redpandaprince

Current Penn PhD student here. Feel free to hit me up if you're curious about the program!

There aren't many funded MA programs for EAS in the United States. A lot of departments use them as a means for raising revenue. The funded ones that I know of are the University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Oregon, University of Washington and University of Colorado. These schools all offer TAships to (some) MA students; if that's what you'd be interested in doing, its good to have some kind of teaching experience when applying, particularly language teaching experience. I can't speak for any of the other programs but I did my MA at UMass and they have a small but strong faculty in media, lit and language. In terms of emphasis, I would focus less on any program at large and focus on the professors in your field you'd like to work with on a particular project. If a program doesn't have someone who they feel is equipped to supervise your project, they probably won't admit you, so figuring out specific people you could work with and reaching out to them is a good way to boost your chances. I totally feel you on not wanting to go into debt, but be forewarned that even if you don't go into debt or have to take out loans, even funded MAs likely won't give you as much funding as they give PhDs. I hope this helps!