Ethnic Studies/American Ethnic Studies

[Nina6462]

Hi Everyone!

Just joined Grad Cafe, and I'll be applying to doctorate programs for the Fall 2018 school year. I'm finishing my M.A. in experimental psychology Winter 2017, and am excited to study for the GRE. I'm slowly building an excel sheet of schools and faculty members I would like to apply to work with. Can anyone recommend some schools that have doctorate programs in ethnic studies? These are the programs I'm considering...

1. University of California, Riverside
2. University of California, Berkeley 
3. University of Arizona
4. University of New Mexico

I'm considering University of Colorado Boulder, but I heard their program wasn't that great. If anyone has another opinion or insight into this let me know

 

 

[striped]

Hi! I'm not sure about the programs at these schools, but I wanted to give an FYI if you're not already aware about UCR in terms of the city itself. For reference, I was born and raised in San Diego with my family, and my brother ended up going to UCR and became so depressed because of the city that he dropped out. While some programs might be amazing for what we want to do, I think it's important we also consider the cities/environment they are situated in, because it is just as important in terms of being productive/having a quality of life. Life will be hard enough being in a rigorous PhD program, one doesn't need the added stressor of living in a depressing environment. Riverside is very removed from everything, despite being relatively close to both LA and SD. The inland empire is known for having high drug use rates, low incomes, scarcity of jobs, and 8 out of the top 10 worst cities to live in in California are all in Riverside or San Bernardino county (very close to UCR).

That being said, I think your happiness/life is mostly what you make of it and I've known some people to do their graduate work at UCR and are quite content with the city, so take all of that into account when considering the info I provided above, but I wanted to let you know just in case

& I definitely didn't mean any offense to anyone at UCR- they have some great, great programs there (esp. agricultural/bio programs) but having lived in San Diego and then Temecula (in Riverside county) for all my life, I wanted to be sure that people know what they're getting themselves into, environment-wise, as I feel that environment is crucial to one's happiness/productivity!

[Nina6462]

Thank you for the information! That is definitely something to consider. I just wish I could visit all the campuses on my list to get a feel for the environment!