Asian Studies 2014

[Authorization]

I was also wondering about funding. It looks like my program doesn't have much in the way of specific funding (unless one earns a TAship) by virtue of being interdisciplinary rather than a specific departmental program. 

[spottedzebra]

MastersHoping, not sure about Yale, but on their website Harvard says that between 180-200 people apply and the entering cohort consists of 25-28 people. Doing a bit of statistics mixed with some game theory, logic dictates that they need to accept between 20-23 more people than their entering class. So, out of 180-200 people anywhere between 40-50 people are accepted. 

 

I only took a year of econ so this might be flawed lolol 

 

Also, fun fact, I'm fluent in French too!!  

[steelkokoro]

Not too sure about this, but I think a few years back on some forum I read that Yale had about 60 applicants, of which 15 or so were accepted and 7 or 8 matriculated. 

[spottedzebra]

Overall, I feel like graduate school is less of a numbers game and more about fit... 

[makingmoves]

Overall, I feel like graduate school is less of a numbers game and more about fit... 

spottedzebra, mind checking out my post above (top of page) and mentioning if you think I have a shot or not for those schools?

[spottedzebra]

I can't really say for certain, although it seems as though you have as good a shot as anyone. I had a bit of a freakout moment about my application and the way my professor put it is that no one has a perfect application and that everyone wishes something about their credentials were different. You seem to have amazing work experience and other credentials to make up for a low GRE score, but I think it really depends on who gets your app and how they see it.

 

At the end of the day, it's a holistic process, right? 

[MastersHoping]

Spottedzebra, thanks! And yeah, I saw that on Harvard's site  but was more interested in Yale. 

Did you learn French in school or are you native? I started learning when I was 14, and then just spent so much time speaking/reading in it and did a homestay in France. It's quite interesting to see people's surprised reaction to see a Chinese-American boy speaking to them in French! 

 

steelkokoro, oh thanks for the stats! Yikes that is quite competitive.... I hope all goes well

 

And yeah I do think it's more about pure fit than about how good of a student you are. My biggest concern is that my GPA is relatively low (I'm chilling at just around a 3.4 right now, slightly less) and my transcript is a MESS (I've taken a crap top of random classes). Does going to a school that's reputedly very difficult help (University of Chicago)? I'm not trying to make any excuses or anything but I am hoping it will give me a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. 

 

I do think my statement of purpose was very good (then again, so does everyone who applies LOL) and my writing sample I am quite proud of. 

 

Makingmoves, you sound like you have an otherwise very strong application despite mediocre scores... I dunno how strict Yale is about their minimum score requirement, but when I emailed them and asked how my scores were compared to typical students, they were just like "our minimum is 308 and you have met this". 

 

Are you guys coming straight from undergrad or did you take some time off? I am applying straight from undergrad , and the only reason I wouldn't go right away is if Fulbright gives me an ETA grant. 

Edited December 29, 2013 by MastersHoping

[makingmoves]

Spottedzebra, thanks! And yeah, I saw that on Harvard's site  but was more interested in Yale. 

Did you learn French in school or are you native? I started learning when I was 14, and then just spent so much time speaking/reading in it and did a homestay in France. It's quite interesting to see people's surprised reaction to see a Chinese-American boy speaking to them in French! 

 

steelkokoro, oh thanks for the stats! Yikes that is quite competitive.... I hope all goes well

 

And yeah I do think it's more about pure fit than about how good of a student you are. My biggest concern is that my GPA is relatively low (I'm chilling at just around a 3.4 right now, slightly less) and my transcript is a MESS (I've taken a crap top of random classes). Does going to a school that's reputedly very difficult help (University of Chicago)? I'm not trying to make any excuses or anything but I am hoping it will give me a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. 

 

I do think my statement of purpose was very good (then again, so does everyone who applies LOL) and my writing sample I am quite proud of. 

 

Makingmoves, you sound like you have an otherwise very strong application despite mediocre scores... I dunno how strict Yale is about their minimum score requirement, but when I emailed them and asked how my scores were compared to typical students, they were just like "our minimum is 308 and you have met this". 

 

Are you guys coming straight from undergrad or did you take some time off? I am applying straight from undergrad , and the only reason I wouldn't go right away is if Fulbright gives me an ETA grant. 

 

Yes I'm very frustrated about my scores. All of my practice scores under timed conditions for Manhattan and Magoosh were around 157Q, 160V... so I don't think they accurately reflected the actual ETS GRE.

 

If I don't get in this time, I'll change up my study plan and try again next year. What were your scores btw? Maybe you can provide some study tips?

 

But what about my application do you think is strong otherwise? 

