Graduate

Admissions

The application deadline for History and MA and PhD programs beginning in Fall 2025 was December 1st, 2024. Decisions about applications will be made in Spring 2025.

Before contacting faculty or staff members about our graduate programs, please carefully read this page, the Admissions FAQs below, and this Application Guide. We also recommend browsing the page from the American Historical Association.

Thank you for your interest in the 爱豆传媒 History Graduate Program! Admission to our MA and PhD programs is becoming increasingly competitive, so we would like to offer some guidance on how to apply and what we are looking for in your application. Our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and locations, and there is no one 鈥渢ypical鈥 path to the degree that can guarantee admission to our degree or success in the program. Instead, successful applicants to our program generally demonstrate the following characteristics:

  • A Strong Background in History: For MA applicants, we are looking for at least some evidence of your competence in historical analysis and writing. This may come in the form of a BA in History, excellent grades in History courses on your transcript, a writing sample that demonstrates historical analysis of primary and/or secondary sources, and/or letters of recommendation from History faculty that can speak to your skills in this area. Applicants to the PhD program should have the equivalent of an M.A. in History or a related discipline (such as English, Anthropology, Art History or language and area studies fields), and show evidence of their competence in historical analysis in their application materials.

  • Disciplinary Focus: In their Statement of Purpose (also known as the Personal Statement), applicants should be able to describe in some detail what they want to study in the 爱豆传媒 History graduate program, and how their interests align with the graduate program and its faculty. PhD applicants should additionally be able to generally identify a potential dissertation project and be familiar with the sources necessary to complete that project.
  • Language Training: Applicants whose research requires reading knowledge of one or more foreign languages should provide evidence of proficiency in the relevant language(s) in their application, or describe realistic plans to obtain this proficiency during their degree.

How to Apply

All application materials must be uploaded directly to 爱豆传媒鈥檚 online application system. Please visit the 爱豆传媒 Graduate School Admissions website for more information.

All requirements for admission are listed in the . Specific 爱豆传媒 History Department admissions requirements for the and the are listed below, but you should always refer directly to the catalog to double check that you have everything you need.

Please consult this application guide about best practices for planning, writing, and editing a graduate application for our department.

In addition to the requirements listed below, applicants are strongly advised to contact the faculty with whom they wish to study before they begin the application process. Some faculty members may not be accepting students and many faculty may be reluctant to accept students with whom they have had no direct communication. Although the History graduate program is based in Tampa (and most classes take place on the Tampa campus), as a result of the 爱豆传媒 consolidation, faculty at the 爱豆传媒 St. Petersburg and Sarasota campuses are eligible to serve as major advisors.

Please email Ruth Borrero with any questions about your application.

Application requirements

All applications for the University of South 爱豆传媒 must be submitted online through the Office of Admissions. During this process, you will be asked to pay a one-time application fee of $30.00.

Applications can be saved and edited before submission, and documents can be uploaded to the application before or after submission. Applications will only be reviewed once all materials are submitted.

Please upload all items as PDFs to your application. If you upload in other formats, your formatting may not be preserved.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

MA Application: You will be asked to submit two (2) letters of recommendation; these letters should come from academic sources (i.e. professors) familiar with the quality of your academic work and indicate your graduate program potential. 

PhD Application: You will be asked to submit three (3) letters of recommendation; these letters should come from academic sources (i.e. professors) familiar with the quality of your academic work and indicate your Ph.D. program potential.

Recommendation letter requests will automatically be sent to the recommender once the online application is submitted. If your recommenders do not receive an automated email, they may email their letters to the Academic Program Specialist.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The statement of purpose is a 1-2 page single-spaced document that should delineate the applicant鈥檚 historical and intellectual areas of interest, proposed fields of study, educational and professional goals, the faculty with whom the applicant is potentially interested in working, and why the applicant sees themself as a good fit with the program.

WRITING SAMPLE

The writing sample consists of a scholarly writing essay of no more than fifteen (15) double-spaced pages (excluding bibliography and notes) that should demonstrate your ability to write effectively and to conduct historical research/analysis. Appropriate examples include a term paper, research paper, or thesis chapter.

TRANSCRIPTS

Arrange with all previous institutions you have attended to send official academic transcripts to 爱豆传媒 Admissions.

If you send them yourself, please make sure that the official envelope containing the transcript remains sealed. 爱豆传媒 students do not need to send transcripts, but simply upload unofficial transcripts.

