(I did get your email! I'm still in a bit of sticker shock because the 1-year MA at King's is 17000 pounds (I can't find the symbol on my Mac). That you pay for! On your own! Holy crap! Plus living in London!)
UNC only requires 2 foreign languages, one of which is "mastery" level, the other is "proficient." They don't say either has to be a classic language on the website. But since comparing literatures isn't really what I want to do... (Though the German prof I want to work with did her degrees in comp lit.) I'd have to gain reading proficiency in a third language for a German PhD (at UNC or pretty much anywhere), and I'm thinking Turkish for that, since I want to look at Turkish-German culture and want to learn Turkish anyway.
There are only 2 high schools in the area that even offer German, and they're both full up. I don't have any educational credentials, and I really don't want to teach in high schools, not in this state or this country, even. (NC is especially shitty for teachers.) I'm toying with the idea of applying to teach ESL at Berlitz in Raleigh :P Or I could volunteer with the local literacy council.
I'm planning to email the admission counselor at UNC this week to see if I can discuss how to make my application strong, and maybe find out if they have info on where recent grads are working. Ideally, I can make an on-campus appointment, and I can schedule a department visit that same day.
If I can find the right wording (so I don't sound like a fool), I might email the professor I want to work with. Say "hi, I'm considering applying for the PhD program, and your research areas are interesting to me. I'm not sure what kind of jobs, outside of academia, would be available with a PhD. Can you give me advice, or direct me to someone who can? Google isn't helping me out."
In comments on an earlier post, steuard thinks a PhD would overqualify me for a lot of things, since they're research-focused. And, yes, I think it would be cool to study Turkish German culture, but I haven't the foggiest where one would do that outside the university! Perhaps there are intercultural initiatives, but I don't even know where to look.
I'm considering writing to the departmental advising people at Georgetown, UMD, and maybe Amherst, to see if my background meets their criteria and ask if MA candidates get funding. Georgetown does allow for a terminal MA, and I think UMD and UMA do, too. I could get an MA in German (assuming I meet their admission criteria) and consider applying for a PhD after that, either back at UNC or continuing there.
One of the things I talked with Ben about last night was what would happen if I got into the MA program at Gtown. He'd stay here, and I'd take one or two of the cats. It's 2 years, after all, and DC's only ~5 hours, barring obscene traffic, from here. It's also obscenely expensive to live.
(Basically, if I get no funding, I'm not doing this. I could do 1 year of no funding at UNC, if 1st-year students don't get TAships, but not more than that. And Gtown or the out of state schools are out of the question without funding.)
Germany would be another matter altogether. I'd hate to uproot, sell the house, all that, and fail. Or have to come back because I can't get a job there.
What I really want to do is live in Germany and write, and do something so I can get a visa and pay rent. Teaching at a German community college or private language school would do that. But getting a visa to teach German in Germany when there are tons of qualified Germans...
I don't know what to do. I hate not knowing what to do. It's stressful.
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Date: 2013-01-16 06:47 pm (UTC)From:UNC only requires 2 foreign languages, one of which is "mastery" level, the other is "proficient." They don't say either has to be a classic language on the website. But since comparing literatures isn't really what I want to do... (Though the German prof I want to work with did her degrees in comp lit.) I'd have to gain reading proficiency in a third language for a German PhD (at UNC or pretty much anywhere), and I'm thinking Turkish for that, since I want to look at Turkish-German culture and want to learn Turkish anyway.
There are only 2 high schools in the area that even offer German, and they're both full up. I don't have any educational credentials, and I really don't want to teach in high schools, not in this state or this country, even. (NC is especially shitty for teachers.) I'm toying with the idea of applying to teach ESL at Berlitz in Raleigh :P Or I could volunteer with the local literacy council.
I'm planning to email the admission counselor at UNC this week to see if I can discuss how to make my application strong, and maybe find out if they have info on where recent grads are working. Ideally, I can make an on-campus appointment, and I can schedule a department visit that same day.
If I can find the right wording (so I don't sound like a fool), I might email the professor I want to work with. Say "hi, I'm considering applying for the PhD program, and your research areas are interesting to me. I'm not sure what kind of jobs, outside of academia, would be available with a PhD. Can you give me advice, or direct me to someone who can? Google isn't helping me out."
In comments on an earlier post,
I'm considering writing to the departmental advising people at Georgetown, UMD, and maybe Amherst, to see if my background meets their criteria and ask if MA candidates get funding. Georgetown does allow for a terminal MA, and I think UMD and UMA do, too. I could get an MA in German (assuming I meet their admission criteria) and consider applying for a PhD after that, either back at UNC or continuing there.
One of the things I talked with Ben about last night was what would happen if I got into the MA program at Gtown. He'd stay here, and I'd take one or two of the cats. It's 2 years, after all, and DC's only ~5 hours, barring obscene traffic, from here. It's also obscenely expensive to live.
(Basically, if I get no funding, I'm not doing this. I could do 1 year of no funding at UNC, if 1st-year students don't get TAships, but not more than that. And Gtown or the out of state schools are out of the question without funding.)
Germany would be another matter altogether. I'd hate to uproot, sell the house, all that, and fail. Or have to come back because I can't get a job there.
What I really want to do is live in Germany and write, and do something so I can get a visa and pay rent. Teaching at a German community college or private language school would do that. But getting a visa to teach German in Germany when there are tons of qualified Germans...
I don't know what to do. I hate not knowing what to do. It's stressful.