<p>Above and beyond the conservation issue —many Art History masters degree students are focusing on language skills which they will desperately need for a funded PHD program. As a PHD candidate she will be spending an inordinate amount of time reading and analyzing original source material. In medieval studies her skills in Latin and paleography will need to be exceptionally strong before she begins her research. Before I could finish my masters degree it was required that I be tested for a reading knowledge in German, Italian and French. If she is already working with a “big fish”, she probably has this in mind. In short, a funded conservation program requires stregnths in STEM and a funded PHD program requires strength in paleography and language. I imagine she has both!</p>
<p>Thanks musicamusica! She has Italian, Latin and German. I think the reason she wants to go to Europe (among countless other reasons) is that she wants to do Medieval Latin, which is more readily available there.</p>
<p>"(among countless other reasons)"</p>
<p>Oh yeah… 
I know the feeling. </p>
<p>FYI— my D is making the big move to Europe next month. We’ll compare notes.</p>
<p>Mine has another year before she rips my heart out and flies it across the world.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, what area is your daughter heading to?</p>
<p>She has a brief gig in the Netherlands and then it’s off to Germany. Apartment and job already lined up. (bwaaaaaaaaaaaaah)</p>
<p>Hi ZM
My D (class '12, BA English) went back and forth about PhD and MA programs, ultimately chose a 2-year interdisciplinary Masters near home. It fits her diverse interests and was a better match for where she was in her decision-making during senior year. Now, halfway through that program she feels she made a good decision and it bought her time to figure out next steps. She has some direct curatorial museum experience (internships and ongoing volunteer) and indirectly has spent her life in the field (I’m a museum professional). She’s also an accomplished musician with four years paid orchestra management experience. So right now she’s thinking about some branch of arts management and is planning to (hopefully) get a job when her degree is finished (or maybe even earlier if something good turns up, since her final semester will be writing thesis only) and then figure out what content-focused specific training and/or MA would best suit what she finally does. Ah…experimentation…</p>
<p>Totally agree with the comments above about the range of possible programs that would fit your daughter’s interests and focus…there’s a LOT out there. She should also look into some of the really excellent (and often paid) internships that are available. PM me if you wants more info.</p>
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<p>I think this is true mainly in STEM and STEM related fields (Econ for example). Much less so in others. </p>
<p>Interestingly, I read about Harvard offering a student a PhD slots in a STEM field without funding suggesting that if s/he could secure your own funding (NSF or parents?), s/he were welcome to matriculate. Having a son headed to STEM PhD, I hope this is not a new trend.</p>
<p>A family friend applied to genetics programs and was flown out for interviews, but friends who were in math and engineering were not. Seems that different fields have different app/eval processes.</p>
<p>ZM, sounds like she is on an excellent path!</p>
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<p>I’m not sure I agree. My son has been repeatedly told by his professors and advisors that he should not even consider any Ph. D. program in his field (art history) that isn’t willing to fully fund him. Right now, his plan is to go into a Master’s program, at one of the schools where an art history master’s degree actually means something, and helps you get into a Ph.D program if that’s what you want, and isn’t just a cash cow for the university, with basically zero benefit to the students, and basically worthless for Ph.D admissions. (There’s one in particular that he thinks is like that, but I won’t name names!) </p>
<p>Of course, for art history it’s also all about trying to go to a place that has one or more professors doing work in your specific field. So he has three specific schools in mind – two are in the NYC area, so I’m hopeful! (He’s talked about studying in Europe, especially if I ever get around to getting the German citizenship to which I’m entitled, which he would then get derivatively, allowing him to work anywhere in the EU.) </p>
<p>Plus he needs one more language (he has two), plus he wants to give himself another natural stopping point so he can be absolutely sure that he wants to commit himself to the Ph. D. process. (Which is why he took time off in the first place instead of trying to start grad school immediately after he graduated from college last year.) And I think it’s been great for him. He’s about to start a curatorial internship at MOMA in his specific area of interest, in which MOMA might have the best department of any museum anywhere – it was offered to him kind of out of the blue – and he would never have gotten it if he hadn’t had the internship at the ICP and done so well there. So his resume will be stronger than it was, plus he’s had an extremely positive experience working at the Cloisters (it’s been wonderful for his self-confidence), and is pretty sure he can go back there if he wants to after the internship is over. </p>
<p>Unlike the college application process, of course, he’s taking care of all of this, and very much knows what he’s doing. I’m just a bystander and cheerleader. (But not a banker; he knows there’s little or no money left for grad school.)</p>
