To Aaron and others confronting the Masters/PhD:

I'd go with the famous school for the PhD.   For graduate work, the rule of
thumb is to go with the best possible school that accepts you and that also
offers what you really want to study.    Every professional job that I've
gotten in the 15 years since I left graduate school, had an Indiana
University connection.   I did both my masters and doctorate at Indiana
Univesity - Bloomington.   In each case with my job interviews, some one on
the search committee had a connection to Indiana University, although none of
these jobs was in Indiana!   All the jobs have been in the South.

If you want to teach on the college level, these days you absolutely must
have a
doctorate.    You can always leave school after you complete all of your
course work, research, and qualifying exams, and then write your dissertation
while you are working fulltime.   This is what I did.  It takes longer, but
that way, you get both
job experience and the degree at the same time.

When I went to Indiana for graduate school, I only had enough money for one
semester.   I got scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships.   If you
don't have money for graduate school, you must simply keep your eye on the
prize and work really hard.    I typed and edited dissertations and masters
papers for other students to earn money to supplement my assistantships, I
worked part-time doing computer work for insurance companies and factories, I
wrote grants to fund my own research projects, I taught seminars in the
summers, I edited professional journals.

It was a lot of work, but in the long run, it benefited me.    In recent
years, as executive director of small and medium- sized museums, I still am
constantly worried about money: planning new earned income sources for the
museums where I work, writing grants, networking with funders -- all skills
that I learned in graduate school to sustain my own educational activities.

Good luck and don't give up!

pamela sezgin
Georgia Mountains History Museum

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