<p>I'm Scottish and thinking of applying to the following six universities to start my MA in History next year (The six I have found which have graduate assistantships). Could anyone please tell me a bit about any of the following schools?</p>
<p>Just things like: Its reputation, the culture side (sports, events, etc - this is important to me, I really want the full American experience, not just the education but would also love to emerge myself in the wonderful culture aspects of University!), or if anyone has personal experience, it would be great to hear that! Or if anyone can recommend any other school, I would be very grateful!</p>
<p>Texas A&M
The University of Alabama
Louisiana State
Mississippi State
Oklahoma State
University of Texas at Austin</p>
<p>University of Texas at Austin is by far the strongest academically and it is a school with a LOT of spirit.</p>
<p>However the graduate experience is very different from the undergraduate experience, in that you’re a professional focused on one field then, whereas undergraduates need to experience everything to “grow”, not just intellectually but also personally, becoming well-educated and well-rounded. As a grad student you work on becoming an expert in one discipline. Although the out-of-class undergrad experience isn’t looked down upon and would make sense for you culturally since you’re international, it’s very distinct from what graduate students expect of themselves, kind of the way you’d look at your Year 11 activities from your 1st year in college’s vantage point.</p>
<p>However, by saying you want to start your MA, are you saying that you hope to get an MA eventually and will start after your Highers, in which case you wouldn’t be applying for the MA directly, or that you have (or will have) a BA and want to do graduate (i.e in British English: postgraduate) studies?
You’d have more choice if you applied to schools with PHD programs - typically they will provide funding. If you don’t make it to the PHD level, you would still have your first 2 years covered.</p>
<p>Do the graduate assistantships cover all of the tuition fees? </p>
<p>Why would you want to go any of those when you have very cheap Scottish universities you could attend? E.g. Edinburgh is ranked almost equivalently with UT-Austin (none of the others are ranked in the top 100 in the world) and is only £6000 per year. </p>
<p>As a master’s student you won’t really get the ‘American experience’ that’s idolized in movies about going to college in the US. Additionally, the ‘American experience’ is mostly over exaggerated in popular media.</p>
<p>Both of my kids graduated from Alabama and loved it. Great full college experience, gorgeous campus, and a nice city </p>
<p>The school certainly has sports events and is very competitive in several sports. The school has invested heavily into academic bldgs as well as its athletic venues. </p>
<p>There are grad apts on campus, but if you prefer, there are many gorgeous student apts very close to campus and they have trams to campus. Many of these student apartments are like luxury resorts. The cost of living is lowish, so your grad stipend will go a long way. </p>
<p>Alabama has a very strong History dept. It also has a Tier 1 law school, and in my opinion, schools that have law schools are often strong in History and Poly Sci. These things seem to go hand in hand.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your honest opinions.
MYOS - I am graduating from Glasgow University in June with my Undergraduate, so it would be a masters program in the States which I would be looking to complete. I wasn’t sure if I needed a masters before my phd though?</p>
<p>NYU - Yes, the graudate assistantships include a tuition waver. The reason why I am looking into the States is also for a new experience. I have done my undergraduate in Scotland with one year abroad in Germany and now I’m up for a new experience. Not to mention, in Scotland funding is limitied so I would need a loan but being awarded a graduate assistantship in the States means that tuition fees are covered.