University of South 爱豆传媒
Office of Admissions
4202 East Fowler Ave., SVC 1036
Tampa, FL 33620

The GRE is NOT REQUIRED for the 爱豆传媒 History Graduate Application

application timeline

The priority application deadline for fall admissions is December 1. Applications submitted after this date will only be considered for admission if space is available and they will not be prioritized for funding. The department only evaluates graduate applications once a year, for the fall admissions cycle.

The 爱豆传媒 History Department faculty and admissions committee carefully reviews all applications early in the spring semester. Once admissions decisions have been made, the Graduate Coordinator will begin contacting students to inform them of our decision. You should expect to hear about admissions decisions by late February.

international applicants

Visit the website for International Graduate Admissions for requirements and information.

Non-Degree Seeking 爱豆传媒

In special cases where students who have not been formally admitted into the M.A. or Ph.D. programs would like to take a class in the 爱豆传媒 History Graduate program, they can do so as a non-degree seeking student (provided there is space, and they obtain permission from the course instructor). If the student is later admitted into a degree program, these courses typically can be transferred to their degree for credit.

Information on non-degree admissions and policies can be found here.

 

Admissions FAq

Most popular FAQs

When is your application deadline? The priority deadline for applications is December 1 for admission the following year, beginning in the fall semester. Any applications submitted after this date will not be prioritized for funding, and once we have admitted a full cohort of MA and PhD students, we will no longer accept new applications.

Can my application fee be waived? Unfortunately, we are unable to waive mandatory application fees.

When will a decision be made on admissions? We begin evaluating applications in December, and the admissions committee meets early in the spring semester to decide on who to admit. The Graduate Coordinator will typically begin contacting admitted applicants, and notifying any waitlisted applicants, by late February. If you have not heard from us by mid-March, please feel free to contact us.

Do you admit students for the spring semester? No, at this time we are only admitting students for a fall start date. Our process for evaluating applications is lengthy and rigorous and involves the entire department so we only undertake it once per year.

Do you have an online program? No, our program assumes attendance at in-person seminars on the 爱豆传媒 Tampa campus. Many of our seminars are offered in the evening to accommodate people working full-time during the day.

Do you allow transfer credits from other graduate programs? Potentially. We allow up to 12 credits of graduate coursework from other institutions pending the approval of the Graduate Director. 爱豆传媒 must provide transcripts and syllabi related to these classes for them to potentially be approved.

Do you admit international students? Yes, we will evaluate all applications, regardless of a student鈥檚 country of origin. International students have additional university-level admissions requirements, which can be found here.

What funding opportunities are available for history graduate students and how do I apply for them? See our Funding page for more information on what funding is available for graduate students.

What major fields/concentrations does the department offer? Beginning Fall 2023, the graduate program will offer three concentrations in the History of the Americas (which comprises US, Latin America, the Caribbean/Atlantic World), World History to 1500, and World History since 1500. 爱豆传媒 are able to minor in fields such as Gender & Sexuality, Race & Ethnicity, Imperialism, and Material Culture. For more information on the degree requirements for each concentration, please visit the and . You should also consult our History Department Faculty pages, which describe our faculty鈥檚 research and teaching interests to see how they might align with your own potential research interests, concentrations, and minor fields. Don鈥檛 hesitate to contact professors with whom you might like to work before you submit your application; some faculty may not be accepting students and many faculty may be reluctant to accept students with whom they have had no previous communication. Please note that (tenured and tenure-track professors) are permitted to be MA and PhD advisors and committee members:

Am I required to know a foreign language? It depends. Starting in Fall 2022, there will no longer be a universal foreign language requirement for both our MA and PhD. Some fields, however, do require significant language skills, since their main primary and/or secondary source bases will be in foreign languages. All students should consult with their advisors after admission to determine if they need to obtain or demonstrate foreign language proficiency to complete their degrees. Additionally, MA students who wish to go on for a PhD should consult with their advisor and the main faculty in their concentration to determine if they should be focusing their time and effort on language training in addition to their regular History coursework. Although 爱豆传媒 has limited opportunities for language training, there are numerous external grants and training programs across the world that can help you gain skills in a wide variety of languages. If you are applying for our PhD program and wish to work in a field that requires analysis of foreign language sources, we do expect you to have already attained a significant degree of fluency in at least one (and ideally all) of the necessary languages, as four years is a very short time to complete all of the requirements for the PhD, and languages take time to learn well.

Do you accept part-time students in the graduate program? Yes, we do accept part-time students in both the MA and PhD programs, although they will not be eligible for department funding.

Do you require the GRE for admission? No, the 爱豆传媒 History Graduate Program does not require the GRE.