MA Programs that are traditionally good with funding?

[TKF]

Hi everyone, I have been contemplating doing an MA before going on for the PhD. I think I need the classes and time to develop my interests. The problem is I'm already in quite a bit of debt from undergrad so I am definitely apprehensive about the costs. I would really appreciate it if anyone care share any experiences with MA funding or some programs that offer full rides.

GPA: 3.9 magna cum laude

GRE: Testing in the upper 1500s (not sure what that translates to in terms of the new scores)

Honors thesis, RA for a little bit, Internship. Basically average ECs but I worked for most of undergrad.

Thanks.

[Zahar Berkut]

Your stats seem good enough to be competitive for funding at U Chicago's MAPSS or CIR, where they offer full tuition to about 5% of applicants (but you're on your own for living expenses). You can consider a Boren if your interests cover IR or CP, but there's a service requirement of 1 year to the US gov. Otherwise, the only funding I know is the FLAS for area studies programs-- you can try to investigate individual schools to see if they offer that scholarship to students who supplement polisci programs with language study. I'm afraid it's slim pickings for terminal MA's in the social sciences-- these programs are themselves often cash cows to support PhD students.

[alphazeta]

I know there are a fair number of such programs, but I'm not aware of an exhaustive list. The main funded MAs that come to mind are Marquette and Virginia Tech. As a basic tactic, look for schools that offer an MA in political science but do not offer a PhD.

Edited November 11, 2011 by alphazeta

[TKF]

Thank you so much for the tips, I have an idea of where to start looking now,

On a side note, how do you edit posts? I know it is a stupid question but I can't seem to find the button.

[alphazeta]

On the bottom of your posts, there are two buttons for "quote" and "multiquote", to the left of the multiquote ones, there is a link you can click to edit. There's a time limit, though, you can't edit a post more than, I think, an hour after you submit it, so the edit function is really only useful for going back to fix a typo you notice more or less immediately.