Question about MA & Edinburgh Program

[Ag92]

I was recently accepted to the 1-year MSc Program on Literature and Society: Enlightenment, Romantic, and Victorian studies.

It doesn't come with funding, and tuition costs 17,000 pounds. While Edinburgh is an excellent school and apparently is in the top 20 English programs in the world, most of the advice I've been given has been to reject the program and do something else for a year until reapplying for funded programs. The problem is my options for a gap year are dwindling, and the program in Edinburgh seems to perfectly match my research needs.

The other MA students I've talked to seem perfectly fine taking the financial hit with the MA and trying for the funded PhD after their MA studies. I'm curious, though, what other grad students think.

Has anyone heard anything about the MSc in Literature and Society at Edinburgh? Is it worth my time and money? Below is a link to the program's information. I'd appreciate any comments or feedback.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees/index.php?r=site/view&id=426

[rising_star]

I wouldn't do an unfunded MA. Once you add in living expenses in Edinburgh, you're easily looking at being $40K in debt at the end of that year. Plus, since it's a 1 year MA, you'd likely need to take a gap year after the MA in order to have your MA experience help you in PhD applications. 

[KappaRoss]

Depends. Generally, the advice is not to do an unfunded MA, but it really does depend on your specific situation. As you said, the other MA students are perfectly fine with the debt.

What rising_star said rings true for most graduate students. You don't want to be saddled with even more debt if you don't have to be. But still, it depends on your situation, how much you're willing to go into debt, what you think your chances are for getting a funded offer the next cycle (as you may very well not), how long you are willing to wait to get the degree (the longer you wait, the more money you miss out on anyway as you do the English BA job dance), how prestigious the program is and whether you are willing to sacrifice that for money, and how willing you are to put yourself out there for another admissions cycle with no guarantee of getting into a good offer from anywhere. I remember I was downvoted for saying that students should chose happiness over money, with happiness being how much you like to be at the program, how good of a fit it is, and whether you are willing to painfully wait another year to attend graduate school.

So, it depends on your situation of course. But most people would say take a fully funded offer anywhere, as it does not matter where you get your MA if you're going to do a PhD anyway.

Edited March 23, 2016 by KappaRoss