<p>Hi everyone,
I am an international who's interested in pursuing graduate work in East Asian Studies and am proficient in Japanese and Chinese (my native language). Although I had taken three years of Japanese language courses as part of my undergraduate studies and obtained a JLPT1 certificate last year, my college major itself was in a biomedical field. I did not take formal college classes in any related humanities discipline. In fact, originally aiming to boost my chances of being admitted to a U.S. science graduate school, I have been spending my time after graduation working in biomedical research and have one research publication to date.</p>
<p>Would it be futile making an application to MA/PhD programs in East Asian Studies?</p>
<p>Is there actually any way of correcting this severe deficiency in subject background?</p>
<p>Sorry to bump this thread but I’m interested to know if the OP found a way out of this predicament? I’m considering a similar change (but from an Engineering background) and I’m worried that my lack of formal education in Economics/Political Science/History etc will pose problems when I graduate and start looking for jobs or if I decide to go on to a PhD.</p>
<p>To be honest its nearly impossible, East Asian studies in general is a really esoteric field and the people that usually study it have been doing for years. Unless you plan to study the history of science and technology from that region you have a very very low chance.</p>
<p>Could you tell me if this also holds true if I follow up my MA with an MPhil? The way courses are structured where I plan to take them is that the MA acts only as an introduction to the field (so, for example, the MA program accepts people from diverse disciplines not limited to the Humanities or Social Sciences). The program includes courses on History, Politics and Culture of China, Japan and Korea. It does not include a rigorous language component however, so I don’t expect to be fully proficient in Chinese (which is the language I’m planning to study) when I finish the MA.</p>
<p>I have the option of going on to an MPhil after the MA. The MPhil will include a research thesis and will allow me to focus on the country or topic of my choice. I will also be able to focus on a particular language for the duration of the MPhil (2 years).</p>
<p>Thus, at the end of the MPhil, I should have 4 years of language instruction and at least one summer exchange spent in the country of interest. I should also have some original research experience by this time.</p>
<p>Do you think it will then be possible to go on to a PhD in the US?</p>
<p>East Asian Studies is by no mean an esoteric subject. The rigor of all East Asian studies program depends on the faculties and focus. Now, when you talk about East Asian studies, it is a big category encompassing literature, languages, linguistics, science, technologies, politics, military, etc; namely, all facets of East Asian societies across time and space. </p>
<p>Normally, East Asian studies program is the easiest to get in among graduate programs in humanities. That is to say, if you want an admission, it is relatively easy if you already know several East Asian languages and have a vague sense of what you will be doing. As a result, OP’s sciency background actually possesses a huge advantage rather than disadvantage. Too many East Asian studies students come from language focused background (Japanese or Chinese majors); due to the difficulties of these languages which make them impossible to study fully in 4 years, these students would need additional training in languages throughout their graduate school career. This time spent on the language inevitably means that these students wouldn’t have time studying other things and acquiring a narrower focus on an even narrower subject. </p>
<p>Therefore, I have reasons to believe that OP would actually have a better chance of getting in if he demonstrates his biomedical science background can actually relate to his future studies. There is a resurgence in history of medicine, science, and technologies across all fields of humanities. So I say, go for it.</p>
<p>Hi pharmakeus01, BlueJayBJ,
Just wondering if you guys have any comments on what I wrote.
By the way, although I have a engineering background, I don’t plan to focus on the history of science and technology. I want to study current political and economic developments (or perhaps the history of Buddhism in these countries). I’d really like to work for a political/economic think-tank in the future (or academia if I go with the study of religion). Given my lack of training in these areas, do you think this plan is realistic?</p>
<p>East Asian studies departments don’t do that stuff. They focus on the humanities history literature etc. What you want to do is a poly sci or Econ phd with an Asia focus. The history of Buddhism would be found in it. But like I said you’d be competing with kids that have wanted to do this since undergrad and if you aren’t fluent in an Asian language or have time in those countries and without a concrete idea of what you want you have little chance. IMHO of all the area studies east Asian is the hardest for phd. Top programs attract the best student bc they fund language study research abroad stipends etc. I have a friend studying the development of Chinese Buddhism at Stanford and he was the single one selected for that professor. Of course he had other phds in the dept but the kids that got it straight out of undergrad without a masters in eas were very few. The engineering background will def harm you.</p>
Oh yes, I realize that. My immediate plan was to go into an MA+MPhil which should have given me 4 years of language study and 2 years (the MPhil part) of research experience plus at least one summer exchange in China/Japan. The PhD would have come after that.</p>
<p>
I see. Thanks for telling me about this. I thought I would be able to focus on the areas I was interested in. Literature is definitely not it. I guess real wisdom is learning which dreams to let go of in life.</p>