wolverine99

I'm wondering if you and your friend are both going into NES? Just curious. Also, I don't think NES/NELC is any easier/harder than getting into sociology, history, etc. I'm not sure what the statistics say, but I do know there are less applicants to NES programs. Perhaps this could be the reason why people think it's easier to get in since the low number of applicants may make it easier to stand out to the admissions committees. I, thankfully, am fluent in all the NES languages I need for my research. Hopefully this gives me some sort of boost.

Thank you for the response. I guess my main concern with NES is that it isn't a discipline like the way political science, sociology, and history are and that this ultimately affects employment chances. That's why I've been leaning towards pursuing a degree in one of the traditional social sciences/humanities and focusing on my area of interest in the Middle East. The downside of this is that faculty within those departments will most likely not have the same level of expertise and knowledge on the Middle East and resources pertaining to the middle east will not match those found in NES departments. This is such a hard choice to make! As for employment, I've definitely seen NES PhD's within numerous history departments. This makes me think that they're not totally restricted to other NES departments? Also, are NES grads looked down upon because they're perceived to be lacking in methodological and theoretical training due to the nature of NES programs as opposed to social science/humanities programs? At this point, I'm trying to convince myself that NES is truly the right path for me because I definitely think my experience and research interests belong in an NES department. But at the same time, I don't wanna be sacrificing too much in the way of future employment opportunities. Please enlighten me! Thank you.

I've been thinking about pursuing a doctoral degree in Near Eastern studies. I'm new to this whole process and if these are stupid questions, please be patient with me :\ As I understand it, area studies programs such as Near Eastern studies and Asian Studies departments are interdisciplinary in nature. I've been thinking about what the advantages/disadvantages of attending a history program or political science program instead of a NES program and focusing on middle eastern history/politics would be. Is a degree from a near eastern studies department less marketable than one from a social science/humanities department? What departments would one most likely be teaching in with a Near Eastern Studies degree? Thanks!