grad school!

<p>anyone know an average or above average grad school for spanish majors?</p>

<p>You mean a MA/PhD program in spanish language/literature?</p>

<p>Columbia, Duke, Brown, Princeton, Virginia, Penn, Winsconsin, Cornell, Berkeley, and Harvard are the top of the field, apparently.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/publications/pdf/nrc_rankings_1995.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/publications/pdf/nrc_rankings_1995.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>for masters degree i mean... i am not looking for those top ranking schools...just a medium, average, more affordable school! thanks!</p>

<p>The most 'affordable' master's degree programs are not master's degree programs. They are PhD programs that provide you funding, whereupon you then leave the program with just the consolation master's degree. In effect, you would be paying "negative tuition" (because you would be getting paid) to get the master's degree.</p>

<p>hm...PhD program? can you be more specific?</p>

<p>Are you talking to me? If so, what do you want to know?</p>

<p>so your saying its better to directly apply the PhD program? can we do that? do we need working experience first?</p>

<p>ysirk, I can't help but feel like you don't really know what graduate school is. Do you? Why do you want to go to it? Do you actually want to go to grad school for spanish language/literature? Are you aware that an MA from such a program will likely only allow you to teach high school/college, if that? For the record, work experience is by no means a universal requirement for grad school.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Do you actually want to go to grad school for spanish language/literature? Are you aware that an MA from such a program will likely only allow you to teach high school/college, if that?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uhh, that's actually not true at all. Most people seem to think that you need to get some broad major that allows you to work in many fields. Not true. Unless you are specifically trying to work in a job that requires your specific major (like working at NASA, some need an astrophysics degree), most companies just want to see that you have a degree in something. Seriously, ask around! Businesses like to see individuals who went through college, not who just have a business degree (obviously this is a generality). </p>

<p>That is exactly why prospective med schoolers don't have to major in MCB, Medical schools just want to see that you got some major (and met the requirements). </p>

<p>So, ysirk, I agree that you may need to do a little research, because I don't think you fully understand graduate programs (which is fine, most people here don't), but if you like Spanish language, if it is a major in which you enjoy studying, above all, by all means stick to that one.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Uhh, that's actually not true at all. Most people seem to think that you need to get some broad major that allows you to work in many fields. Not true. Unless you are specifically trying to work in a job that requires your specific major (like working at NASA, some need an astrophysics degree), most companies just want to see that you have a degree in something. Seriously, ask around! Businesses like to see individuals who went through college, not who just have a business degree (obviously this is a generality).</p>

<p>That is exactly why prospective med schoolers don't have to major in MCB, Medical schools just want to see that you got some major (and met the requirements).

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yeah yeah yeah, many if not most who major and go to grad school tend to work in unrelated fields. I never said they didn't. What I said was that the MA in spanish literature just by itself will probably not get a person far in academia. It is my opinion that if a person is seriously in love with an academic field, in this case spanish language/literature, that person should try to pursue a PhD at a top ten school. That will at least augment the chanches on landing a tenure-track position at a relatively good university.</p>

<p>
[quote]
That is exactly why prospective med schoolers don't have to major in MCB, Medical schools just want to see that you got some major (and met the requirements).

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Heck, plenty of med-schools don't even require that you complete a bachelor's degree. Many only strictly require that you complete 3 years of undergrad (without necessarily graduating). UCSF Medical School, for example, does not strictly require a bachelor's degree before matriculation. Of course, given the competition to get into UCSF Med, you are highly unlikely to get in without a bachelor's, as most of the competition will have bachelor's. {Heck, plenty of the competition will have advanced degrees}. But the point is, it is possible to go to medical school without ever having finished your bachelor's. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Yeah yeah yeah, many if not most who major and go to grad school tend to work in unrelated fields. I never said they didn't. What I said was that the MA in spanish literature just by itself will probably not get a person far in academia. It is my opinion that if a person is seriously in love with an academic field, in this case spanish language/literature, that person should try to pursue a PhD at a top ten school. That will at least augment the chanches on landing a tenure-track position at a relatively good university.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Well, that all assumes that the person actually wants to become a professor at a major university. Some people are perfectly satisfied with just teaching at the community college level or low-level state universities , and plenty of these schools will hire people with just bachelor's degrees for professorships. For example, I know a guy who has a PhD who is a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, and he tells me that not everybody in his department has a PhD. Many professors in his department have just master's. </p>

<p>Furthermore, many people are perfectly satisfied with not being a tenure-track professor, but just want to be a college instructor/lecturer. Many universities, including the big-name ones like Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc. hire people with just master's degrees (or sometimes just bachelor's degrees) as lecturers/instructors. In some cases, you can even get tenure as a lecturer (i.e. you become a "senior lecturer with tenure"). </p>

<p>Now, don't get me wrong. Obviously it is true that if you want to maximize your chances at having a top-flight academic career at a major university, you should get a PhD. But a lot of people don't care about having a top-flight academic career. Some people are perfectly happy being a prof at a community college, or just being lecturers. It all depends on what you want to do.</p>

<p>and that is only assuming that ysirk wants to be a teacher/professor to begin with, which, I'm pretty sure, he/she hasn't made that assumption.</p>

<p>Alright, ysirk, what do you want to get from your MA in spanish language/literature?</p>

<p>um...sorrie guys~ i was just asking all of this for a fd of mine!
I don't even speak a word of Spanish...but she does!
she's really good at it..but she's an international student.
She finished her bachelor's degree already, of course majoring in Spanish in another country.
I'm not really sure what she really wants from this...she just wants an master's degree i guess, coz she doesn't wanna starting working yet.
I think she wants to teach later on, but i don't really think she wants to go for PhD.</p>

<p>Have her see a career counselor.</p>

<p>what if she wants to teach high school or community college?</p>

<p>
[quote]
I think she wants to teach later on, but i don't really think she wants to go for PhD.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Like I said, the most cost-effective way to get a master's degree is to apply for a PhD program and (hopefully) get the PhD funding, and then leave with just a master's. In effect, you'd be getting paid to get your master's.</p>

<p>
[quote]
what if she wants to teach high school or community college?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If she just wants to teach high school, then heck, just a bachelor's is sufficient. She would still have to complete a state teacher-prep/certification program. But a master's degree won't help her with that. The master's degree will probably get her a higher salary as a high school teacher (as most school districts provide an automatic salary bump to those with master's), but the master's degree wouldn't, by itself, allow her to become a fully-fledged teacher.</p>