archimon

I’ve replied to Nekoinu via PM.

I’m an MA student.

No it isn’t!

I haven’t heard anything, so presumably I didn’t get in. Congrats, in any case! Looks like you have quite the decision to make!

I didn’t have an interview as I’m already a Columbia student and thus a known quantity. If you have an interview scheduled you’re obviously still in consideration, so don’t sweat it.

Thanks! ?

Thanks! I have no special insight, unfortunately. It doesn’t seem like anyone else has posted a result today, so maybe they’re sent out piecemeal. Good luck!

I just got got an official email from Columbia telling me that I’d been accepted, so presumably emails are coming out now.

Thanks!

Hey! I received some very helpful advice earlier in this thread, so I figure that I should follow up and let everyone know how my cycle turned out. Ultimately, despite being told by my advisor that they "really wanted me to come," I was rejected outright at RSEA. At Columbia, my advisor had asked that I be admitted to the Ph.D. program, but, as he had a number of Ph.D. students already, had a fairly weak hand in the committee. I was eventually admitted to Columbia's EALAC M.A. program with a generous funding package (half-tuition + a $30,000 stipend), and will be heading to New York in the fall. Is anyone else here headed to Columbia?

Ah, I see. What do you hope to do after the program? Are you looking to do FLAS for a full year or just a summer? Roughly, I work on the social and intellectual history of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) - in the past my work has largely focused on the history of the family and kinship organization. I haven't, but I've never been particularly interested in religion, so that says nothing about the program - it may well be quite well-known/regarded. According to this page (https://gsas.columbia.edu/student-guide/financing-your-education/flas-fellowship-academic-year), it looks as though FLAS is only available to a subset of GSAS students.

Are you referring to FLAS?

I am planning to do a Ph.D., but I was told by my advisor that the committee wanted to be sure that my language skills were adequate before admitting me to the Ph.D. program (my writing sample didn't use any untranslated sources, though I took a gap year to study Chinese in Taipei to cap off the four years of Chinese I did as an undergrad, so I should be mostly good to go on that front I hope!). How about you? Are you planning to stick around for a Ph.D.? I didn't apply to FLAS, but I wouldn't really be able to use it for Chinese, and I'm planning to start learning Japanese once I get to Columbia - I'll likely try next cycle for Japanese, though I'm not sure if FLAS provides enough money to make that affordable - we'll see! Do you have any background with Hindi? Congrats! I did get a merit scholarship! Mine covers half-tuition and gives me a $30,000 stipend to live off of, so the offer was quite generous - it seems to be extremely rare for EALAC to fund M.A. students, so I'm very grateful to have gotten what I did.

Hey! I did! I'll be starting my M.A. in EALAC this fall. I've already got my uni and such set up, and am currently waiting to hear back regarding my housing application. What are you planning to do for housing?

Do you know if he received funding?

@AnUglyBoringNerd Do you have any idea whether Columbia interviews all of its finalists? I received an email from my POI in January stating that he would support my application, but I was not interviewed and haven't heard anything since.

I know the person you're referring to, and he was not in a Ph.D. program at Columbia, but rather the terminal M.A. program.

Hey - is anyone here among those posting interviews for Columbia? Can you clarify who the interview is with/what your research interests are? Do you have any idea if all applicants being seriously considered for admission are being interviewed? My POI wrote me a very positive email a few days back, but I've not heard anything about an interview.

Thanks for the reply! I applied to the Ph.D. only because it seemed like there was nothing to lose - they generally redirect your application if you are a good fit for the school anyway. I am definitely aware that I need to work on language skills/deepen my competency as a research in the discipline (especially when it comes to working with Classical Chinese primary sources - my research interests are Song/Yuan/Ming social/cultural history), and their email to me seemed to imply that it was language skills that they were most concerned about. I suspect an MA would help quite a bit with this. Has anyone here done the Harvard A.M.? I'm quite interested in learning about what sorts of funding opportunities are available for foreign language study - I'd definitely like to get to work on Japanese as a masters student.

Just to let others that applied to HEAL know: I applied and was told on the 17th (of January) that I would not be accepted to the Ph.D., but that my application would be redirected to the RSEA M.A. program. Also, my POI said that they "really want you [i.e., me] to come here" - does this mean anything at this stage? Should I expect an acceptance?

I'd certainly be interested to hear if you receive funding! Seems like funded MA programs are difficult to come by. Anyway, my impressions has been that my modern Mandarin is actually not good enough yet, and certainly not good enough for a Ph.D. program to take me with funding. You're quite right to point out that Classical Chinese is the most obvious deficiency I face at the moment, but I would actually be working on classical and modern Chinese simultaneously in Taiwan, so that doesn't really seem to be a reason to go for an MA first. Edit: I've actually never taken the HSK, but I'd guess probably between HSK 4 and 5.

