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MA in East Asian Studies
| curious theatre turdskin | 03/10/10 |
| poppy appetizing lodge messiness | 03/10/10 |
| curious theatre turdskin | 03/10/10 |
| poppy appetizing lodge messiness | 03/11/10 |
| Frum Temple | 03/16/10 |
Poast new message in this thread
Date: March 10th, 2010 8:55 AM Author: curious theatre turdskin Friend wants to go into academia for East Asian Languages/Literature. I have absolutely no idea what any of this shit is about, but she seems to have all the right credentials.
Anyway she got into various MA programs that lead toward a PhD track. I thought she'd get full funding everywhere but that doesn't seem to be the case. There aren't really meaningful rankings for this stuff, and if so, would they matter? How would you choose between Stanford, Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa? Is it even close? I think Indiana is the only one that offered her partial funding for the MA. I told her to just go to Stanford no matter what.
It's too late to apply now but she didn't even apply to logical places like Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, Chicago. I have no idea why.
I think for wannabe academics, IBR takes away some of the desperate need for funding since you're on the ten-year forgiveness program as long as you work for a public university. I *think*. Does anyone really know? |
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Date: March 10th, 2010 12:16 PM Author: poppy appetizing lodge messiness you say that these MA programs lead to the PhD track, but if that's the case, then they should be funded. sounds like she applied to a bunch of terminal MA programs that might have decent placement at PhD programs. otherwise, she probably got rejected from the phd programs but was offered the terminal MA as a consolation prize.
say she chooses stanford. no matter what they say, there is absolutely no guarantee (not even close) that she will be invited to stick around for the PhD. in fact, she will be required to re-apply like everyone else and will really be at no serious advantage over most applicants from other schools. she needs to go where the money is. i made the mistake of taking a program at a "name" school over money elsewhere, and while it wasn't the worst decision of my life, i now realize that, at the terminal MA level, there isn't really a penalty for going to a lesser school/program for $$$, as long as you do good work in that program.
that being said, some of this also really depends on what area of EAS she wants to study. for inner asia (mongolia, the "stans," uighur studies, etc.), you can't beat indiana. for china, you want berkeley, harvard, UChicago, columbia, etc. yeah, stanford probably has the best overall resources of any school on her list, but i would actually say that indiana is a better choice for a terminal MA. go there, do good work, and apply to phd programs at stanford, plus the other places that you mention that she didn't apply to this time around. not worth dropping the extra $$$ on a terminal MA at stanford when you can get the same results for far cheaper. |
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Date: March 10th, 2010 11:31 PM Author: curious theatre turdskin i don't think it's a "terminal MA" in the sense that it's designed that way--if she doesn't add a PhD, it will probably be worthless. but yeah, i'm a little confused that she seems competitive for all the best programs, got into stanford, but still didn't get full funding anywhere.
i probably misspoke when i said "east asian studies"--this is not IR but more of a linguistics/comparative lit sort of track. i think. like i said, i know nothing about this field. interest is in china, not inner asia. i would imagine indiana lags behind harvard/stanford/chicago but not sure by how much; you've confirmed my suspicion that it might not matter so much in her case. |
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Date: March 11th, 2010 9:55 AM Author: poppy appetizing lodge messiness hmm...well is it east asian studies or comparative lit? those are apples and oranges. some schools also have something like "east asian languages and cultures."
anyway, regardless, she'll basically be no more competitive for stanford's phd program having graduated from their MA program than she would be graduating from any of those other programs you mention, indiana included. indiana is decent for china (think 2nd tier, below berkeley, harvard, columbia, etc.--on par with UVa), and if they're throwing money at her, then i strongly suggest that she go there and re-apply to the stanfords and harvards when she finishes the masters.
her decision, ultimately. good luck to her. |
Date: March 16th, 2010 10:09 PM Author: Frum Temple AGWWG (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1246536&forum_id=3#14412971) |