[Language Requirement: Which Language First?]

Hi all,

I will be starting a MA in the Fall 2010 and I was wondering which of the two languages (German vs. French) that I should learn first if I was interested in continuing on to completing a PhD program.

I have a bit more of background in German and it is definitely more fresh in my mind since I just finished a semester of German 101 at a local community college. I took a semester of French years ago, but I am more interested in French thought and literatures.

With this in mind, should I take German first during my M.A. and then focus on the French later on (while hopefully retaining enough to pass the language examination for a second time)? Or should I focus on French now, so when in a PhD program I would have more time to refine one language and then revisit German?

Thanks in advance!

[Good MA programs in continental philosophy]

On 5/2/2010 at 6:05 PM, platin said:

Hi everyone, next year I will apply to MA programs in US. Since my major is not philosophy and I want to pursue phd in philosophy, i think getting an MA degree first would be better for me.

I am interested in continental philosophy, ethics and feminist theory. Which schools would you suggest? I have a friend studying at Loyola, do you think it is a good place to study before the phd?

Which Loyola is your friend at? If Loyola-Marymount, I know they have placement information which is rare for MA programs (let alone ones in Continental Philosophy).

Some programs I heard good things about are Stony Brook MA, Duquesne, and WUSTL.

[Waiting for NSSR]

Um, well, I'm an hour from NYC so my letter will NOT take time. And they were already mailed out for my program, and I made the deadline, so if I was accepted, I would have received the letter.

If it helps to settle anything at all, I did receive that financial aid e-mail from the New School and received my letter from them on March 17th or 18th. I'm located on the West Coast.

[How will US universities evaluate your foreign degree?]

Most American universities rely on the World Education Services (WES) for an understanding of a foreign degree.The WES is essentially a company that converts your scores and grades to a US grading system.The process is called a credential evaluation.The WES provides you with a credential evaluation report consisting of your scores and its US conversion including the GPA and the US equivalent grades.You should go have a look at their website

http://www.wes.org/

To my knowledge this is an essential part of your application.

Hope this helps.

While you probably would be required by American Universities to provide for a evaluation services, I cannot stress how bad my experience with World Education Services has been. Take this with a grain of salt, since I'm sure other have great experiences. My evaluation was horribly done: WES graded my higher foreign grades, as a lower American equivalent then a lower foreign grade. In other cases, they had two different American grades for the same foreign grade. WhenI tried to get my grades reevaluated, they simply e-mailed me back saying no changes were needed according to their grading scale. Then when I tried pointing how they were not applying their own scale correctly and consistently, I got the same generic e-mail.

It took a credit card dispute and numerous complaints until they finally changed my grades two to three months later (much after application deadlines were due). Since they changed my grades so late, I had to pay for another company to do the job and pay extra for expedited service. I strongly suggest that anyone needing evaluations done go with a different company.