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Russian/East European Studies


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Hi everyone, I'm applying for REES MAs for the fall, language Russian but area of interest Central Asia/Caucauses (also applied for a Fulbright ETA to Azerbaijan). I find these programs so interesting and exciting! They combine everything I love learning about the region (culture, language, history, economics, IR, politics, government...:) )

I did the UPitt-Moscow State program last year, and it was really good. They have FLAS funding (I, a nonpitt undergrad, won a full scholarship) and also have some smaller academic/merit scholarships too (especially if you got to Pitt). We spent 5 weeks in intensive language training in Pitt then 5 weeks in Moscow and I got 10 credits for the whole thing. We stayed at MSU in the big old building which was quite an experience. The program may undergo some changes (swtiching out directors, a lot of misbehavior of some very immature "students" [as in they weren't interested in learning] this summer), but I think it will be better in terms of language and instruction as a result.

I am behind on Russian (I took two years at my small liberal arts school) then finished the Intermediate Level at Pittsburgh so I plan to apply for summer programs. I was thinking UPitt again (just the Pittsburgh one this time for me, since it's only 8 weeks) and Indiana. I saw that Bryn Mawr has a program, and I was wondering if anyone has every heard anything about that? Are there other programs people would suggest? I might try Middlebury if I get into grad school and can get the department to FLAS fund me for it, but difficult to say. Plus these applications are expensive so I don't want to throw out apps for places I can't afford to go (Indiana's app is $130 I think!!!! but Pitts was only $20 last year). Also Pitt's secretary for the program is reallly nice, shoot her an email if you have any questions!! When I first found it I emailed her to ask if I would be competitve and she was like APPLY APPLY you'd be a perfect fit! So I did and it was :) Anyone have any experiences with Indiana yay or nay?? Indiana is much cheaper than Pitt if paying out of pocket ($2000 on tuition) but for me, greater travel expenses would be associated with going there. But it may also be of better quality?? So many questions, sorry, haha.

As for schools, I am applying to Indiana (not Pitt tho, I didn't like it that much) as well as other big state schools and two reaches (all from the FLAS list, haha). I really need to finish up my apps (I have one dream and my one safety left as well as another stateschool)...whoops. At this point, I would love to go to any of them, except maybe my safety unless they fund me haha. My stats are 3.92 overall GPA and 4.0 in my majors (Economics, Political Science) in the Honors program at my unremarkable medium size liberal arts safety college, 164Q, 158V 5.5AW and great LORs, two from my dept heads (have been close with them for the last four years, both have put me up for competitive department scholarships which I won) and one from the only Russian scholar in the place, haha, a great history teacher. My SOP....who knows. Hopefully good :)

So good luck to everyone! Can't wait to hear to where everyone is admitted.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello fellow Rus/(East)Euro/asian folks. I was going through the results board from the past couple years for the programs to which I've applied (mostly for 1st year Balkan Studies [bosnian/Croatian/Serbian], though my language background is Russian) and I've so far deduced these approximate notification times:

Michigan & UNC: 1 March

Indiana: Feb/March

Ohio State: Feb?

Kansas: March?

Columbia: April

I'm just wondering if anyone else has more concrete information. I like to know when to throw my neuroses into overdrive.

Best of luck to you all! Get those FLAS apps in!

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Anyone looking for internships in the region should check out the Academy of National Economy summer program in Moscow. It's one of the most established in the region and previously the center ran Stanford's program in Moscow for a decade, then opened it up to people from other schools. The staff is incredible and you get to do an internship and take classes at the same time. http://www.study-in-moscow.ane.ru/home

Hope this is useful!

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Hello fellow Rus/(East)Euro/asian folks. I was going through the results board from the past couple years for the programs to which I've applied (mostly for 1st year Balkan Studies [bosnian/Croatian/Serbian], though my language background is Russian) and I've so far deduced these approximate notification times:

Michigan & UNC: 1 March

Indiana: Feb/March

Ohio State: Feb?

Kansas: March?

Columbia: April

I'm just wondering if anyone else has more concrete information. I like to know when to throw my neuroses into overdrive.

Best of luck to you all! Get those FLAS apps in!

I second this post in general.

Based on the "results survey" section of this board we should start receiving Indiana notifications within the next 2 weeks. Which means the next 2 weeks will be really long and painful...

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Congrats to the poster of that UT acceptance!

It looks they notified quite a bit earlier than previous years. I hope that trend is carried out in other programs as well, if only for the sake of my already-too-high blood pressure...

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Based on the "results survey" section of this board we should start receiving Indiana notifications within the next 2 weeks. Which means the next 2 weeks will be really long and painful...

Unfortunately, I think there might be slightly more painful waiting in store than we had anticipated. I emailed, asked, and got this response:

The admissions committee will be meeting during the second week of February, so by the end of the month, you should hear about admissions. This is subject to change as schedules demand.

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I got accepted to Kansas too! So excited, it's my first notification and if I got some money, I would LOVE to go there (although to be honest I would love to go to any of the schools to which I applied, I think they are all awesome programs). Can't wait to hear from other schools and also hear about funding.

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I got accepted to Kansas too! So excited, it's my first notification and if I got some money, I would LOVE to go there (although to be honest I would love to go to any of the schools to which I applied, I think they are all awesome programs). Can't wait to hear from other schools and also hear about funding.

My feelings, verbatim. Congratulations!

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Wisconsin-Madison's online application status checker updated for me and one other person who posted on the results board - recommended for admission, just have to wait for the graduate school to review the file. Now that the admissions are coming in, I am even more excited for funding awards to be decided! Good luck to everyone!!

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Congrats so far everyone! I just got into UNC-CH, they sent me an e-mail, no link to the website but they said "We have recently found out that there has been delay in notification by the Graduate School. We apologize for this delay and believe you should hear officially in the next week." They said all funding decisions will be out in early March (vs Wisconsin, who said I did not get departmental funding but FLAS funding notification will be March)

Edited by clairea12
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Thanks, Zahar!

ReallyNiceGuy, I also applied to Indiana. And I applied to summer programs (with FLAS) at IU's SWSEEL, Pitt's program, and ASU's CLI.

Good luck everyone! Funding time is getting closer...

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Recieved an accpetance to Indiana! So excited, it is at the top of my realistic (aka nondream schools) list! Good luck to everyone else who applied!

For the summer I am applying to SWSEEL and Pitt's SLI. I applied for FLAS funding from both programs, and also applied for FLAS funding from the other schools I applied to

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Congrats, clur! I just got my Indiana acceptance and a few hours before that received my acceptance to SWSEEL. Still awaiting funding for both of them, of course. Good luck to you with funding and summer programs!

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what lies ahead -

Yeah, I'm definitely considering OSU but everything's going to depend on money, naturally. My interests are Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (I applied to each of my programs and for FLAS as a beginner in BCS), Russian, memory studies, and literature of the (post)Soviet/Yugoslav era.

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Enzian:

Very cool! My primary interest is in Russian-English bilingualism, specifically code-switching; I'm also a native Russian speaker. I wonder when we will be hearing more information from the Slavic Department at OSU. One thing I've been able to gather is that the program may be quite small, as I only saw about two M.A. students on the list of graduate students on their web site.

Edited by what lies ahead
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