kyjin
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Everything posted by kyjin
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Undergrad: Lived on campus Language school: 5 minute walk, 15 minute subway ride, 10 minute walk through shopping district. The subway was usually packed, but I got a ton of reading done. MA: 15 minute walk across campus to office. (I lived just off the edge of campus in university housing.) PhD (current): 5 minute walk to transit, 30 minute subway ride with a transfer or 30ish ride on bus depending on traffic, 5ish walk to office. I occasionally drive down, which takes 20-25 on average, and then walk about 10 minutes from parking to campus since I utilize street parking. Research Year abroad: 50 minute walk from house to campus(!). Biking was about 20, but I liked to listen to audiobooks or podcasts and enjoy the neighborhood. (Walked through a whole district of temples.) Transit was possible, but would have been 25 minutes walking total, plus a crowded subway ride. I much preferred my walk. (Plus it saves money- and my waistline!)
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I’m a fifth year at USC, and I also moved cross-country, knew nothing about California, and didn’t know anyone here. Join some graduate organizations on campus to help make friends! USC is huge, and you’re bound to make some friends The graduate student government hosts a number of social events that may help too. I also like meeting groups to meet people off campus. If you can, come down to LA to get a feel for the neighborhoods. I don’t like the area around USC to live, mainly because there are too many undergrads. Koreatown, Culver City, and Palms are quite popular for grad students depending on what neighborhood feel you want. I live in Los Feliz, close to Griffith Park, which means I pay a bit more for rent ($1100 for a room in a 2 bed/2 bath), but I live in an extremely walkable neighborhood. If you don’t want to get a car, be sure to live on one of the train lines; Expo line goes straight to campus, and grad students get discounted fare cards for Metro. A lot of my friends don’t have cars, though I bought one when I got out here. I like the independence and the ability to drive all over the area. Look at Padmapper to get a sense of apartment prices. I don’t recommend larger complexes that advertise as exclusive for USC students; they are very loud and cater to undergrads. Hope this helps, and if you have more questions, let me know!
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Just a bit of intel if anyone is applied to EALC at USC: committee meets next week! So hopefully you will all learn soon. Rooting for you all!
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I'm a current student at USC, and we do usually have a few people move from waitlist to accepted. Depends on the year, but I think the last few years have had at least one or two? It depends how many from the initial round choose to say yes. Just remember that you may be waiting right up to April 15th; I actually got in on the waitlist for Michigan on decision day my year!
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Can't speak to the score ranges since I took it before the scoring changes occurred, but the GRE really is the least important part of your application. Some scholarships may take the score into account (verbal, not quant), but aside from that it's not too big of a deal. Try not to stress and good luck!
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@AnUglyBoringNerd Huh, that doesn't seem right to me. I might consider applying just in case anyway. Honestly I wouldn't take any PhD program that didn't offer full funding, and they know applicants won't consider them if they aren't funded. Might be a UC policy about international applicants... @kotatsumuri Yes, another Heian/Kamakura person! Always excited when I see someone else working in my time period. In that case, I would also suggest looking at USC. You'll want more language work for the PhD level, but you could apply for the East Asian Studies MA which would allow you to work with professors across campus. (Particularly I'm thinking Joan Piggott in History and Lori Meeks in Religion.) They also offer some funding in the form of TAships. Glad to hear my posts about UAlberta helped. I came across the program by chance and it really was an incredible program to prep for a PhD.
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Gonna pop my head in to wish luck to you two! I'm at USC, focusing on premodern Japan. If you have any questions about the process, please let me know~ @kotatsumuri: What period specifically are you working on? If you're looking at MAs, do take a look at UAlberta's East Asian Studies program. They have a premodern literature and religion specialist and usually have funding for their students. I'd also check at UMichigan if Hitomi Tonomura is still taking students. I have a few friends who went to UBC's MA program and loved it. Also may want to look at Princeton? @AnUglyBoringNerd: Seconding UC Santa Barbara for you! I have a lot of friends in that program and they love it. Might also want to look at UCLA.
