<p>I would like to go into Comparative Lit., History, or East Asian Studies PhD program. But I have a low GPA so I thought I might want to go to a Podunk school where I have good chance of being accepted so I can later transfer to a great PhD program if possible.</p>
<p>Do you know any PhD programs where it's easy to be accepted?</p>
<p>Why do you want a Ph.D.? If you hope to have any chance of making a career in academia, your Ph.D. needs to be from a well-recognized program where the faculty have the sort of connections that can help you get a job. If your GPA and recommendations aren’t good enough to get you into that sort of program now, you may be better off completing an MA first. Sit down with your professors and get their advice on this issue. They know where you are likely to be admitted, and whether or not those programs are worth your time, trouble, and money.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>Also, it’s quite hard to transfer from one PhD program to another. Graduate school is very different than undergrad. Transfers are not common and are usually frowned upon. If you think you don’t have the background to get into a good PhD program now you need to do an MA to get your stats up and then apply to PhDs.</p>
<p>I was going to say what variola has said. Graduate school is a different beast than undergad. I’ve never heard of folks transferring at the PhD level and at any rate, if you do a couple years at a Podunk school, what is it about that that a top 10 school would find desirable? The competition is crazy for PhD entering class slots so I would say go for it but have a plan B. I am applying to both PhD and MA programs - if I don’t get into the PhD programs this application cycle, I feel confident about my chances once I have an MA under my belt.</p>
<p>An MA program (a good one though!) gives you time to develop breadth and depth, and to improve your dossier. Plus you get a degree out of it. Not bad for a year or two.</p>
<p>It’s a long haul though I ain’t gonna lie lol.</p>
<p>Do the MA to figure out what is it that you want to study. The academic job market doesn’t look favorably upon interdisciplinary studies PhDs.</p>
<p>All of this is true, especially the fact that you shouldn’t start applying to multiple programs unless there’s a compelling reason. For instance, if you wanted to compare 18th century Japanese and Korean literature, you might be able to do that effectively in either a comparative literature or an East Asian studies program. But if you’re simply undecided, you need to percolate. I don’t even recommend paying for an expensive MA program to help you decide (most MA programs in the humanities are not funded); what I recommend is a few years working and doing some thinking about where you want to end up.</p>
<p>What do you want to do? Do you want to be a professor? In what kind of department? Would you be okay with getting the PhD and not getting a job as a professor, since the percentage of PhD holders in the humanities who get tenure-track jobs is relatively low?</p>
<p>I’ve got a similar thought pattern except that I wonder if, in a different field, there would be more success in say business school for someone who wants to teach? I know that it would be better to, say, earn a Ph.D from an Ivy League B-School or Econ Dept. but if the funding options and fit are better at a lower tier school would it be as detrimental, since the field is in a boom?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have an issue with the OP’s choice in pursuits if they wanted to be an instructor or professor with a solid job. But there aren’t exactly a boom in programs in these disciplines, so it seems to be more of a situation of finding funding and graduating with low debt in order to teach a subject their passionate about.</p>
<p>However, in my areas of interest it seems that every school around wants to start an MBA program and they’re bidding up the price of labor for Ph.Ds in Economics, Finance, Management, Marketing and (especially) Accounting. So in a situation like that, would be less of a detriment for someone to graduate from a lower-prestige program in one of these disciplines?</p>
<p>(I’m sorry for bothering you guys with this line of thought, but the Business Grad School forum is skewed heavily for the MBA)</p>