Russian/East European Studies

[Zahar Berkut]

Just to represent the region on these boards-- it looks like the last one of these threads is at least a year old.

Feel free to introduce yourselves. I'm only applying to a very small number of terminal M.A. programs myself, special interest in regional politics. Currently living in Ukraine.

[kotov]

Just to represent the region on these boards-- it looks like the last one of these threads is at least a year old.

Feel free to introduce yourselves. I'm only applying to a very small number of terminal M.A. programs myself, special interest in regional politics. Currently living in Ukraine.

I'm applying to Ph.D. programs intending to write my dissertation on a subject relating to Communist Romania.

[Bukharan]

(Imperial) Russian history is likely to be my secondary field.

[Zahar Berkut]

Glad to hear from you!

I've noticed that history departments seem to have a more vibrant presence on Eastern European studies. There are of course plenty of political scientists, but to me they seem pretty compartmentalized at some major East European studies centers, and most work on institutions or voting. Even the security studies people tend to focus on Cold War history.

[Zahar Berkut]

So I was offered funding at Stanford's CREEES, and there's a strong chance I'll be taking it. Any other success stories in Russian/Eastern Europe regional studies?

[Bukharan]

So I was offered funding at Stanford's CREEES, and there's a strong chance I'll be taking it. Any other success stories in Russian/Eastern Europe regional studies?

This is awesome! We are likely to meet soon then!

[ajollycossack]

Howdy all. First off, congrats on your admissions, that's awesome.

I'm a sophomore undergrad strongly considering M.A. programs in this area, and am sort of starting to consider options; Stanford in particular is one of the schools I'd be interested in applying to a little further down the line. Let me know if I shouldn't be asking these questions, but 1) what programs did you apply to and what attracted you to each of them? and 2) what makes a competitive application?

Anywhosit. Congrats again on getting into CREES!

[Zahar Berkut]

First, great user name.

My decision came very suddenly, largely as a result of the circumstances I found myself in (doing research in Eastern Europe on a scholarship for a year), a project which itself came in response to what was at the time a budding interest in the region. I decided while here that I wanted a deeper background, but I also wanted to figure out whether or not to go on to a PhD program in my field. So I only applied to two programs, one in regional studies and one in IR, based on the possibility for funding and the fact that each program is 1 year.

If I were to do a complete search with the regional studies MA as my final education goal (so that 2 year programs would be more appealing), I'd recommend looking into Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Indiana, Stanford, and probably some other less competitive schools if need be. Each of these has stellar faculty in a variety of disciplines and a ton of resources in their respective regional studies research institute on campus. Indiana in particular has a famous language training center.

FLAS scholarship is a major factor in school selection, since these grants can often provide a full year of coverage for even MA students. Stanford reserves most of its grad student FLAS's for MA students, but at other schools it might be more competitive. I know U Chicago, for instance, only gives the FLAS to PhD students.

Competitive applicants: background in the region, preferably including experience in the actual region; intermediate to advanced language skills in your language of school (usually, but definitely not always, Russian-- Columbia actually seems to be signalling it wants Ukrainian speakers); and then the usual strong undergrad record/GRE scores/letters/relevant activities.

I can discuss it more with you by PM, but as a sophomore I'll warn you against letting yourself obsess over it too much just yet.

Howdy all. First off, congrats on your admissions, that's awesome.

I'm a sophomore undergrad strongly considering M.A. programs in this area, and am sort of starting to consider options; Stanford in particular is one of the schools I'd be interested in applying to a little further down the line. Let me know if I shouldn't be asking these questions, but 1) what programs did you apply to and what attracted you to each of them? and 2) what makes a competitive application?

Anywhosit. Congrats again on getting into CREES!

[ajollycossack]

^Thank you very much for the info! Like you said, I'm only a sophomore and it'd probably be very unhealthy for me to start hard-core freaking yet, but it's still fun to start getting information together.

[nataliedread]

I'll be going to University of Kansas for an MA in Balkan Studies (under the auspices of CREES) in the fall. Kansas and Duke/UNC were really the only two schools that I found had a strong faculty for the Balkan region. I decided to go to Kansas for this reason and because they offered funding. I'm happy about my decision, but looking through this forum makes me wonder whether I should have gone to a program like American instead (though without funding).

[Zahar Berkut]

U Kansas is also a great school for REES. I know of two Fulbrighters to my current country who came from their MA program (admittedly not a Balkan country, but still). Funding matters a lot, so if you're covered then you should be in a good position.

What plans do you have following the MA?

