Ciboney

Take one thing at a time. If you still want to spend 5-6 years of your life working on a doctorate, apply next year. And apply to as many programs as you possibly can. I am planning to apply to 11 doctoral programs this coming fall. Hopefully, 2 or 3 will accept me. It is horribly competitive and political. One can be an excellent researcher and bring an impressive background to a program, but that will still not get you in. More often than not, an admissions committee only has two or three spots; meanwhile, they have 30 or 50 good applicants for those spots from many countries. Imagine, making a decision! In the meantime, I hope you can get a job when you finish your master's. You might like to check on employment websites like this one: https://www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/search.cfm?JobCat=157

Pero eso fue para el año académico en el que ya estamos.

I have to disagree on letters of recommendations. If the letters come from an institution where a member of the committee graduated from OR if the person writing is an internationally respected scholar from a respected program, that letter will carry a lot of weight.

For those applying for a Master's first, I would suggest my program. It is highly ranked in the US. However, they expect students to take one course in each area. The doctorate is more area-focused, but they require a Master's to apply. Unfortunately, the deadline is tomorrow. https://www.colorado.edu/spanish/graduate

Actually the course offerings are are pretty balanced. But check the official website, including the courses they had for the fall and the ones for spring--and the faculty in your area. Also, communicating directly with the graduate faculty by email is a good idea. I know that right now most of those in the dissertation stage are in European literature. They do expect an MA to apply for the doctorate. That I am sure about. Good luck; it is extremely competitive.

Since it is the time when most people planning graduate studies in linguistics or literature will start deciding where to apply, I would recommend or encourage applicants to check on my program and its outstanding faculty (compared to many other programs'): https://www.colorado.edu/spanish/graduate/ma Good luck on finding a good match.

Hi Alex. If you end up deciding to accept Colorado@Boulder's offer, we will be classmates! Although my interest is modern Spanish-American lit, I am quite impressed with the faculty in Spanish in medieval/Renaissance area.

Reality808: Thank you for bringing this up. It was a balanced and realistic assessment. I had read a couple of articles about it; they said pretty much the same thing. Personally, I am doing this because it is the right moment in my life, but I have no illusion of getting a job that would resemble any of the graduate faculty with whom I will be working/studying. Yet, it is still slightly better than those people who do doctorates in English.

If the programs you are applying to require data management and or statistics, as some do, go for the first one. If the programs do not, choose the language program (and mention it in the application essay, that you have been working on the requirements already). Good luck. ?

I meant strictly in languages. I disagree on the job prospects, based in what I know (that includes, but it is not based solely on it, conversations with several faculty members who have been members of hiring committees in higher education). Yet, in pre-higher ed, the circumstances might be different. About other academic areas, I have no idea about the respect of graduate on-line programs. I can tell you that when I was a member of a couple of hiring committees an online degree did hurt the candidates applying. ?

Forgotten: if it helps in your decision, I would avoid any online degree because of very poor employment prospects. They are just not regarded seriously generally. I am just saying... ?

Quierocafe... I'm glad the advice helped a little bit. And you do have an offer, so it is not too bad. ?

My advice: email the Graduate Coordinator and/or the Graduate Vice Chair (or whatever they call it) directly today. Bureaucrats in the Graduate School normally do not know anything about these matters that are dealt with at the departmental level. That is just the way it is. ?

Yes, you should ask them directly. I got their rejection (?) in late January. They are very good at responding directly fast.

The University of Massachussets is notorious for being late. I know. I would send an email directly asking them. They also have almost no money. Trust me, I know, again. Good luck with them. I do not know about Connecticut, although I have a degree from there, but not in literature/Spanish. There is little or no difference between private or public institutions. It just depends on the organization of the particular department and its efficiency (or lack of it).