Also, I’m not looking for the ‘televised’ American experience, just that I want to get to know American culture as it is as this is important for me in every country which I am in. Thus, I was just asking if the schools have a lot of culture in them as well, that’s all.</p>
<p>Thanks timetodecide. The course does look very good!</p>
<p>mom2collegekids - Thank you for telling me about your children’s experience with Alabama. I didn’t know it had a strong history department, so that’s very helpful information. The links you added in were also very interesting! It looks like a gorgeous campus. Alabama definitely sounds like a great school to go to!</p>
<p>Within Oklahoma, the University of Oklahoma is much better for humanities fields (although still not great). Also Oklahoma State is basically in the middle of nowhere and has the reputation as being extremely conservative. When people in one of the most conservative states in the US believe a school to be extremely conservative, it is. I believe the same is true for Texas A&M. </p>
<p>Agreeing with the other posters who stated that UT-Austin is probably your best bet if you want to experience an incredible amount of culture, study under the best professors, and get the full “college experience”. Of course, getting in will pose the biggest problem.</p>
<p>Typically, in the US, programs that state “MA” are “terminal”, meaning you’re not meant to go further. Most good history programs, especially those with funding, are PHD programs. You enter with your BA, get your MA en-route after 2 years or so, then 2 more years to ABD, and a few years for PHD (in history, you may need 3-4 years after being ABD). Funding typically last 5-6 years so you have to be as efficient as possible.</p>
<p>If you speak German, Bowling Green has a special “History with German” Master’s, with funding, that can then take you to PHDs that focus on German History/culture.
But overall you’re better off looking at schools with PHDs in history. Additionally, what area of history are you thinking of? Look at the profs’ research specialty. Military history, social history, contemporary Russian history, quantitative history, history of the book… each program has various strengths, that you need to research before you apply.</p>
<p>Thanks whenhen for the heads up! I don’t fancy being in the middle of nowhere so that doesn’t sound too good!</p>
<p>MYOS - I did see that many programs go onto a phd too but I have seen some MA’s that are 2 years and I would be happy to do that, as I also plan to get my phd in Germany, but I would be open to getting it in the States as well.
Thanks as well for alerting me to Bowling Green, their courses look very interesting.</p>
<p>I understand that you may want to stop after 2 years but most reputable programs in History (unless they have a specific angle: teaching certificate, w/language, w/another dept…) go to the PHD. When you apply, you apply to the PHD, and if you wish to stop at the MA you declare it during your 2nd year. That’s a better way to get funding. Additionally, some students do their Masters as part of a PHD course but transfer to another university for the PHD. But they still apply to the PHD courseoriginally.</p>
<p>Texas A&M is another very good school. Probably the second best academically but it easily has the best engineering programs. My parents are alums so I know a lot about the aggies.
First off it’s extremely conservative and rural and in some ways it meets a lot of the Texas stereotypes about people who say howdy and where cowboy boots. There are a lot of traditions and it’s a very tight-knit community and the people are amazingly nice. They love their Aggie football, even when they are terrible, and football games a very big deal and where you will see most the Aggie traditions. The school is becoming more and more international too so it might be a good choice for you.
Overall I’d say UT-Austin is probably the most American. University of Alabama is probably the 3rd best academically but also pretty well-known around the US, mostly due to their football team.</p>
You’ve provided very little useful information, and so unfortunately we can’t do that.</p>
<p>Think carefully about your reasons for applying. MA programs are intense, demanding programs intended to teach students how to research and teach. Graduate school in the US can be extremely stressful and work-intensive, and that your social life will in any way resemble that of an undergraduate is highly unlikely. </p>
<p>MYOS1634 is correct – graduate programs vary tremendously in their strengths and foci. Ohio State is superb for military history, for example, whereas Wisconsin is great for African history. William & Mary has colonial history, Yale has Chinese history, Penn has ancient history, Texas A&M has nautical history, Princeton has Near/Middle Eastern history, Pitt has history of science, and so on. You need to be considering which programs are best for your particular field. Successful applicants are able to state clearly:
[ul][<em>]What it is they want to study<br>
[</em>]Why they need a MA and/or PhD
[li]Why they need to study at that particular university[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>Academic “fit” is a key part of the graduate admissions process. If the department does not have at least a couple of people compatible with your interests and are willing to take you, you will be rejected. Period. It doesn’t matter if you’re an amazing applicant. This fit comes in three main categories:</p>
<p>[ul][<em>]Culture/geographic area - West Africa? China? US? Wales? Soviet Union?
