MA degrees help

[graduator]

MSc degrees choice, help?

If you had to choose between these degrees, which would you choose and why?

LSE MSc Management - 2 years in London, 65k

LS-PKU Msc International Affairs - 1 year Beijing, 1 year London, 38k

Columbia - Masters in Regional Studies East Asian Studies (MARSEA)- 1 year, around 40k - Weatherhead Institute

for working later in business consulting/US government focusing on China economic related events.

Later MBA or PhD possible.

Main goal is to be a western person with business acumen and understanding of different market/business environments than the US/EU capitalism.

Bridging the cultural gap..

Thanks a lot for all thoughts

[Bukharan]

I've heard some great stuff about the LSE-Beijing programme. Financially, it also looks much more accessible.

I'd say it's better to have a year in London and a year in Beijing on your CV than two years in (excruciatingly expensive) London.

[Shanghai_joe]

I graduated from weatherhead last year and was recruited immediately to goldman sachs in shanghai! What are your stats? Can you speak any chinese? I was originally focused on Japan and switched to CHina. Columbia is great for recruitment in Asia due to our extremely expansive alumni network. Especially if you want to do Chinese-American stuff even when I was in MARSEA I had access to all the centers at Columbia. One of my friends is currently working at Accenture in Beijing who went to Sipa, but if you want to do business nothing beats Columbia, we are the best baby! Also all major firms in New York view Columbia as their baby and the recruitment chances for a MARSEA man who doesnt want to do a PHD are great! Another friend of mine is now working at the US embassy analyzing the RMB situation and he also got the job through the columbia network. LSE sounds nice, but nothing beats an education from Columbia and employers will take notice of that. I don't want to insult LSE but my year at Weatherhead was the most academically stimulating period of my life.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Shanghai_joe

[graduator]

I can speak fairly good chinese, as I have a BA in east asian studies - chinese. I am at Renmin University now after graduation for a year on scholarship, hope that helps as well.

I love NY and would love the MARSEA program. my last GREs were quite low. I guess though, for Columbia one needs exceptional scores..like 90 percentile ballpark, no?

there are LSE-PKU students here in BJ i met, the program seems very theoretical..

[Shanghai_joe]

Don't worry too much about GREs, you absolutely don't need 90 percentile, for example Harvard EAS MA hasa 40% admissions rate, MARSEA is about the same, the fact you are at renmin will be such a big boon you can't imagine, the program loves students who are passionate. How is your gpa, what school did you go to?. I spent a year at Tokyo University doing research than spent a year at IUP at Tsinghua in China. Yes you can take other classes from programs as long as you clear it with your advisor, so basically if you make a good case to your professor you can probably take classes from SIPA business school and the college. I had decent GREs 60-70%. GREs are just needed to be "decent". East Asian Studies is not a high requirement masters program, PHD yes, masters no. So relax. The reason why they accepted me I think was that I showed my passion for the program and the subject I was studying. If you really want to do stuff in America I really suggest that you focus on schools in America. I don't want to brag and sound like a jingoist, but American higher education is top notch and especially since you want to focus on America-China, there is no excuse going to a non American school. Yes Columbia is great, Hopkins SAIS is to. If you want a Chinese heavy education than SAIS in nanjing is great for that, my GF just got her masters from there and is in Shanghai and her chinese has become phenomenal and because she has the Hopkins name on her degree she has great means, she currently has a job at Standard Charter and loves it. (JHU also has a huge huge huge alumni network in China, I usually go to the shanghai hopkins club meetings with her and there is like over 200 alum that are active in the club and eager to help out). BUT. You have missed some of the great programs, if you really want to do Chinese-American stuff NYU just established a new center just for that purpose and I've heard it has a lot of funding. Upenn's program is also great for China Business, I hear you can take courses at Wharton as well if you really want to. American University has a good program for that. UChigao also is good for that. When I first applied to grad schools I was obsessed with not going to an American school, I applied to Oxford SOAS etc but found that East Asia is still the best in America hands down. Sorry to be a downer.