What is the likelihood of getting funding for a MA were I to go to ICLP and apply to Ph.D. and MA programs simultaneously? It seems a lot to do to substantially work with untranslated sources after only a few further months of training -my Classical Chinese isn't awful, but it's not really there yet, and it'll need more than just one quarter of classes to get there. I do have leads on some potential sources that speak to my topic, but I wouldn't fundamentally change the arguments of my thesis, I think, but flesh them out somewhat with these sources. Would that be sufficient? I'm hesitant to spend money on ICLP with the hopes of boosting my application, only to be left with no funded options for the year after - a paid MA is basically out of the question for me. How many of the students you know in the program had theses incorporating sources in the way that you describe? How many already had completed MAs before applying? I want to have a decent sense of how much of a chance I have/how much of a crapshoot this may end up being before committing financially to anything. I understand this whole endeavor entails some degree of risk, but I may pursue something else now and cut my losses if I have a very good chance of being left with no path forward in the next application cycle that doesn't include spending money. Taking a year off to reapply might be feasible, but it's certainly not something I'm certain I can take, or that I'm certain would be helpful.

Thanks - this is extremely helpful, and largely confirms the conclusions I had come to before writing the post. It’s great to have a second opinion. I’ve sent emails to a number of professors that I’ve worked with at Rutgers asking for their two cents as well. As to my thesis, I’d like your help understanding my position. I am, indeed, writing it using primary sources from the period, but the sources I am using have been translated into English by earlier scholars. My central source is the 袁氏世範 (Mr. Yuan’s Precepts for Social Life), written by the S. Sòng official Yuán Cǎi 袁采, which was translated by Patricia Ebrey back in the 80’s. I’m also using the 清明集 (The Enlightened Judgements). In addition to these sources, I’ve taken quotes here and there from my secondary sources, and so, while I’m nowhere close to using as many primary/Chinese sources as I’d like, what I’m doing is certainly more than just a review of literature. While I’m currently relying on translations, if it would help, I see no reason why I couldn’t simply retranslate the sections I’ve chosen to quote once my classical Chinese has improved a bit. Currently, one of my recommenders is actually a linguist, but I've worked with him on a research project that he is working on (a translation of an academic book written in modern Chinese with Classical Chinese quotations scattered throughout), studied abroad under his tutelage my freshman year, and took a semester of Classical Chinese with him. My second reader isn't even tenured, so, currently, only one of my recommenders (my primary advisor, Sukhee Lee - you may know him/know of him, as he graduated from the program you're attending a few years back) will be familiar with my thesis/writing sample.

Hi guys! I’m currently finishing up undergrad at Rutgers U. in New Brunswick, having majored in East Asian Languages and Area Studies (Chinese focus) and History. I am currently working on my senior thesis, which will be done in the next few months. I hope that this is adequate research experience for at least an MA, though my ultimate goal is a Ph.D in Premodern (especially Song-Yuan) Chinese history, which I would plan to use to get a job as a professor. As far as language skills are concerned, I’ve taken Chinese for 3 of the 4 years of my undergraduate program, skipping the last year (i.e., this year) because I spent the summer of 2016 studying Chinese at ICLP in Taiwan and had, essentially, progressed to a point where my university language courses, which aren’t particularly rigorous (they only meet twice per week at the upper levels - three times per week during the first two years), were no longer of much use. Still, with no background in Japanese, and Chinese that, when I studied at ICLP, had only reached the level of students that had studied there for a full year (they offer an entire year after that before their classes cap out), I’m worried that weak language skills might seriously hurt my application. From having spoken with students that took the additional year, the training in Classical and Modern Chinese that they received was a serious boon, and has allowed them to read primary documents with reasonable ease of effort. There a few paths forward that I am currently considering. First: JET Program I’ve applied to and passed the first stage of the JET program admissions process, meaning that I will need to pass an interview next month to be selected and sent to Japan, where I would work as an assistant English teacher in a Japanese school (or schools). I had been considering JET because it would give me significant experience living abroad, give me applicable work experience teaching (which might be useful if I’m called upon to work as a TA, and could be valuable as training for teaching after leaving graduate school in any case), and allow me to avoid hemorrhaging money for a year while I take a break from school. My fear is that taking a year or more to do JET will allow my Chinese skills to regress to a point where I will need to retake a quarter worth of Chinese classes at ICLP or an equivalent program, in addition to the entire year of additional coursework later on if I were to get my Chinese skills to the point that they need to be for primary research. I might gain some knowledge of Japanese along the way, as well, though this isn’t really a primary consideration - I doubt I’ll learn a truly significant amount. (Perhaps I’m wrong) Second: Return to ICLP Alternately, I had been considering returning to ICLP in order to complete the additional year of language training now, before I would enroll in graduate school. I would not need to take on debt to do this, though adding a fifth quarter if I were to regress while, say, doing JET, I might need to borrow a few thousand dollars. (I would apply to MA/Ph.D. programs in the fall, while in Taiwan) I believe that this might strengthen my application, as it would require less funding from any graduate program I would enroll in for language study (I would already need, if I understand correctly, to learn Japanese in graduate school in order to work with Japanese secondary sources, which would obviously take time and cost money), and I would not need to spend a year or more away working on foundational language skills for my area of interest, premodern Chinese History. If my assumption that my current language skills are inadequate to gain me admission to a good Ph.D. program directly from undergrad is correct, this seems like it might be a good way to address this defect. On the other hand, many people pursue terminal MAs, some of which have funding, before going on to a Ph.D. My question is: Would trying to get into a terminal MA program while doing JET for a year be a good path for me? Can a terminal MA sufficiently address the deficiencies in my language skills to be considered for a top Ph.D. program? Are there other deficiencies that I should be seriously concerned about with my application? Essentially, I’m hoping that some of you can give me some guidance as to what my current chances of getting into a top-20 Ph.D. program would be on the basis of the information given in this this post. (I don’t have GRE scores yet - still need to take them) Is it worth it to spend money improving my Chinese skills in Taiwan for a year? Would it be better to do JET while applying to graduate school, with the hope of improving my language skills for free while in graduate school? (Sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes - I didn’t proofread this very thoroughly)