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@jakem1023: These vary a bit from country to country, and hopefully you'll get an info packet soon with the specific rules you're required to follow, but I'll let you know what I know from my case on a Research grant to Japan. 1) Likely when you arrive in country. I received my first payment when I visited my local Fulbright commission on day one. They also arranged my plane flight (so they may reimburse you in your case?) After that, I received payments every two months in my local bank account. They will likely discuss the payment plan during your orientation. 2) If it's an emergency, you're going to want to go to the nearest doctor, and not the US Embassy. We do have health insurance through Fulbright that covers emergency care. For Japan, my commission had us also enroll in Japanese National Health Care, and I've used local clinics since arriving a year ago. 3) Shouldn't be a problem. Just be sure to look up local insurance laws! 4) I think this is generally the case with most research grant countries, but in my case, I'm allowed three weeks outside of my host country during the period of the grant. They're not going to stay on top of you day-to-day, so if you want to take a "day off" and not study/research, no one is going to penalize you. But going outside of the country for more than the allowed time isn't allowed. (And your grant could be diminished accordingly!) Hope this helps a little bit!
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I can't speak to applying to both at once, but often if you apply to a PhD program and there is a related separate masters program, the application committee may choose to send your application down to the MA program anyway if they feel you aren't ready for the PhD. This happened to me with a few programs I applied to in my first round, and I ended up with acceptances to a few MA programs instead. I would thus definitely recommend applying for the PhD at least, and it may get sent down to the MA level if they feel you aren't ready.
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Yep, the MA dept shouldn't matter so much. I did my MA in an East Asian dept, then moved to History PhD. Much more language training in the regional programs, and your advisor may be in History anyway. My advisor was a historian. I've always done inter-departmental work; my BA was in History and East Asian Studies, MA was in East Asian Studies but I worked under a historian. In my case, I identified a POI in each History dept as main advisor, but also talked about how I wanted to work with people in EALC depts. My project, however, is very much under the field of "history" so this wasn't a stretch, rather I discussed using the EALC profs for reference and language work. In my case now, my advisor is a Japanese Historian in the History dept, and my committee is also made up of a Chinese historian, Japanese literature specialist, and Japanese religion specialist, the latter two of which are in EALC. Yes, this can also be the case! Apologies for not bringing this up. It does depend on the program, so be sure to look into your specific programs of interest to see if this is a possibility.
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This is a quandary a lot of Asianists have. My MA advisor put it simply to me when I was applying to programs: "With a History degree, a History department will take you seriously. With an EALC degree? Less so." Basically, it comes down to the job market: where do you want to end up at the end of the day? Would you like to be in a History dept? If so, it might be safer to apply in History. If you're more excited to work in an East Asian specific dept, then you can go with either. (Similar quandary also for those who do Asian Religions in choosing between Religion or EALC.) In my cycle, I ended up applying to three History programs and one EALC. One thing to keep in mind: you can still use people from both departments in your quals and dissertation committees. In my case, I'm in a History department, but half of my dissertation committee is actually in EALC. I also am a member of the grad student association for EALC, and am heavily involved in both departments. It's a great balance because I get colleagues who specialize in History, but also colleagues who focus on my area (Japan) in a number of fields and topics. You can talk to POIs at the schools you're interested in about how much you might be able to work with both departments.
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No idea I'm afraid. Sorry I can't be of more help!
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I asked at the Japan-Fulbright commission last week during an event for current Fulbrighters
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For East-Asia people: I know Japan has picked but is just waiting for final commission approval to announce. Hang in there! Congrats to everyone who heard today!!
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Any news is good news. They simply won't contact you again if there is no more funding. (At least that was the case seven years ago.)
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I can't find an official date to notify by from my grant last year, but they asked for you to decide as soon as possible. They also ask for you to complete your medical clearance within six weeks. Once you get your notification from Fulbright, I'd contact them to let them know you need a bit of time to decide. People do pull out at various times once the acceptances go out, so if circumstances change you can always pull out. (This is why they choose alternates!) I hope circumstances work out for you and you'll be able to go!
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Thirding the "contact current or former Fulbrighters." They'll be able to tell you best what the situation is in your particular country, as it really does vary. For example, Japan's stipend is incredibly generous and they offer extensions for graduate fellows thanks to private donations to the local Fulbright commission.
