<p>I am about to graduate with a masters in Geography and Urban Studies, with two bachelor degrees in Environmental Geography and Spanish. I would like to continue onto my PhD, either in Geography or another social science, with a Latin American focus. I would LOVE to do my PhD abroad in Latin America (not interested in Spain) but I have a few questions…
- Do you still get funded for PhD programs abroad? I can’t afford to pay out of my own pocket (who can, right?)
- Is an internationally-earned PhD viewed as highly as a US one? My ultimate goal is to teach Geography and/or Latin American studies.
- Any Latin American universities in particular you could recommend? I’m going through my university’s Geog book of universities but they mention every single one, so…
I’m mostly worried about the funding; it may just be more sensible to get a PhD in the States with a program that will fund me to do research abroad. However, if a PhD abroad was possible that would be ideal!
Thanks for any input you can provide me!</p>
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<li><p>It really depends on the school and the country, but many times the answer is no. Sometimes schools will only fund their own nationals. You would have to contact the individual school and find out.</p></li>
<li><p>In many fields, no. In my field, the answer is definitely no. Post-docs who got their PhDs from international schools typically do post-docs here at American universities, and they generally spend longer in the post-doc to ‘prove’ themselves (we have a German post-doc who’s been here for 5 years; the norm in my field is about 2). If you have any professors in the field of geography they would be the best people to ask about how international degrees are regarded.</p></li>
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<p>Also realize that even if they are okay, there will be a hierarchy. European and Australian degrees will likely be trusted before a degree from a Latin American country, even if that’s an irrational decision on the part of the field.</p>
<p>Honestly if you want to teach at a U.S. university, I don’t see why you can’t attend a U.S. PhD program and do fieldwork in a Latin American country. I have a friend who’s a geography PhD student and she just got a Fulbright for field work in Honduras. I’m also in a PhD program with lots of students who have international interests and I have friends in Bangladesh, Thailand, Brazil, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa right now - and probably some places I’m missing. There are lots of funding opportunities for students who want to do international fieldwork; many students get Fulbrights and some people get instutitional funding to do it. I’d investigate stateside programs and see how often students do international research; but I’d also investigate Latin American programs and their status in your field.</p>