Edited December 29, 2013 by makingmoves

[steelkokoro]

Spottedzebra, thanks! And yeah, I saw that on Harvard's site  but was more interested in Yale. 

Did you learn French in school or are you native? I started learning when I was 14, and then just spent so much time speaking/reading in it and did a homestay in France. It's quite interesting to see people's surprised reaction to see a Chinese-American boy speaking to them in French! 

 

steelkokoro, oh thanks for the stats! Yikes that is quite competitive.... I hope all goes well

 

And yeah I do think it's more about pure fit than about how good of a student you are. My biggest concern is that my GPA is relatively low (I'm chilling at just around a 3.4 right now, slightly less) and my transcript is a MESS (I've taken a crap top of random classes). Does going to a school that's reputedly very difficult help (University of Chicago)? I'm not trying to make any excuses or anything but I am hoping it will give me a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. 

 

I do think my statement of purpose was very good (then again, so does everyone who applies LOL) and my writing sample I am quite proud of. 

 

Makingmoves, you sound like you have an otherwise very strong application despite mediocre scores... I dunno how strict Yale is about their minimum score requirement, but when I emailed them and asked how my scores were compared to typical students, they were just like "our minimum is 308 and you have met this". 

 

Are you guys coming straight from undergrad or did you take some time off? I am applying straight from undergrad , and the only reason I wouldn't go right away is if Fulbright gives me an ETA grant. 

 

Wow cool it seems that quite a few of us have some proficiency in French! One thing I'm curious about though - Mastershoping and Spottedzebra, what turned you guys onto East Asia then? For me Japanese is my 3rd language, and I only started learning French in my first year of college, so this means that I learnt all my French in Japanese. I'm able to understand 80% of most print material I encounter but my listening/speaking/writing skills are still quite horrible. 

 

Mastershoping: Good luck to you! I believe (or rather want to believe) that applications will be considered as a whole package, so a poor score here and there shouldn't hurt too much if the rest of the application is strong enough. I noticed that your applicant profile seems like the polar opposite of mine. I guess my GPA and GRE scores are decent, but I hail from a school that probably isn't very well-known outside of Japan. I'm not very confident about my personal statement and writing sample, but I tried my best as far as I could while working on my thesis in Japanese concurrently. And yes I'm applying straight from undergrad too. There's no way I would be able to coordinate sending LORs and official transcripts after leaving Japan. 

Makingmoves: Trawling Chinese forums turns up many cases of people who got accepted by various programs in spite of low GRE scores. 

[MastersHoping]

makingmoves, my GRE scores were 163 verbal 162 quantitative and 5.0 writing. I can't give you any study tips because I didn't study XD Like literally, the only thing I did to "prepare" was take two practice exams online just to see how I would score. 

 

And I think you have a lot of real-world experience / shown commitment to your study of Chinese that'll help your application.

 

steelkokoro: French or Spanish were required in my high school and I picked French; I didn't really "switch" to East Asia from French.

I became really interested in North Korean human rights issues my second year of college and in my S.O.P i talk about how I walk to end up doing translation work for international affairs involving china, koreas (plural) and the U.S.

[spottedzebra]

Hey Mastershoping, I'm pretty much in the same exact boat you are GPA-wise. I started as premed (yikes) and my transcript looks like I suffer from extreme schizophrenia. I go to a school with very very very notable grade deflation, but my school includes a letter in our transcripts so maybe that will sway the decision slightly (although it very well may not... life is so difficult lol). I go to a top 5 liberal arts college so maybe that will all go into play. Shrugs, I try not to break things down into too much detail. I figure some of it has to do with luck too. 

 

My first choice waffles between Harvard and Columbia, curious to know how competitive Columbia is (if anyone knows )) 

 

Oh and as for my French, my mom is half Chinese/half Russian, but she grew up in France. My grandfather is emeritus at Sorbonne so he made sure EVERYONE could at least babble a bit in French. I really liked Victor Hugo so I just ended up reading a lot with him and picked up most of my French that way. In high school I didnt feel like learning Spanish or German so I just weaseled my way into the IB class and called it a day hahaha 

[spottedzebra]

Also, does anyone know how many people use their Masters as a stepping stone for a PhD?? Maybe I'm getting too ahead of myself with this academia thing... 

[MastersHoping]

Your mom's a francophone Chinese-Russian? :o That's pretty bad@$$ haha. Does she speak English, Chinese, and Russian as well??? If so, JEALOUS!

 

Hmm yeah hopefully they'll see the upward trend in your transcript and take the deflation into consideration. I don't think UChicago has an explicit policy of grade deflation the way Princeton does, but I do hope its reputed rigor makes up for it a little.

