MA Middle Eastern Studies Chicago vs. Oxford (help!)

[MiroS]

Hello all.

 

I'm going for a MA in Middle Eastern Studies, hoping to later pursue a Phd/DPhil and work in academia. My interest is the religion and politics of the contemporary levant/gulf.

 

I was accepted to Chicago, then Oxford to my pleasant surprise, but I noticed while looking around gradcafe that the Middle Eastern program people rarely apply to Oxford. One poster even said that the Oxford program is comparable to the worst of U.S. schools(!) Is this program not particularly well regarded? Is there a consensus that I'm not aware of that U.S schools are better for Middle Eastern studies?

 

I'm not well informed about this field, so any information on the two programs, any advice on which program I should go for would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you so much!

Edited March 19, 2014 by MiroS

[IbnRushd]

Hi! 

 

I was also accepted to both the MA in Chicago and the MPhil in Oxford, and deciding between the two is quite difficult, especially since I'm also coming from a different field.

 

As I currently reside in the UK, I had the opportunity to go to Oxford's Open Day and I have to say that the students and faculty I met were all fantastic, so much so that I would have never thought I would be admitted! I was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity and openness of the professors we met: when I applied to another department for an undergraduate programme it was completely different, so much so that I no longer wanted to go to Oxford... But the Oriental Institute seems radically different in atmosphere. And the city is truly amazing and in itself conductive to any intellectual endeavours, so definitely a good choice :-) And it really doesn't get much better in terms of intellectual stimulation that Oxford's tutorial systems!

 

Now Chicago... I've never been there personally, but I hear that it is a brilliant city and Hyde Park a great neighbourhood to live in. In terms of the programme, it has two substantial differences from Oxford: a larger number of different courses to take and the 'survey course' which lasts throughout the first year. Whilst Oxford focuses strictly on the recent periods, this survey course gives a background on the history/philosophy/literature etc. of the Islamic world from its inception, which means that upon completion of the course, we would be able to understand better the roots of modern phenomenon. In my opinion, it is particularly important for your fields of interest. It is my sense also that Chicago offers more opportunities in terms of life outside academia (in particularly engagement within the community through outreach programmes etc.). I don't know if that's important to you, especially if you want to go straight into a PhD/DPhil afterwards, but I personally need sometimes to be able to leave the comfortable sphere of academia to interact with the 'real' world :-)

 

Well, good luck with your decision!