[</em>]Time period - 20th century? 4th century BCE? Early Medieval? Golden Age of Islam? Early Modern?
[li]Topic - Gender history? Political history? History of science/medicine? Diplomatic history? Economic history?[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>History programs are extremely competitive these days. Even some fairly mediocre programs reject 90% of their applicants. Some of the most competitive graduate programs have over 45 applicants per spot. Your chances are best when applying to programs that mesh with what you want to study.</p>
<p>A good starting point is the [AHA</a> directory of PhD programs](<a href=“http://www.historians.org/projects/cge/PhD/Specializations.cfm]AHA”>http://www.historians.org/projects/cge/PhD/Specializations.cfm), which is searchable by specialization. When selecting programs, you also need to consider your preparation.
[ul][<em>]How good are your grades/academic record?
[</em>]Do you have appropriate language preparation? (This is often the thing that immediately knocks students out of the running.)
[li]What research background do you have? [/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>
It really depends on what you want to do. A PhD program is great financially, since they’re nearly all fully funded, and it’s true that most of the top programs expect an applicant to aim for the PhD. </p>
<p>On the other hand, not everyone is sure about continuing to the PhD – or even needs a PhD. Terminal MAs, or feeder MAs, can be a rather nice stepping stone to a job or a good PhD program for someone either with deficiencies in their undergrad record or who simply doesn’t want to commit to a PhD program immediately. Quite a few MA programs come with funding, though you sometimes have to be one of the better students in the department. Many jobs in archives, museums, and public history expect only a MA. </p>
<p>The vast majority of history students do not complete their PhDs in 5-6 years. That is not really the norm for any field except the sciences, which typically have far less strenuous requirements and examinations. The average is currently about 8-9 years from the conferral of the BA to the conferral of the PhD. </p>
<p>
Alabama’s history department is not “very strong.” It’s not terrible, but at best it’s average. Glancing over the department website, African and Middle Eastern history are missing altogether, Asian history seems quite weak, and Latin American history is also pretty small. US and European history are decent, but they have some glaring weaknesses as well. For most fields except perhaps southern history, a strong applicant could do better.</p>
<p>A law school is irrelevant, and there is a seeming connection only because colleges with strong law schools tend to be strong overall. To cite only a few counterexamples, Princeton and Brown have exceptional history programs but no law schools, and USC has a good law school but only an average history program.</p>
<p>MYOS - Thank you for helping me clear this up. I guess just because we do everything separate over here had me a bit confused at how masters and phds are connected in the States. </p>
<p>midatlmom - Thank you for the links! They are very helpful. This is exactly the kind of which I need to give me the information I require.</p>
<p>the connoisseur - Thank you for this information! I must admit, I really love the look of A&M, and the course they have looks fantastic. Seeing as it’s such a conservative and tight-knit community there, I hope I could still make friends amongst them! </p>
<p>warblersrule - Thanks for all your information. I already know exactly what I am planning to do. My areas of history are 1450 - 1789. I much prefer European History but also have an interest in British history. Obviously the focus on these two areas also brings colonial history onto the scene. </p>
<p>I have fluent German and have started Spanish and Latin to be able to add to my ability to learn history from European perspectives. My aim is to become a history lecturer. So, phd will be a definite after my masters.</p>
<p>I am not expecting a graduate course in the States to be easy. I have already undertaken a year abroad at a German university where I was juggling 25 page papers IN German, presentations, oral and written exams all at once, and all in German without yet being fluent in the language. I am no stranger to hard work. Glasgow university was also no picnic in my last year!</p>
<p>Your advice is very helpful regarding researching certain schools and which excel at the history which I am interested in - thank you. Unfortunately, I just don’t know how to go about finding this out! Of course every school says they are the best for this and that, which is why I was asking Americans their opinions to get a personal perspective on things.</p>