 

Good luck on Harvard and Columbia! I hope you get in at least one!

 

Yale is definitely my first choice by far hehehe.

 

As for stepping stone to Ph.D, I think that is a very common path for these kinds of masters programs. Will it hurt or help me if I am not (at this point at least) intending to pursue academe? I mentioned that in my application.

 

p.s. Are we twins? I was an IB diploma student too!

Edited December 31, 2013 by MastersHoping

[spottedzebra]

We might as well be twins ))

 

Yeah, my mom is francophone Chinese-Russian. She speaks French, passable Russian, Chinese, and okay English (so. much. accent. lol) My dad is Eurasian too... half Chinese and half Serbian, but he grew up in Scotland so he manages to speak okay Chinese and English with a horrendous Scottish accent hahaha. The good thing I get out of all of this... I can fake a Russian, Chinese, French, Scottish, and Serbian accent pretty well. 

 

I dont think it'll hurt if you're not doing academe. I can only assume their looking for a wide variety of people. Best of luck with Yale, I'm sure you're as competitive as anyone else ))) 

Also, just a random thought/question, but how important do you think LOR are weighed in for something like this??

Edited December 31, 2013 by spottedzebra

[steelkokoro]

Spottedzebra, that's really cool! 

 

Friends already in EAS MA programs tell me that a significant proportion of their class comprises people who are attached to the foreign ministries of their respective countries, so I guess not everyone goes into academia. You might be able to find out more if you look into the profiles of current/past MA students of each program. Most schools do highlight that they're aiming for a diverse intake though, as Spottedzebra mentioned. 

I'm curious about the LOR thing too. While I can see how they may be important (theoretically), I do wonder how much weight is given to the LORs of foreign applicants whose recommenders may not be that proficient in English. 

Does anyone know if programs review students according to area of specialty, or as just as EAS applicants in general? 
 

[steelkokoro]

Erm what I meant in the previous post was, does anyone know if EAS programs have a quota (formal or informal) for applicants according to area of specialty? 

[Tomoe]

I think it depends on the university. I'm doing an MA at Columbia in Japanese Lit right now and it definitely seems like the China and Korea sides end up with more admitted students than the Japanese side. I suppose it has to do with the direction the department is trying to take. Although it also changes between the MA and the PhD program.

[MastersHoping]

what's your first choice program, tomoe? 

[Tomoe]

I'm actually quite torn, as there are incredible professors at each school. I think my top choices so far are Yale, Berkeley, UBC, and UCLA... but that might change with campus visits!

[drfuzz]

Has anyone heard anything yet? This waiting thing is tough!

Edited January 18, 2014 by drfuzz

[Tomoe]

I received an email from Princeton a week or so ago saying that they wanted to transfer my application to the Comparative Lit Department. And I had a phone interview with my POI from UCLA last week, he said that the department is meeting at the end of the month and I should hear by then. I think we won't start hearing until the end of next week/beginning of February at the earliest... 

 

I know what you mean though, the wait is killing me too!

[drfuzz]

My oh my, you have had some interaction with people! More than I can say for myself.

Just a question since you mentioned it. When people refer to their 'POI', who is that? Is it a professor in the department or the student affairs person or...I never really fully understood the term as I was applying. I mean I contacted a few professors at some schools, does that mean they are my POI?

[Tomoe]

I think it stands for Person of Interest (or Professor, I suppose) and it basically means the people you've indicated you'd like to work with at the schools to which you're applying. So, yes, they'd be the people you contacted. 

 

I think the interaction you get back depends greatly on the department and POI, though. And I was lucky to have PhD friends who made sure I contacted professors early in the application process, which might have helped. 

[Tomoe]

Also, does anyone know how many people use their Masters as a stepping stone for a PhD?? Maybe I'm getting too ahead of myself with this academia thing... 

 

I certainly did with mine. My undergrad grades were solid but not brilliant because I was so focused on getting out into the "real world" and doing something worthwhile. Ironically, it was my work in Japan after undergrad that inspired me to return to academia ^.^;;

But the US system is very different from the one in the UK, and I needed time to figure out the lay of the land and decide what I really wanted to do with my PhD, so I went with an MA first and I couldn't be happier. I've learned a lot and will now, hopefully, be going into a PhD with the linguistic and methodological background necessary to produce something meaningful. 

[ragunz]

Do MA programs also interview candidates?

 

didn't know about this website until now, and it is great to see that there are other people applying to EAS programs!

 

I have applied to MA in columbia EALAC, harvard, UIUC, and Uchicago (MAPSS), focusing on modern korean history.

 

wish i had more time to apply to schools in westcoast, but deadlines were too tight in there ;x