I'll be going to University of Kansas for an MA in Balkan Studies (under the auspices of CREES) in the fall. Kansas and Duke/UNC were really the only two schools that I found had a strong faculty for the Balkan region. I decided to go to Kansas for this reason and because they offered funding. I'm happy about my decision, but looking through this forum makes me wonder whether I should have gone to a program like American instead (though without funding).

[nataliedread]

U Kansas is also a great school for REES. I know of two Fulbrighters to my current country who came from their MA program (admittedly not a Balkan country, but still). Funding matters a lot, so if you're covered then you should be in a good position.

What plans do you have following the MA?

Yeah, I've actually been hearing more and more good things about Kansas! I just started this Summer Language Institute at U. Pitt and everyone is saying good things so far. Happy to have made a good decision!

[ReallyNiceGuy]

There seem to be several knowledgeable people in this thread so I'm going to go ahead and ask for advice. Please keep in mind I'm not trying to be a 'taker' I simply haven't much to offer just yet.

I'm an undergrad. I want to be a historian. I am specifically interested in early 20th century USSR. However, my undergrad institution didn't have as much as intro to Russian until fall 2011 (of course I will be taking it). After soliciting advice from numerous history programs I have decided the best course of action for me is to enter a Russian Studies program. However, several of those require more than 1 year.

Of course I will apply for summer intensives at Indiana, Middlebury, and Pittsburgh.

I'm not getting into Stanford, so I'm going to even waste my $ on the application.

I know Kansas, Mizzou, Indiana all have reputable programs.

Please offer other programs that will accept an ill prepared student.

Thanks!!!!

[Zahar Berkut]

Hi Nice Guy,

When looking into MA programs, make sure they offer the FLAS, which should provide you full funding. The FLAS program is under siege with the rest of the recent congressional budget cuts to Title IV (international education) programs, but it appears that schools who won funding recently will maintain it for the next few years. If you're not tied down with personal obligations, you can try applying for a Boren or Fulbright (which you could also do following an MA program to strengthen research credentials). Both of these can offer the chance for language training in addition to archival research, and you should not feel prohibited by your school-- it's a point of pride to take people from a range of backgrounds for both programs, especially Fulbright, and you just need to write a damn good application. The Boren allows you to receive up to two years of funding for combined home/abroad study, and it has a one year service requirement that some PhD's cover over summers through internships, which might also be served abroad.

As far as M.A. programs go, I know UNC Chapel Hill offers a "fast track," which they say is designed for Foreign Area Officers in the military. I think it involves extra coursework and a summer term, but it might be appealing if yopu want to finish in one year. Your background might be especially helpful for that, since it's geared toward people with a higher degree of maturity and self-discipline. Wisconsin might have a good program, or Michigan, but I'm not able to speak on them at length (they definitely have great history faculty). II know someone who did UT Austin's program, and they definitely have resources there. I think all of these programs currently offer FLAS except for Michigan.

And not to push anything unrealistic, but you might look into U Chicago's CIR or their MAPPS program. Both are 1 year MA's with a thesis component, designed as a stop gap (the latter especially for academia). They take a broad range of students, and the curriculum is completely customizable. You might at least investigate either of these-- they don't necessarily include language training (or even total funding), though, and one of the hallmarks of a good regional studies program is sponsored summer language training, possibly even before beginning in the fall.

There seem to be several knowledgeable people in this thread so I'm going to go ahead and ask for advice. Please keep in mind I'm not trying to be a 'taker' I simply haven't much to offer just yet.

I'm an undergrad. I want to be a historian. I am specifically interested in early 20th century USSR. However, my undergrad institution didn't have as much as intro to Russian until fall 2011 (of course I will be taking it). After soliciting advice from numerous history programs I have decided the best course of action for me is to enter a Russian Studies program. However, several of those require more than 1 year.

Of course I will apply for summer intensives at Indiana, Middlebury, and Pittsburgh.

I'm not getting into Stanford, so I'm going to even waste my $ on the application.

I know Kansas, Mizzou, Indiana all have reputable programs.

Please offer other programs that will accept an ill prepared student.

Thanks!!!!

[Mal83]

On 2/14/2011 at 12:43 PM, Zahar Berkut said:

Just to represent the region on these boards-- it looks like the last one of these threads is at least a year old.

Feel free to introduce yourselves. I'm only applying to a very small number of terminal M.A. programs myself, special interest in regional politics. Currently living in Ukraine.

Hi, not going into East European studies, but rather International Development Studies with a democracy and governance concentration at GWU this fall...but my regional area of interest is Russia/Eastern Europe. I was just curious about where exactly you are in Ukraine...I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dnepropetrovsk region for 2 years. At that time the political situation was very interesting, I mean generally speaking it's a very interesting country in terms of development...how long have you been there?

[ReallyNiceGuy]

THank you so much for the advice!! I sincerely appreciate it!

