in the general or specific
fields? Discuss in a few sentences one or more books that
have influenced you in your
main field of interest and why.
•
Describe and discuss your prior training in history. If you
have no prior training, describe and
discuss how other training or interests have turned you to
history and why you feel qualified
to study it at an advanced level, regardless of your prior
areas of study.
•
Please discuss in detail any factors that may affect your
application, negatively or positively.
For instance, if you are a returning student from many years
ago, why you now feel
the need to study history at the advanced level and why you
feel qualified to do so? If you
have a lackluster academic record heretofore, why is that
so and why do you think that
the graduate advisor/committee should overlook that? Or, on
the other hand, if you have
excelled prior to your application, highlight aspects of that
record.
3) A writing sample: Please
enclose a writing sample. This should be as academic and written
as recently as possible, though we
recognize that in a significant number of cases applicants
may find this difficult. In which case, send us something
that demonstrates your writing skills.
The piece should be between 600 and 1,000 words. It may be
part of a paper you have written,
or you may review a historical book that you have read. Please
do not send long or "full"
papers as the Graduate Committee has limited time to read
samples.
4) "Unofficial" transcripts:
Please send the History Department Graduate Advisor an
unofficial or unsealed copy of your
transcripts in addition to the “official” copies
sent to Graduate Studies.
5) A hard copy of your application.
To do this, use your browser's print command to print
each screen of the Graduate Application
as you fill it out online. For instructions go to
http://www.csumentor.edu/AdmissionApp/tech_support.html#print.
If all else fails, please print out
a copy of the application from the Graduate Studies website
and fill it out.
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Important Note for Students Re-Applying
to the Program, or in "Lapsed" Status
If you fail to enroll in classes
in the program for two successive semesters, Graduate Studies
will drop you from the program. (If you do not enroll for
one semester your status is not affected). When Graduate Studies
drops you from the program, you must formally reapply for
admission again. Please note that there is NO guarantee that
you will be re-admitted simply because you were formerly in
the program.
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