Undergrad VS Grad school (MA)

[switzPHILO]

I'm currently awaiting responses from MA programs I've applied to (in Canada), and I've been wondering what going to graduate school will be like (compared to undergraduate studies). Will it be more difficult/stressful, generally? Will it be more fun? Will I be reading/writing more? Etc.

[coffeepls]

There's a thread called 'preparing for graduate level coursework' (or something like that) from a couple of weeks ago somewhere on here! I'm in the same position (but in the US, and I applied to some PhDs in addition to MAs), and found the thread really useful.

[thehegeldialectic]

31 minutes ago, switzPHILO said:

Will it be more difficult/stressful, generally? 

Yes, incredibly so, but when you enjoy what you're doing, it's no so bad.

31 minutes ago, switzPHILO said:

 Will it be more fun? 

Grad school is a blast, if you like studying philosophy. You are around a ton of people who have a similar education, interests, and background and are all learning together. There's also less formality with professors who will go out drinking with you, talk about mutual interests together, etc. 

31 minutes ago, switzPHILO said:

Will I be reading/writing more?

You will be reading a ton. You will have to learn how to quickly master all of the secondary literature on a topic in the span of a semester. You will have to read extremely closely and often in the original language. 

As for writing, you will basically be having to produce three 20 page papers of the same quality as your writing sample at the end of every semester. So if you are still writing undergraduate essays, you should take some time to look at the stuff in journals and try to learn to write in that style. 

Edited February 27, 2018 by iunoionnis

[switzPHILO]

15 hours ago, coffeepls said:

There's a thread called 'preparing for graduate level coursework' (or something like that) from a couple of weeks ago somewhere on here! I'm in the same position (but in the US, and I applied to some PhDs in addition to MAs), and found the thread really useful.

I just found that thread. It was really helpful!

[switzPHILO]

15 hours ago, iunoionnis said:

Yes, incredibly so, but when you enjoy what you're doing, it's no so bad.

Grad school is a blast, if you like studying philosophy. You are around a ton of people who have a similar education, interests, and background and are all learning together. There's also less formality with professors who will go out drinking with you, talk about mutual interests together, etc. 

You will be reading a ton. You will have to learn how to quickly master all of the secondary literature on a topic in the span of a semester. You will have to read extremely closely and often in the original language. 

As for writing, you will basically be having to produce three 20 page papers of the same quality as your writing sample at the end of every semester. So if you are still writing undergraduate essays, you should take some time to look at the stuff in journals and try to learn to write in that style. 

Thanks! Also, I love that pic of Slavoj...

[prtrbd]

I didn't find classes in my MA program to be terribly difficult. I did better in them than I'd done in undergrad philosophy classes.

While it's true that some professors will want an extensive engagement with the literature, this is by no means true of all professors.

[machineghost]

On 2/26/2018 at 9:55 PM, iunoionnis said:

Yes, incredibly so, but when you enjoy what you're doing, it's no so bad.

Grad school is a blast, if you like studying philosophy. You are around a ton of people who have a similar education, interests, and background and are all learning together. There's also less formality with professors who will go out drinking with you, talk about mutual interests together, etc. 

You will be reading a ton. You will have to learn how to quickly master all of the secondary literature on a topic in the span of a semester. You will have to read extremely closely and often in the original language. 

As for writing, you will basically be having to produce three 20 page papers of the same quality as your writing sample at the end of every semester. So if you are still writing undergraduate essays, you should take some time to look at the stuff in journals and try to learn to write in that style. 

While I agree with much of this post, I also disagree with quite a lot. You won’t have to master all of the secondary literature in some area over the course of a semester. That would be impossible! Leave that project for the three years that you are working on your dissertation. And it’s goung to be very rare indeed that you will be reading work in some other language unless you happen to specialize in an area where that is a requirement, which is very rare. And it will also be rare that your seminar papers are as good as your writing sample. People often use a good seminar paper as a good starting point for their writing sample. Don’t let this post scare you. Grad school is hard but it isn’t *that* hard.