<p>Hi guys~ I am faced with a dilemma. I got accepted into two graduate programs, both of which I wish to attend (duh to myself). Here are some information on these three schools:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>London School of Economics and Political Science/University of Southern California Joint Degree program on Global Media and Communications: This is my ideal program, it has everything I want to study, and in the end after two years, I receive two degrees from both universities. London would be amazing to live in. The problem is I already live in Southern California and absolutely cannot stand another day in the traffic(among other things). Also didn't have a very good impression of USC when I visited (sorry). In addition, while it would be nice to be in Europe for a year and get a different perspective, I doubt how much it will benefit me in future employment. People in the U.S. aren't usually familiar with English schools except Oxbridge....</p></li>
<li><p>Stanford East Asian Studies program -- I wish to study international relations in regards of Media, and would like to put an emphasis on East Asia, although I am more into studying communication itself than an actually geographic region. The good thing about this program is that I could potentially finish in one year, and it's very flexible in terms of course selections. Also, I fell in Love with Stanford when I visited (totally irrational). </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I know that some of the reason I listed are not purely academic, but going to school is not, I guess at least in grad school. Funding is not an issue. Please share your experience, or ideas. Thank you and please be nice~</p>
<p>LSE is a really well-respected school and any employer worth your time will know who they are. Let’s just get that out of the way.</p>
<p>Sorry you don’t like USC or LA – and lucky you that funding isn’t an issue. Not everyone has that luxury.</p>
<p>Looks like you should go to Stanford. You basically answered your question yourself. You don’t like USC, you liked Stanford. (Plus let’s not forget that it’s STANFORD.)</p>
<p>But you really do need to ask yourself what you hope on doing with a degree in East Asian Studies when it looks like you really want to do Global Media Studies (or the equivalent) instead. Maybe going to Stanford would give you a leg up in getting into their Com school? (Really confused why you applied to such different programs, actually…)</p>
<p>I would suggest that, if you still can’t make a decision, go look at both schools again and really TALK to the students and professors about what you’d be doing.</p>
<p>Thank for the advice, I will find a chance to visit the schools again. That hopefully will give me a new perspective. To clarify the confusion, I think Stanford has the advantage of being in the Silicon Valley, which is the good place to study global communication now. In addition, the East Asian Studies program there is extremely flexible, so I assumed I could focus on the communication aspect, just use East Asia as a case study. </p>
<p>I like LA (it’s my home, after all), but just would like to try a new environment after all. I do love London, so I’m wondering whether I’m making a silly decision by going to Stanford based on my impression on the beautiful campus…</p>
<p>That master’s program at Stanford is a cash cow program obviously (a lot of MA degrees are really)</p>
<p>Not sure what you can do with an East Asian Studies degree.
While the stanford name will look good on your resume but you really need to think about what kind of jobs it can get you. The school is not that relevant, the degree is. Don’t go into 40-50K into debt thinking the stanford name is worth it because you might be in debt paying $500-1000/month paying it off and the degree hasn’t paid any use.</p>
<p>^ Above poster makes a good point. Which degree would be more likely to place you closer to jobs in your intended career field? From my understanding, Humanities degrees (like East Asian studies) only lead to teaching in 90% of cases.</p>
<p>If you were doing computer science, your reasoning for choosing the Bay Area over LA would make sense. But Palo Alto isn’t really a hotbed for international communications that aren’t technology-based. It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to be in tech (ie: working for Google), maybe Stanford is better. Anything else, I’d look at USC.</p>
<p>USC has major connections in East Asia and India, particularly in Hong Kong where many of its international students (both undergrad and graduate) are from. If that’s the area you want to pursue a career, I think you will find that the connections you make at USC will be invaluable.</p>
<p>Plus LSE is a great school and also a big name in East Asia, especially considering all the international students again. Besides, what better way to get a real idea of what global media is like than by actually going somewhere else and seeing how they see the world? I’m studying abroad in London right now and it’s been enlightening just being around British people. I can’t imagine what I’d learn if I was actually in a program that studied this sort of thing.</p>