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Should I take this opportunity?

dfagdfsh

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In the past week an 'opportunity' has presented itself and I'm not sure if I want to pursue it.

Here's the situation:

I'm an English/History major finishing up my degree. I just applied to 6 MA/PHD programs, 2 MA programs and I'm going to apply to one more MA program (my current school). All of these programs were in English.

Last week in one of my History classes, the professor and I got to talking and he told me I should apply to MA in History program in the school. He also told me to apply for funding, as he feels I can get it. He's on the admission committee for the school and used to run the entire program.

Should I do this? This isn't exactly something I necessarily want to do, but it's also not something I wouldn't enjoy, and if it's free .. and I don't get in anywhere else.. why not? At the same time, 2 years is 2 years.
 

Hombre Secreto

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If you''ll still be in your 20's in two years... go for it. It's not like you're going to find a job that truly makes you happy, anyway.
 

dfagdfsh

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thankfully ill still be in my 20s for a lot more than 2 years lol
 

Rambo

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Do you actually have interest in a History MA? I think that's the bigger question here. The application is meaningless, you can walk away at any time, but why get stuck in a program for 2 years if its not something you enjoy?
 

Hartmann

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Rambo's right, you need to evaluate if you're able to self-motivate enough for the 2 years in History as opposed to English. I understand it would be nice to not graduate with debt, but maybe there are options at the places you applied for grants/bursaries/paid work opportunities?

You should also think about further than 2 years down the road about graduation. If you want to go back to English for a PhD it can be done but it might be more difficult academically since you didn't spend the time working on something directly in the field.
 

dfagdfsh

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honestly, I don't think I'd mind doing history. I know that's kind of a blase way to talk about something that'd take 2 years and a ton of effort, but I really think It'd be fine.

as to funding.. if I'm going to grad school, it's going to be funded. theres no way im taking any sort of debt to get a humanities grad degree. all of the phd programs I applied to have 5 years gauranteed, and for the MAs I applied for funding at all the schools. the issue is that the admissions rates are just so low rate now, I kind of want to have a 'sure thing'
 

GQgeek

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What's the harm in applying? History is more interesting anyway.
devil.gif
Both are fairly useless on their own (said as a classics major). There isn't anything you won't be able to do in 2 years that you would have been able to do now with a BA, assuming you don't get into any of the english programs.

Didn't you say that you wanted to teach at the university level though? I'd be damned sure I was studying something I was really in to because you're talking about way more than 2 years here...
 

Piobaire

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Apply. You can always chose something else, and even if you stick with history, it's not like you couldn't work English Lit into that, i.e. a historical thesis on something to do with Eng. Lit.
 

dfagdfsh

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yea I guess I'll apply. I should make a thread about the costs of applying to grad school: I've spent approaching 3k now...
 

Piobaire

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So if you were making the SF minimum salary, would you give that up to complete a Ph.D. and teach, making the average wages a non-tenured prof gets?
 

dfagdfsh

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I understand what you're asking, but I'm going to answer with a solid "maybe". There's a big difference between giving up $250,000 / year and deciding to pursue a career where you (like most people in America) won't make that.
 

Connemara

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I don't think an MA in history is conducive to job placement. I say this as someone with a BA in history...I love the stuff, but where would you use that MA?
 

thekunk07

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i think you should keep overeducating yourself in the liberal arts until you're completely unemployable
 

Piobaire

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Originally Posted by Teger
I understand what you're asking, but I'm going to answer with a solid "maybe". There's a big difference between giving up $250,000 / year and deciding to pursue a career where you (like most people in America) won't make that.

Yes, but I'm talking about giving up 250k (minimum) to get a few years more of graduate education to pursue a career, where apparently, "most people" in the sector make 40-60k.
 

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