montcg

The masters is not funded at all. It would mean ~30K for the one year program and no thesis or dissertation. Columbia has more professors in my subfield, but I'm concerned that professors generally are not focused on MA students (though there are only 20 admitted per year and MA students are linked with an advisor in their field of study). I'm having trouble finding the placement records for Columbia MAs - many I know don't pursue PhD's and opt for jobs in consulting, gov't, business, law, etc. I can't find any info about how many pursue PhDs and where they are placed.

Choosing between the fully funded 5-year PhD program in political science at Boston University and the 1-year MA program at Columbia University. Definitely want to do a PhD and pursue a career in academia, so the PhD program is tempting, but the ranking of BU’s program (#56) might make finding a decent job as a prof more challenging than kickstarting a PhD elsewhere with an MA in Columbia (ranked #7).