I was just accepted to two MA programs, Columbia’s American Studies MA and the New School for Social Research’s Historical Studies MA. I’m trying to figure out which one might be a better program for me.
My goal is to leverage my MA degree into a History PhD or related PhD at Columbia later. If I reject the Columbia offer of admission for the New School MA offer now will that bear negatively on applying for the Columbia PhD later?
Do I stand a better chance of admission to a Columbia PhD program if I take this MA there now or does it matter?
And which one might I be able to better leverage into employment afterwards?
Thanks!
Probably not.
Probably. Columbia does tend to admit pretty regularly from its MA programs into its PhD programs. It allows you to form relationships with professors in the department and pitch yourself (indirectly, of course).
From a subject point point of view they’re probably equal, but Columbia has vastly superior career services and recruiting on campus. I went there for my PhD. A friend of mine got her MA in art history with the intention of getting a PhD at Columbia in art history. She decided as she was finishing up her MA that she no longer wanted a PhD in art history, but leveraged her MA in art history into a career in consulting; now she works in wealth management. Another friend of mine got an MA in human rights studies and followed that up with an MA in journalism and has had a promising career in journalism so far.
My point is simply that Columbia grads with MAs in humanities fields have, in my experience, pretty good job prospects compared to grads with humanities degrees from other kinds of schools.
And seriously, the career advising is excellent. I’m an alumni and I still benefit from it; when I was changing careers three years ago, I made an appointment with the career advising office, they looked over my resume and cover letter and gave me pointers (for free). They’ll set you up with an alumni mentor in a desired field or connect you to someone in the field you want. There are lots of fancy networking events on campus with the VPs and CEOs and GMs or whatnot who graduated from Columbia and are back to recruit.
Columbia. Between the professional opportunities and the ability to leverage the brand for a PhD, it’s the most useful choice.