soulsearching

I glad to hear that your substantive experience is what matters in academia, as opposed to prestige and imagine. fuzzylogician, would you be able to expand on which subfields are stronger in Leiden than Oxford, and how Leiden's structure allows for more interaction? I'm getting the sense that you're largely left to your own devises at Oxford. But is there anything to say that it's no different for courses at other universities, especially for research degrees? Thanks for the information so far - it's very insightful.

Hey fuzzylogician and historicallinguist Thanks for these insights! They are handy especially when the only other source of information are the faculties' (sanitised) websites. I received offers for the MPhil of General Linguistics and Comparative Philology at Oxford, and the Research Master's in Linguistics at Leiden. Yep, the two year length was certainly a factor for applying for both; I'd have time to digest the course matter, write a sound Master's thesis and figure out what to do for a subsequent PhD. The plan is to make it into the academic world (hopefully!). I'm actually hoping to use Masters (whichever offer I take) to find out exactly what interest of linguistics really resonates with me. I majored in sociolinguistics, especially Japanese sociolingusitics in my undegraduate degree, but I had a 'falling out' with that as I didn't find the research methods terribly rigorous. I ended up doing an undergrad honours thesis on the international law of language rights and I think I want to explore fields of theoretical linguistics, minority/lesser-known languages and language documentation. I don't have a specific language family or language sub-system in mind at this stage. I feel that my interests would be catered for nicely at Leiden. They seem really keen on the idea of language diversity and I'm impressed that it's one of their flagship 'research profiles' http://www.research.leiden.edu/research-profiles/. Oxford doesn't seem to match my interests as much, and a professor at my university (the Australian National University) did tell me that Oxford's strength wasn't really in language documentation. Additionally, Leiden's Masters seems to be more flexible with a range of electives as your disposal, whilst the Oxford MPhil seems to get you to commit to particularly options. And does Oxford's relative youth mean that the MPhil is not as developed or well-organised as other programs? Another option is to stay at ANU, but I'll admit that I do want a change of environment overseas (being lucky enough to have the finances to do so). I'm also awaiting the outcome of an application for the Research Master's program at the University of Amsterdam (the only other application I made) and there would be more things to consider should I receive an offer for that. On the study/social environment, I have heard that Leiden is a friendly student city, but on the other hand, the student body isn't as cohesive as say Oxford as there aren't as many student societies and clubs, and there is a divide between international and local Dutch students. I guess Oxford, with its established college system, would offer a better environment? But in any case for me, the main consideration would be the linguistics study program. It seems that regardless of where I go, my supervisor will be the most important factor for getting value out of the study program and preparing myself for a PhD and beyond?

Hi everyone, I've received offers for Research Masters programmes at the Universities of Leiden and Oxford and I'm really not sure which one to choose. Leiden is my first preference. It seems to have a broader course offering and the opportunity to live in continental Europe (which I really enjoyed when I visited there). On the other hand, Oxford has a second to none reputation, and this could make me more attractive in the world of academia. But for me, Leiden's programme is a better fit and I feel that the only reason I'd go to Oxford would be for the prestige factor. If anyone has any thoughts or advice, that'd be great!