Hi all,
This is my first time posting in r/AskHistorians so bear with me.
I have an undergraduate degree in Cultural Anthropology and Medieval History (double major so I guess technically 2 degrees?) and my plan was always to go back to school for a graduate degree in Museum Studies. I graduated with a lower GPA that I would have liked, and I probably do not look very desirable to many graduate programs. As a result, I have begun to think of other ways that I can pad my resume to look more desirable.
A little about myself, I actually found out my senior year (of college) that I have had un-diagnosed ADHD my whole life, so while that is not an excuse, I've always had trouble with school in general. I am very smart, which is how I got by, but my work ethic is kind of all over the place (attention spans, man). History professions are generally really competitive and conservative, so I know I'd only be hurting myself by offering this up as an excuse. It's very much a hard work gets rewarded atmosphere, as it should be, and I feel that many programs would continue to view my ADHD as a weakness, even though I now have it under control.
So currently I have a job as an office assistant in an engineering firm. I will be starting to learn project coordination soon, and I already handle the accounts payable, expenses, supplies, travel arrangements, answering phones, and scheduling office events/training/meetings. I like what I do, and I'm very good and coordinating, so I decided to go back for an MBA in Project Management. I want to do this so I can be promoted in my current job (and thus making more money and getting more responsibilities) and because I think it would look good to many Museum Studies programs. My thinking is that working in groups and managing people is a part of every job and is applicable in so many real world situations that, even though it is not directly history related, it would help me to stand out in a good way. I would love feedback on this decision. Do you think it would help me in the admission process? (along with outstanding GRE scores, even though my GPA sucks) Do you think that I should try something else? Do you think I should just give up on getting into a program?
I figured that, getting an MBA would give me a hands down "hirable degree" in the terms of non-History related fields, and make me look like an actual competitive applicant. I could also get promoted within my current company to a position utilizing that degree, so I could pay it back and save up for the next one much quicker. I would much rather find a position using my history degree, but with only an undergrad I'm convinced those don't actually exist.
tl;dr if i get an MBA will it actually look better for Museum Studies programs or only in theory?
Well you could always just double up and go to the dual MBA/Museum Studies program at JFK University. It's a bit costly though.
Apart from that, experience helps more than anything else I'd say in getting into a museum studies MA. The museum field employs a lot of different type of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, but it's very difficult to get into without museum experience.
I can't say whether or not getting an MBA now would help you much on getting into a museum studies program, but it couldn't hurt. If I were on an application committee though, I'd prefer someone with a few years of experience.
You might also want to cross post this over at /r/GradSchool.
Museum Studies is not the same discipline as history. You'll need to talk to somebody who knows about museum studies in order to find out how they would perceive an MBA. It's totally possible to contact departments of Museum Studies in order to ask them specific questions about that.