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sho.chiku.bai

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  1. Hi, everyone. For relatively low financial cost, I'm currently doing a two-year M.A. in North American studies in Germany while also learning German on the side. I saw the M.A. as a place where I could further develop my research interests, strengthen my writing, and learn a second foreign language in the event that I do want to continue with a CompLit PhD in the U.S. With that said, I'm beginning to regret my decision a bit given the large classes sizes, lack of contact with the professors, and lack of rigor that I expected in graduate school. Thus far, it only seems like a recapitulation of undergrad--albeit a bit worse. While I'm trying to make the best of the situation--and there are certainly good things about the program and location, too--I'm mostly concerned with two things: 1. getting strong, personal letters of recommendation, seeing as professors are much more impersonal and classes are incredibly large 2. and U.S. PhD programs' perception of a German M.A. conducted in English Can anyone who's been in a similar situation give some advice and/or words of encouragement? I was a strong canidate for a PhD coming out of my B.A. with excellent grades and departmental awards, so I'm afraid that while I hoped this M.A. would strengthen my future PhD app, perhaps it will have the opposite effect. Thank you!
  2. For relatively low financial cost, I'm currently doing a two-year M.A. in North American studies in Germany while also learning German on the side. I saw the M.A. as a place where I could further develop my research interests, strengthen my writing, and learn a second foreign language in the event that I do want to continue with a CompLit PhD in the U.S. With that said, I'm beginning to regret my decision a bit given the large classes sizes, lack of contact with the professors, and lack of rigor that I expected in graduate school. Thus far, it only seems like a recapitulation of undergrad--albeit a bit worse. While I'm trying to make the best of the situation--and there are certainly good things about the program and location, too--I'm mostly concerned with two things: 1. getting strong, personal letters of recommendation, seeing as professors are much more impersonal and classes are incredibly large 2. and U.S. PhD programs' perception of a German M.A. conducted in English Can anyone who's been in a similar situation give some advice and/or words of encouragement? I was a strong canidate for a PhD coming out of my B.A. with excellent grades and departmental awards, so I'm afraid that while I hoped this M.A. would strengthen my future PhD app, perhaps it will have the opposite effect. Thank you!
  3. First of all, thank you for taking the time to write a thorough response. To answer your question, what I imagine doing is this: I formulate some sort of research question or thesis (e.g. The physical environment of post-industrial London has a deterministic affect on characters in X's novel; this can be read as a social critique on 20th century England, notably the rise of automation). I would either formulate this question w/ a professor, or I would approach the professor w/ it already formed. Then, with their guidance, I would use journal articles, maybe primary sources, theoretical approaches to write a long paper (like 50 pg.) arguing for this thesis. Along the way, I imagine I'd meet with the professor to discuss my progress, to make sure I'm on the right track. Finally, I'd turn in some sort of final draft for a critique, receive feedback, edit it, then possibly repeat. This would likely be listed as "independent study" on my transcript if I were to get it approved through the appropriate channels. At the end, I would have a highly polished, wholly originally, long piece of critical work that I could use for applications and could try to get published -- not to mention the experience itself would offer me insight on the research process either calling into question or further confirming my desire to go to grad school. As for working at my current university, I'm just not confident enough in the language in which I'm working in here to do research, but I'm thinking about speaking to professors in the English dept. to do exactly this.
  4. I'm a third-year studying abroad for a year in Europe, and next year I'd like to apply for grad school, specifically funded MA programs. However, in order to have a strong application, I know I need strong letters and a strong writing sample. To those aims, I think it's important I do some undergraduate research this year -- and if not this year, beginning next year. However, I'm a bit unsure of how to approach this. In order to do independent research at my university, you have to get a faculty member to sponsor you. But I don't have any particularly close relationships with faculty. Yes, I've gone to office hours and done well in certain prof's classes, but beyond that I don't feel I have anyone I can count on to sponsor me as a mentor. It's a lot of extra work for no addtl. pay. As a result, the next step seems to be to propose a project to a faculty member, but the problem here is that A) it doesn't look like there are any professors interested in my prospective "field" (contemporary literature, postmodern literature) and B ) I'm not even sure how to develop a research question or topic. It seems to vast. So I feel I'm in a bind. Right now, I'm thinking of candidly emailing a professor whom I enjoyed and whom I found helpful, telling him that I'm interested in research, possibly in his field (tho it's not my favorite and I'm not really knowledgeable in it) -- what should I do? But I'm worried this might come off as unprofessional or too forward since myself don't have an idea; not to mention it's possible he won't remember me (tho I went to office hours two or three times and did quite well in his seminar). I probably would like a recommendation from this professor in the future, too. I'd go see him personally, but again, I'm studying abroad.
  5. Hi all, I'm a third-year studying literature at a lower-tier UC, and I'm thinking about grad school, though frankly I'm a little lost, so I'd appreciate some input from those more experienced. I'd like to get a terminal MA both because I'm too lost -- meaning, I don't know what I want to specialize in, what my research strengths are, or even if I'm cut out to spend years of my life spending lit. -- and because I'd like to teach community college or maybe high school. Of course, I'd like to do it without accruing too much debt, too. But my questions are as follows: -- I've just started my third-year, though I still don't really have a focus; part of that is because I haven't been diligent in doing my own, independent study of the history of literature and literary theory, so I don't have a comprehensive understanding of different movements (e.g. I know, in a couple of sentences, what the Frankfurt School is, but not in any depth). How should I go about...well, finding an interest, especially so that I can do some independent research before grad school? This isn't to say I haven't found anything interesting -- rather, everything seems interesting to some extent, and I'm a bit overwhelmed, unguided. My coursework has been in a bunch of different subfields, so i have a shallow understanding of many things. -- Secondly, I've perused this forum and found a thread or two on terminal MAs. The upshots: go only if you have funding, there aren't many funded MAs, and choose a city that you like. Besides that, any recommendations on programs? One problem I seem to be having is that I'm not sure whether I'm a competitive candidate for a lot of programs, say Georgetown, because most MA programs don't post data like they do for undergrad (comprehensive freshman profile w/ SAT scores, GPA, etc.). Could anyone give me basic stats to give me an idea? Furthermore, it's hard to identify "fit" when I don't have a solid research interest. -- Thirdly, what exactly are the most important criteria for admission? My understanding is... Fit > previous research experience > letters of rec > personal statement > GPA > GRE > Extracurriculars > Misc. Currently, I don't have any research exp., but I do have a high GPA and pretty good extracurricular experience in journalism. But what does it take, for example, to get funded at Georgetown MA? What about SF State's MA? Thanks!
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