Hi all! I'm new here but looking for some advice.
In an incredible life-plot-twist, I recently accepted my offer of admission to the University of Western Ontario's English MA program. The circumstances that led to my applying UWO actually have very little to do with the school or program itself - it's only after I applied (perhaps for the wrong reasons), was accepted, and was offered substantial funding that I really began to consider it as a legitimate option. Now that I've looked into it a bit more, I'm really looking forward to going in the fall and I think the program/faculty is a really good fit for me.
Anyway, it's about time for me to register for classes, and UWO offers three "degree options" for MA candidates. The list below is straight from the department website.
Course work: This involves the completion of four full-year (or equivalent) courses and one half-year bibliographical methods course.
Course work and Independent Research Project (IRP): This involves the completion of three full-year (or equivalent) courses and the submission of a 50-page IRP, researched and developed in close consultation with a faculty supervisor.
Course work and Thesis: This involves the completion of two full-year (or equivalent) courses and the submission and oral defense of a 100-page thesis, researched and developed in close consultation with a faculty supervisory committee (supervisor and second reader).
I have no idea which option I should choose.
A mentor suggested to me that I do the course work and thesis option (Option 3), noting that some PHD programs require an MA thesis for admission. The thing is, I don't currently have plans to get a PHD. I may one day, but I'm not there yet and it isn't currently a part of my plan. So... I guess I'm thinking it would be really bad if a few years down the line I decided I wanted one and then couldn't get into a program because I didn't do a Master's thesis.
At the same time, I'm really interested in the courses - I like being in the classroom and discussing material much much more than I like doing independent research. In the end, I'm sort of torn between doing the course option (which I want) or the thesis option (to maintain that potential for a PHD if I choose to go that route). Of course IRP is a good compromise option :-)
I should note that When it comes to choosing the best option for my future, I don't really know what my future entails yet. I don't have any plans and I'm the sort of person that takes his life day by day (while being prepared for tomorrow's opportunities). Part of what makes it hard to know what's best is that I don't know what my end goal will be.
Does anybody have any suggestions or input? I don't know a whole lot about the norms for MA programs... is it typical to write a thesis? Is it frowned upon to only take courses? I can think of some obvious advantages and disadvantages to all three options, but how does the academic world (and the rest of you) see things?
Thanks for your help!