(I hope you guys don't mind my posting this here!) Hi guys! I’m currently finishing up undergrad at Rutgers U. in New Brunswick, having majored in East Asian Languages and Area Studies (Chinese focus) and History. I am currently working on my senior thesis, which will be done in the next few months. I hope that this is adequate research experience for at least an MA, though my ultimate goal is a Ph.D in Premodern (especially Song-Yuan) Chinese history, which I would plan to use to get a job as a professor. As far as language skills are concerned, I’ve taken Chinese for 3 of the 4 years of my undergraduate program, skipping the last year (i.e., this year) because I spent the summer of 2016 studying Chinese at ICLP in Taiwan and had, essentially, progressed to a point where my university language courses, which aren’t particularly rigorous (they only meet twice per week at the upper levels - three times per week during the first two years), were no longer of much use. Still, with no background in Japanese, and Chinese that, when I studied at ICLP, had only reached the level of students that had studied there for a full year (they offer an entire year after that before their classes cap out), I’m worried that weak language skills might seriously hurt my application. From having spoken with students that took the additional year, the training in Classical and Modern Chinese that they received was a serious boon, and has allowed them to read primary documents with reasonable ease of effort. There a few paths forward that I am currently considering. First: JET Program I’ve applied to and passed the first stage of the JET program admissions process, meaning that I will need to pass an interview next month to be selected and sent to Japan, where I would work as an assistant English teacher in a Japanese school (or schools). I had been considering JET because it would give me significant experience living abroad, give me applicable work experience teaching (which might be useful if I’m called upon to work as a TA, and could be valuable as training for teaching after leaving graduate school in any case), and allow me to avoid hemorrhaging money for a year while I take a break from school. My fear is that taking a year or more to do JET will allow my Chinese skills to regress to a point where I will need to retake a quarter worth of Chinese classes at ICLP or an equivalent program, in addition to the entire year of additional coursework later on if I were to get my Chinese skills to the point that they need to be for primary research. I might gain some knowledge of Japanese along the way, as well, though this isn’t really a primary consideration - I doubt I’ll learn a truly significant amount. (Perhaps I’m wrong) Second: Return to ICLP Alternately, I had been considering returning to ICLP in order to complete the additional year of language training now, before I would enroll in graduate school. I would not need to take on debt to do this, though adding a fifth quarter if I were to regress while, say, doing JET, I might need to borrow a few thousand dollars. (I would apply to MA/Ph.D. programs in the fall, while in Taiwan) I believe that this might strengthen my application, as it would require less funding from any graduate program I would enroll in for language study (I would already need, if I understand correctly, to learn Japanese in graduate school in order to work with Japanese secondary sources, which would obviously take time and cost money), and I would not need to spend a year or more away working on foundational language skills for my area of interest, premodern Chinese History. If my assumption that my current language skills are inadequate to gain me admission to a good Ph.D. program directly from undergrad is correct, this seems like it might be a good way to address this defect. On the other hand, many people pursue terminal MAs, some of which have funding, before going on to a Ph.D. My question is: Would trying to get into a terminal MA program while doing JET for a year be a good path for me? Can a terminal MA sufficiently address the deficiencies in my language skills to be considered for a top Ph.D. program? Are there other deficiencies that I should be seriously concerned about with my application? Essentially, I’m hoping that some of you can give me some guidance as to what my current chances of getting into a top-20 Ph.D. program would be on the basis of the information given in this this post. (I don’t have GRE scores yet - still need to take them) Is it worth it to spend money improving my Chinese skills in Taiwan for a year? Would it be better to do JET while applying to graduate school, with the hope of improving my language skills for free while in graduate school? (Sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes - I didn’t proofread this very thoroughly)