[Dreams]

THank you so much for the advice!! I sincerely appreciate it!

Zahar gave an excellent response on the options. I just wanted to pull one thing out of his response in case it may not have been immediately evident - and that is to look at using something like a Fulbright to do research AND get an MA abroad. If you are looking at Russia, there are several universities in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, etc that have 1 year MA degree programs for international students. And strong graduates of these programs have a good record of being accepted into top PhD programs in the field in US and European schools. Because of the visa situation in Russia, IIE and Fulbright encourages all research grant recipients to enroll in a course or two during their studies, so this would work in your favor. Good luck!

Edited June 26, 2011 by FSIA

[JustChill]

For an MA in REES, you can't do much better than UNC/Duke's joint program. The resources of those two institutions as well as twice the chance for FLAS funding makes that program easily the most developed among all the Title VIII REES centers.

For anyone serious about doing a PhD in a R/EE related field, and particularly history, I want to reemphasize the importance admissions committees (and now I see that funding agencies, too) place on language training. Previous posters have already mentioned some of the more popular summer language programs: Indiana's SWSEEL, Pitt's SLI, ASU's CLI, Middlebury. ASU's program is tuition-free and costs only 600 or 700. I highly recommend spending a summer studying Russian or another Slavic/EE language at one of these programs in order to boost your chances for admission and funding. I participated in two of these prior to my admission into a Russian history PhD program, and one since then, and find that everyone is much more impressed by that part of my CV than any of my other academic accolades.

[ajollycossack]

Question specific to the Harvard program. Does anyone know on general how many people apply to it? I know on their website they say they usually accept 10, which is a scary small number, but could potentially be less scary if there aren't that many applicants...

[ajollycossack]

Also, if anyone knows any good options for summer study or work related to the region, I'd really appreciate suggestions for that. (I already figure I'll apply for a Critical Language Scholarship in Russian and probably to Middlebury).

[Zahar Berkut]

Unsure about Harvard's application pool, but good summer programs might include Arizona State, Indiana, and U Pitt. They may or may not offer money-- I think Arizona does, and they have an unusual program that actually combines overseas and in-state study. I've heard positive things about all of them. Also check American Councils for summer Russian study programs. A popular summer program in Russia is Moscow State's, but I don't know how it's organized.

[ajollycossack]

Thanks for the info. And from what I've gathered, it seems like internship opportunities in the region are fairly scarce?

[Zahar Berkut]

Thanks for the info. And from what I've gathered, it seems like internship opportunities in the region are fairly scarce?

Well, there are certain difficulties you'd face in finding them, but there are some there. NGO's that survived the government's registration requirements would probably take international interns, and you can look into individual companies if you know they have Russia offices. Some think tanks like having native English speakers, and UNDP may or may not be doing work in the region. The problem is just figuring out what's out there, but if your school has a center for Russian/East European Studies they may be connected. There are also websites like http://expru.blogspot.com/. It's a real grab bag, but legit companies post here and you can investigate later if they also offer internships.

[ReallyNiceGuy]

I hope this question has not already been answered elsewhere, but:

can anyone discuss the odds of receiving a FLAS?

It's not that I think I'm not a very competitive applicant- it's just that I would like to see some statistics (if they exist!).

Thanks and good luck to everyone!

Zahar- thanks a lot. I actually took your advice- let's hope it works!

[Grunty DaGnome]

Obviously, you have to go where you can get funding, but speaking as primarily and English major who has ventured out into Russian Language and cultural studies in Boston, you should really take a look at how old the professors in a department are. Boston and New York in particular benefitted from a huge Soviet brain drain in the 80s, and so many refuseniks became east coast professors. That was wonderful for the sciences and perhaps even for the history/poli-sci/literature departments of the time. Unfortunately, many professors you'll meet even at renouned institittutions like Harvard will freely admit that they have not returned to Russia, or perhaps only returned once or twice, since the fall of communism. I have friends in International Relations majors in Northeastern U and they say the same; that professor's expertise is stuck in the Cold War era.

So if you're studying Russian Imperialist History, this won't be much of a problem, but if you are enthusiastic and adventurous, or worse yet, ACTUALLY Russian, but young enough to only remember the country post-communism, you are not going to recognize the classroom version of "Russia" which old, stubborn professors who feel the loss of their prestige as an "expert" about a country that was formerly inaccessable to westerners and is now fully accessible, but which they have not bothered to visit in decades.

I would advise you check out the faculty for anyone with a degree or joint degree from a Russian/Ukrainian or even German University post 1990s in order to ensure the department is open to new ideas and not stuck in really, really, really old narratives about Russia and Russian history.

Edited December 3, 2011 by Grunty DaGnome