PS In a brief statement (of no more than three pages), please set out your proposed areas of study and your ultimate professional goals. Please note the specific time periods, countries/regions, subjects, or topics that interest you, and discuss your interest in them. Tell us what historical questions you find most pressing or intriguing and why. We don’t expect you to know your dissertation topic yet; we do expect you to know how to engage historical questions and how some members of the profession have already engaged them. If you have done prior graduate work—whether in history or some other field—describe your experiences in that program, providing information on your major and minor areas of interest, thesis (if you wrote one), and the like. Please also provide information about your foreign language training and fluency, especially as relevant to your studies. We would also like to hear about prior research and/or teaching experiences. RL Letters of recommendation: Letters of recommendation should come from faculty with whom you have worked closely and who can speak to the quality and promise of your work. At least three letters of recommendation must be submitted online by the recommenders. Be sure that all letters are uploaded by December 1. Please do not send letters directly to the Department of History. Transcript Official transcripts of all prior college and university work. Only one official copy of each is required. Please ask that these transcripts be sent directly to the USC Office of Graduate Admissions to arrive by December 1.