Harvard MA vs. UCLA MA vs. UCSB MA/PhD for East Asian Studies

[milktea1993]

Hi everyone!

I'm hoping to study Chinese TV/Film/Media and trying to choose among the following:
a. Harvard Regional Studies-East Asia M.A. (no funding)
b. UCLA-East Asian Studies M.A. (15K, Ta-ships)
c. UCSB-East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies MA/PhD
    -Year 1: 18K + Full tuition coverage
    -Year 2-4: TA-ship

I am leaning towards UCLA because of the generous funding for a masters program but I love the faculty and environment at UCSB for my research. Harvard's just a great school overall and I believe the prestige doesn't hurt.

Let me know what you all think!

 

 

[rising_star]

15K for a master's in Los Angeles really isn't generous funding. If what you ultimately want is to do a PhD, why would you turn down UCSB?

[milktea1993]

25 minutes ago, rising_star said:

15K for a master's in Los Angeles really isn't generous funding. If what you ultimately want is to do a PhD, why would you turn down UCSB?

I live in LA so 15K would actually cover all of my tuition...a TA-ship would be enough for food, supplies, etc. I'm hesitant on accepting UCSB's offer only because it's not very much funding at all for a PhD program and I would also have to work every quarter to cover all of my tuition. Also, it's a fairly new program (9 years old) so there really hasn't been much placement of students anywhere.