UPenn (History) vs LSE (International History) in Ph.D. program

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

I am a graduate student from East Asia. I have studied diplomatic history in a certain university in Asia.

I have just received offers from the Ph.D programs at UPenn (Department of History) and LSE (Department of International History). Now I need to make a hard choice. I will be able to study fairly new methodologies such as World History at UPenn, and receive 5-year full-funding fellowship, but it will take longer time to achieve Ph.D. degree than LSE. I will not be able to learn new methodologies at LSE, but I will be able to become mature historian by collecting and analyzing a lot of historical documents in London within 3 or 4 years.

Actually, both are quite famous universities and really attractive to me. However, I do not haveany specific knowledge and information regarding such matters because of no experience in U.S and U.K. I would like to receive advice from you.

2

I would take the full-funding fellowship at Penn.

3

What’s your ultimate goal, post-PhD? If you want to become an academic, getting some teaching experience would be helpful. Where you want to work may affect which course would work better for you. US PhDs involve more general coursework prior to starting your research, which would actually be a plus if you end up applying for academic jobs in the US. At LSE you’ll be launching straight into the research for your thesis.

Finally, how do the potential supervisors match up with your planned topic, and with you?