Ivy v Oxbridge masters

[wheel_of_fire]

Hey all,

I need your suggestions. I'm deciding between two unfunded masters programs--the M.St. at Oxford in Renaissance literature and Columbia's terminal MA in English and Comp lit. I suppose I'm leaning toward Oxford primarily because I thought it would be cheaper, but after calculating costs, I think tuition is about the same. Airfare to the UK will bring Oxford livings costs to about the same as one year in Manhattan.

My goal is to eventually get into a competitive US PhD program. It seems like the Columbia masters is mostly course-based while the Oxford M.St. would entail more independent study, and more and longer research papers. Columbia has a US theory component; Oxford has British skills-based coursework (history of the book, editorial theory, material texts, paleography, etc.)

I feel that I would benefit more from the Oxford program, since I haven't done any real historicist or methods-based coursework during undergrad. Plus I get to travel around Europe during the month-long breaks! I also feel that the Columbia requirements are rather similar to what I did this past year in college (some theory, some general course work, a shorter thesis). However, I'm wondering if doing a masters in the US system might make me more competitive if I want to go back to doing a US PhD program.

Thoughts on this? Thanks!

[Phedre]

I don't think that one would dramatically help you over the other, but if you want to be in the U.S. for grad school, it might be interesting to have a change of pace to see how the UK system works, broaden your understanding of different pedagogical approaches, because you probably wouldn't have a chance to do that again for a long time (unless you arranged an exchange semester or something). Plus, traveling in Europe sounds amazing-- and with cheap tickets from Ryanair, you could go ANYWHERE!

That said, my friend did a master's at Oxford after her undergrad and she said the workload was a "joke"-- in that, you don't have to do very much at all (= good for travel) and it was a nice and necessary break before digging into a Ph.D program-- while still beefing up her credentials and writing a wonderful master's thesis, which is actually going to serve as one of her diss chapters. Also she met her (now)husband there, so i think it was overall a good experience.

One advantage to being at Columbia is that you could travel to U.S. conferences more easily and get a taste of some of the other departments and programs. I would say do Columbia only if there is a particular professor you really want to work with, or if you would REALLY want to go to Columbia specifically. Otherwise, I don't think going to one program over the other would dramatically change your chances of getting into a Ph.D program.

[Minnesotan]

I've lived in both cities, and as much fun as I had in NYC, I would strangle puppies to get back to Oxford for another year of study.

[lotf629]

My two cents: if you're mostly a theorist/pomo/Comp Lit person, it's Columbia for you. If you're a historicist, or you're committed to the canon in a traditional sense (i.e., you're old school English lit in your approach to the discipline), it's Oxbridge.

IMO, the biggest point of an MA like these is the faculty interaction: you get outstanding people to tell you where your own work falls short of outstanding, which gives you a chance to fix it up before you apply for PhDs, and you also get a chance at strong, specific letters from famous people. Ultimately, I'd go where you see the best faculty matches (see first paragraph).

My impression is that going from a PhD program to a TT position, you would definitely want a U.S. graduate degree, but going from the MA to the PhD, there's no substantial downside to coming from a British program (in terms of fit, prestige, etc.) The thing about the Oxbridge MA (and here I'm basically seconding Phedre's post) is that it's likely to be a hell of a lot less structured. From an academic standpoint, then, it's going to be what you make of it, whereas Columbia's program is likely to offer more guidance.