I've been admitted to MA Middle Eastern Studies programs at University of Chicago and at the University of Texas at Austin. Assuming that my primary interests are the politics and history of the Arab world, as well as a desire to continue working on my Arabic, what school does the great and powerful message board recommend?
My ideal career path is something government-related, ideally overseas (Foreign Service, whatnot).
I know they're both strong programs, and it has been suggested to me that Chicago is particularly strong on the history aspects, while UT is inflected with a business orientation (which I have little interest in), and both are excellent linguistically. Can anyone speak to that?