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East Asian Languages and Culture/Literature 2017
kyjin replied to SophieX's topic in Interdisciplinary Studies
Oh, that's not the cohort size, that's the size of the class I TAed on. Cohorts for the MA range from 4-13 people. (Though from what I've heard it's been on the lower end in recent years.) More of them tend to be for Chinese studies, then Japan, then Korea. It's important to remember you only have to deal with the cold for two years; makes it more manageable. That said, do be sure to invest in a decent winter coat (down to your knees at least) for the worst of it. You'll learn the best ways to dive between buildings to avoid being outside as much as possible. Also be sure to invest in some good snow boots; I used to keep an extra pair of shoes in the office to change into. -
East Asian Languages and Culture/Literature 2017
kyjin replied to SophieX's topic in Interdisciplinary Studies
Congrats! Hmm, I'm not sure about the program at Oxbridge. When's the deadline? You might run into the issue of having to say yes or no to Alberta before you find out from Oxbridge, but I'm not sure what their deadlines are like. Definitely not worth it if they don't provide funding... I was assigned the topic of the course and given syllabi from previous years to help me build it. Pretty much had free reign with it. I should mention that only one other grad student had a similar opportunity that summer, so not sure how common it is now. So Alberta has 31,000 undergrads. The course I TAed for was 130 or so students? Each of the TAs had a little over 40 students that they were responsible. (Numbers are off a bit because people dropped, etc.) My summer course only had 10 people in it, which is pretty common for summer. I'm unsure how much standard TA pay is because I was under scholarship too. (I had to TA or RA though) For me, it covered my tuition (which was $9500 a year for international at the time; I think it's gone up a bit since then?) and also gave me $7500 a year for living expenses. I ended up picking up a part-time job in Residence Services for 10 hours a week to help cover expenses not covered by my scholarship. (I was a Tour Guide and Social Media Intern.) Campus accommodations can be pricey (I shared an apartment in Grad Res), but it was very convenient as an international student, especially since the one I was in was fully furnished, so I didn't have to worry about purchasing things only to get rid of them after two years! I also liked being on campus all the time, especially when it was -20 outside and I needed to scurry to the office... -
East Asian Languages and Culture/Literature 2017
kyjin replied to SophieX's topic in Interdisciplinary Studies
Yeah, it's kind of a well-kept secret! I found out about it from my undergrad advisor who knew a prof there who ended up being my advisor. Yes, I TAed in my first semester, for an intro East Asian history course. I had a discussion section I led and graded papers. I also had to attend all lectures, and met with the prof and TAs once a week to discuss the course/what we were doing. I believe most of the language TAs for the first semester mainly did grading, but unfortunately I never did that. Some went on to teach full classes in their second year for language. I also got the opportunity to teach a class by myself during the summer session between my first and second year (for extra funding), where I devised the syllabus, led lecture and discussion, did grading, etc. They give you a lot of support there so you should be fine. -
East Asian Languages and Culture/Literature 2017
kyjin replied to SophieX's topic in Interdisciplinary Studies
Oh fantastic! I was there in 2011-2013. You're going to love it! They're great with funding, and fully funded most of my cohort. Let me know if you have any questions! -
East Asian Languages and Culture/Literature 2017
kyjin replied to SophieX's topic in Interdisciplinary Studies
Congrats! Can I ask which program? I did my MA in Canada too. Just curious! -
There was a holiday party here in Japan with Fulbrighters, Fulbright staff, and members of the US Embassy. We all raised that concern as well, and were told by embassy representatives that funding is locked in for us and at least this next cycle. Basically, repercussions from Trump won't affect Fulbright at least for a couple years. Still, the fact that most countries don't have an Ambassador right now is worrying...
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Have you spoken with the professor for the course about this student? They may have already been contacted by your university's disability service office (or equivalent office) about the student's aid and accommodations that may need to be made. I would then speak with the student and the assistant directly to discuss if there is any support they might need. As a TA, this information should be shared with you. I would suggest contacting your university's disability service as well with any advice they may have for your teaching with this student. Best of luck!
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I don't think that's necessary. But it's nice to contact them and keep them updated on your semi-finalist status. I'm sure they'll appreciate being in the loop.
