Yale Terminal MA

[kierkegaard4989]

Hello all,

 

Long time lurker, first time poster.  I was wondering if anyone here has experience with the program.  I can't seem to find much information on it, besides the basics on yale's website.  Also, the program seems to have a very small class size.  For example, only four students were enrolled in 2013 (according to yale's "fact sheet"). 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Edited May 27, 2015 by kierkegaard4989

[mvlchicago]

There are a few Yale MA programs iirc; mind clarifying which one? History Masters, History Masters Phil, History focus in a different masters (European and Russian Studies comes to mind)?

[kierkegaard4989]

Thanks for the question.  I am looking into the terminal History MA.  I don't plan on applying to many schools.  My main reason for going to grad school is to hopfeully, one day, teach at the community college level.

I know upenn's terminal MA is geared towards people looking to teach at the cc level. I would love to hear from anyone that has information or experience regarding upenn's program as well.

[mvlchicago]

Hm, can I further ask why you're shooting for the terminal MA vs, the PhD? I don't know much about teaching community college and I'm assuming, moving forward, the PhD is going to become more and more of a requirement to teach anywhere . 

That being said, I can tell you that if you want to apply to Yale, I'd tentatively suggest doing the Euro-Russian Council Studies program from a perspective of funding: namely, that they offer some (not full) funding to do it, and you'll have access to the range of faculty in the history department as you normally might from the terminal history MA.

If funding is of no concern, I don't have much to offer outside of my experience with the history dept. while applying was v positive. Carlos Eire, Stuart Schwartz, Bruce Gordon among others were receptive to emails (a good sign before you're admitted!) and the environment is quite lovely. Four students a year doesn't seem beyond the norm, based on experience I've seen/heard at Chicago and Brown. If you haven't already, I'd suggest calling the program coordinator/graduate administrator and talking to them: sometimes current students will be more than happy to speak with you about the program, and that's probably the best perspective you could get.

[Katzenmusik]

If you can afford it, I guess, go ahead... but just be aware of the fact that elite departments like Yale tend to use unfunded one-year masters programs as cash cows. Your application will possibly be held to lower standards than PhD apps, you'll be in and out in one year (not a lot of time to immerse yourself in this world), and in the meantime your tuition dollars will be treated as income for everyone else's benefit.

 

Plus, with degree inflation, your masters might not be enough to land a good CC teaching job in the future.  The MA might not take you where you want to go.

 

Maybe it seems worth it to have "Yale" or "Penn" on your CV, but personally I'd advise against this plan.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Katzenmusik

[prculus]

Does anyone have information about the admission rate for Yale's terminal MA? I inquired with the graduate director of the (terminal) history MA program at Brown and, in 2014, quite a few of the roughly ~30 applicants were admitted (only about 10 attended). That seems like a lot, but, then again, these are unfunded programs.

Edited June 9, 2015 by prculus

[countrync]

There were 30 applicants to the Brown MA program?

[twentysix]

Does anyone have information about the admission rate for Yale's terminal MA? I inquired with the graduate director of the (terminal) history MA program at Brown and, in 2014, quite a few of the roughly ~30 applicants were admitted (only about 10 attended). That seems like a lot, but, then again, these are unfunded programs.

 

Not yale, but UCSD's program that I am in gave similar stats. 30 were accepted they only expect about 10 to come. (I think our cohort ended up being 8)

[twentysix]

There were 30 applicants to the Brown MA program?

 

I believe if you re-read the post it does not say how many people applied, rather it says Brown accepted 30, ~10 chose to go to Brown.

[Hashem1]

I believe if you re-read the post it does not say how many people applied, rather it says Brown accepted 30, ~10 chose to go to Brown.

 

No, 30 applied, unsure how many were actually accepted. 

[dr. t]

There are 7 attending for the MA at Brown this year, whatever that's worth.

[mvlchicago]

^ how'd you find that out nerd?

[dr. t]

^ how'd you find that out nerd?

 

I read the welcome email we were both sent by the grad chair

[mvlchicago]

...it was the last sentence, you can't expect me to have gotten past the emails of y'all, could you?

[dr. t]

Nah, reading's probably not super important for grad school anyway  

Edited June 13, 2015 by telkanuru

[modern]

If you can afford it, I guess, go ahead... but just be aware of the fact that elite departments like Yale tend to use unfunded one-year masters programs as cash cows. Your application will possibly be held to lower standards than PhD apps, you'll be in and out in one year (not a lot of time to immerse yourself in this world), and in the meantime your tuition dollars will be treated as income for everyone else's benefit.

 

Plus, with degree inflation, your masters might not be enough to land a good CC teaching job in the future.  The MA might not take you where you want to go.

 

Maybe it seems worth it to have "Yale" or "Penn" on your CV, but personally I'd advise against this plan.

 

I'm pretty sure all graduate students in Yale's History Department, including those in terminal masters (who are indeed very few, and often in dual degree masters such as "History and European Studies", "History and Renaissance Studies", etc.) are fully funded. No cash cow in this case, although I generally agree with the advice that you're giving.

Edited June 15, 2015 by modern

[mvlchicago]

"Financial Aid is not available for this [Terminal M.A.] program." 

http://history.yale.edu/academics/graduate-program/masters-degrees

[modern]

"Financial Aid is not available for this [Terminal M.A.] program." 

http://history.yale.edu/academics/graduate-program/masters-degrees

 

Thanks for the correction. 

[twentysix]

No, 30 applied, unsure how many were actually accepted. 

 

Interesting! Thank you for the clarification.

Edited June 18, 2015 by twentysix