<p>Zoosermom, I’ll echo everyone else and say that I wish your daughter the very best, and that it sounds like she very much knows what she’s doing, too.</p>
<p>I had to google ICP. Quickly decided that it was unlikely to be Insane Clown Posse. :D</p>
<p>Never know, Donna’s son might be a closet Juggalo. ;)</p>
<p>I have no idea what that is, and suspect I don’t want to know!</p>
<p>I don’t know much about your D’s field, but since I have a PhD I thought I’d add my two cents. The reason I applied to only PhD programs and not any MA programs is I knew I wanted to teach at the college level, which in my field requires a PhD. </p>
<p>Funding is a tricky issue. I think it’s true that you should only attend a PhD program with funding. But I don’t think funding is a good reason to choose a PhD program rather than an a master’s - PhD’s can take a long, long time (I did mine in 5 years but 7 or 8 was not unheard of in my program), and be very stressful (people tend to romanticize grad school generally and PhD programs in particular, as if you are just sitting in the library reading all day). The job market for academics now is awful. There are quite a few master’s programs that can be completed in a year - you generally pay for them but over the long haul they can be more cost-effective than a funded PhD program.</p>
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<p>Terminal MAs in my field (English) have little or no economic value. The only thing they qualify you to do is teach as an adjunct instructor for very little money and no benefits. Every full -time job gets scads of applicants with PhDs and lots of teaching experience from their grad programs, so MAs are not needed. The only exception are MFAs teaching in creative writing programs who have good publication records.</p>
<p>NJSue: I didn’t mean to suggest that an MA would be a good idea if you wanted to be a professor - I take as a given that most positions require a PhD (the MFA is probably the one exception, for creative writers and other artists). What I meant is that choosing the PhD/professorship option is really risky, and so paying for a master’s degree (in a field where that does advance your options, of course) might be the better option - in terms of economics and otherwise - than a funded PhD.</p>
<p>My d has an MFA which is a terminal degree in her field. She was not fully funded but had tuition remission as well as TA position. The second year of her program she was selected to be an adjunct so was paid and I think perhaps that includeded her health insurance along with tuition remission. She did of course have to pay all her housing and living expenses. </p>
<p>Younger d’s boyfriend is in an MA/PhD program in which he receives an annual stipend which is not a great deal of money, but enough for him as he can live inexpensively. He had funded research job this summer for two different professors working on books. He will be second year this semester and has a TA position so not sure whether he gets extra compensation beyond his stipend for that.</p>
<p>This is all great information. Reading and noting. Thank you!</p>
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<p>In history, politics, or some Area Studies courses, it is generally the preferred and more cost-effective path to pursue a fully funded PhD over a Masters as the latter isn’t usually funded. Moreover, if one starts in a fully-funded PhD program one can get a Masters along the way so some students start the PhD for the express purpose of getting a “free Masters” and then drop out. </p>
<p>Most students who opt for the Masters end up doing so because they aren’t sure about going all out for the PhD, were rejected for the department’s PhD program but qualified for the MA as a (second chance/rehearsal option), or needed the MA to strengthen preparation in skills such as foreign languages. </p>
<p>One should also check the funding situation at particular universities/departments to see whether the full funding is sustainable* or limited**.</p>
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<li>A visiting Prof I had in college warned us away from a topflight Midwest state U for PhD in his field because their funding situation was such he ended up being $30k in debt for his PhD. Very high considering most PhD graduates from elite private universities or more well-funded elite state Us like Berkeley had enough funding to graduate nearly/totally debt free.</li>
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<p>** I.e. Many Princeton departments limits full funding to five full years. One math Prof I met who did his math PhD there ended up working as a busboy in a hotel restaurant for the last 4.5 years of his program because his PhD took 9.5 total years.</p>
<p>ihs76-re: your post #27, my son’s Ph.D. program was in a social science, not a STEM field and was fully funded for 5 years. (It was NOT econ)</p>
<p>Agree with previous poster: my impression based on experience of older child and peers is that social science PhD programs fund for all years of course work in terms of covering tuition and adding some income in the form of stipend, whether for TA or grading or research. The other underlying issue is that the stated field of applicant’s interest needs to match up well with that of someone on faculty, and this gets very specific within the broader subject. Students who have been on top of this in college generally often seem to get very good guidance from ther undergrad advisors as to who and (like the OP’s daughter).</p>