MA/PhD in East Asian Studies

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello!</p>

<p>So I'm a recently graduated Bachelors student who is looking into applying for graduate schools to start in the 2014 fall semester. I was a history major with a minor in Mandarin, and I'm thinking I'll go into East Asian Studies, because it's a lot less competitive than history and I have had a pretty strong focus on China during my studies. </p>

<p>I was just wondering if anyone could give me any tips on where to apply, or tell me if I'm being unrealistic in my desired schools? I graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a GPA of 3.56 (out of 4.3, which equals a little over a 3.3 out of 4.0), which I understand is a fairly average GPA for grad school admissions. Little extras I'm going to put on my application are my teaching experience (I have about a year of teaching English experience in China, and a semester of working for my University as a TA where I actually had to teach the class two hours a week). Also, I own a small start-up tech company, which is kind of irrelevant, but which I've been told is probably good to mention on an application. </p>

<p>Anyways, the colleges I was looking at were UC Irvine, McGill University, University of Edinburgh, University of Melbourne, and then a couple of backups I won't bother mentioning. I really thought I had a chance at maybe getting into one of these schools, but my parents (who are Professors themselves) brought me back to Earth with discouraging grad school entrance statistics. Basically what I'm asking, with a good GRE score (which I'm studying for right now), plus a 3.3 GPA or so out of 4.0, plus extras like teaching experience and having lived in China, do you think I could maybe gain admittance into these schools' PhD or Masters programs? I realize PhD programs are much more competitive, but I think I would probably need to get into one of those to work for the University and have my tuition waived. Is East Asian Studies less competitive enough of a field that I might have a chance with my qualifications? I know I wouldn't stand a chance in some other Arts subjects, but I've heard East Asian Studies is perhaps less competitive?</p>

<p>Any advice is appreciated, thanks so much!</p>

2

<p>You are posting on the wrong board. Go to the main list and find the Graduate School forum.</p>

3

<p>Have you found out the answer to the competitiveness of East Asian Studies? I would like to know the answer to that as well.</p>

4

<p>By “East Asian Studies,” do you mean an interdisciplinary language and area studies master’s program, or do you mean a departmental program in Chinese language, literature, linguistics, and pre-modern history? If you mean the latter, my impression is that a significant percentage of graduate students in those programs are native Chinese speakers, who want an American degree in the hope of obtaining a teaching position in a US university (not sure if it’s the same situation in Australia, the UK, or Canada). For some programs, a minor in Chinese might meet the minimum admission requirements, but some programs will expect the equivalent of a full major in Chinese (4-5 years of Chinese, including Classical Chinese). While a minor might meet the minimum admission requirements, you could be at a competitive disadvantage compared to other applicants. If you mean the former, usually the equivalent of 2-3 years of Chinese is sufficient, but these program often are terminal master’s programs, as PhD programs are usually focused on a particular department-based discipline. Sometimes, these interdisciplinary master’s programs can be combined with a professional degree program, e.g., law, business, international relations. The best US programs of either type, whether at the master’s or doctoral level, probably will be those at universities that have federally-funded East Asian Studies centers (<a href=“http://www.ncrweb.org”>www.ncrweb.org</a>). Students often receive part of their funding through such centers, but funding levels tend to fluctuate depending on how much money is allocated each tear, and might be limited to US nationals.</p>

5

<p>Try recalculating the GPA with what A+s you might have as a 4.0. Perhaps you’re in a better situation than a 3.3.</p>

<p>The only one I know requires the GRE is UCI…</p>