Graduate study in history in China

[Setzer]

Greetings all!

I'm new to the forums and have found many of the threads to be very insightful. However, I'm having trouble finding anything the pertains to my exact situation. I'll share my situation and any comments/advice that would assist me would be very much appreciated.

I graduated a year ago with a BS in history. I never had a particular career in mind after college so I figured I would just see what was available after graduation. Mistake. The job market in the region that I live is in the toilet (even with the current state of the U.S. economy in mind) and no one seems to care too much about my degree at all. It's been a year since graduation and all I've managed to do is work retail as a cashier for a short while. Life's definitely been sucking pretty hard for the past year.

Anyway, after discovering the CSC scholarship, I've decided that I would love to pursue graduate studies in China. I took many Asian history courses as an undergrad and studied Japanese for two years. My later courses led my interests primarily to China. That's all well and good, but here are my concerns:

1) For degrees in the humanities, I see that the CSC scholarship will cover two years of Chinese. Is this really enough for graduate study in history? Also, would Classical Chinese be essential for a person interested in early Chinese history?

2) Would it be better to come to China as a language student and then return to the U.S. to attend a grad program here? Any shortcomings with Chinese history programs (heavily biased, poor instruction, etc.)?

Those are the two biggest things on my mind at the moment other than all of the other basic considerations (where would I like to go, where to study, etc.).

And in case it matters in terms of getting the CSC scholarship or admission into any specific grad program, my undergrad GPA was 3.9 overall with a 4.0 in history, membership in several academic honor societies, service on different university committees among other things. Thanks for any help anybody is willing to provide!

[gato]

If you are just starting to think about graduate school because of the difficult job market, I'd say forget about it. An academic career in the humanities is a calling, not just a job. There's a glut of PhDs in the humanities including history, and the job market is even tougher than the one for regular jobs.

If you have good logical reasoning skills, I'd suggest that you take the LSAT and apply for law school. A lot of graduate students end up dropping out and apply for law school. You might as well consider that option now.

p.s. You need to know classical Chinese to research ancient Chinese history. It's like needing ancient Greek to research ancient Greek history.

Edited November 8, 2009 at 08:07 AM by gato

[kdavid]

For degrees in the humanities, I see that the CSC scholarship will cover two years of Chinese. Is this really enough for graduate study in history?

In China, you get the degree regardless of grades. Everyone here in a 2-year Master's program will get their Master's in 2 years. Period. It's not like back home where you can take as long as you want to do the degree.

Also, would Classical Chinese be essential for a person interested in early Chinese history?

I'm pretty sure that classical Chinese was used extensively up through the 19th century. A working knowledge of classical Chinese would only help your research.

Would it be better to come to China as a language student and then return to the U.S. to attend a grad program here?

If you're interested in getting your MA in Chinese history, a strong working knowledge (if not complete fluency--reading, writing and speaking) I'd think would be a prerequisite for admittance.

This is something I've looked in to a lot as I'm pursuing the same path. Contacts in MA and PhD programs back home say that most candidates struggle with the language requirement. If you want to increase your chances of getting into a good program, I'd say come to China and learn the language first. Once you know whether or not this is a language that you want to take to fluency, then decide about your MA.

Any shortcomings with Chinese history programs (heavily biased, poor instruction, etc.)?

Again, once you get in, you've got the degree. I don't have any first-hand experience with non-Chinese majors in China, but if the attitude of both the teachers and students is the same toward non-English majors as it is toward English majors, then many students will not be very serious about the coursework unless they're planning on pursuing a PhD.

You also need to consider that the style of teaching here is very different than it is back home. Classes will be mostly lecture-style with little discussion.

I'm taking the HSK this month to get a feel for it (I haven't taken it yet). I should be able to get at least a 6, which will allow me to enroll in the MA program at 黑大 (HeiDa) here in Harbin. I also plan on applying for the CSC scholarship, though I can only do that if I can get a 6 on the HSK this month and do not need to retake it in April.

In a different world, I'd apply directly to a program back home and start from there, but my current job is keeping me tied to China for at least several more years. I'm hoping that doing an MA here, and subsequent PhD, will help me get into a good PhD program back home once I eventually do end up back in the States.

[Setzer]

If you are just starting to think about graduate school because of the difficult job market' date=' I'd say forget about it. . . .

. . . . It's like needing ancient Greek to research ancient Greek history.[/quote']

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. My post sounded a lot like I want to pursue graduate studies just because of the job market, but it's really not the case. I am truly interested in obtaining a MA for my interests and academic goals. I wouldn't consider graduate school only because of the less-than-stellar job market even though that's exactly what my original post read like. I'm actually not contemplating a PhD at this point. I'd like to have a MA and find employment at a community college or perhaps somewhere else where international and language experience would be helpful (State Dept., etc.)

And law school...thought about it for a bit, but decided that it wasn't for me. I don't like the work that lawyers do and I know a few people in law school currently. Judging from their experiences, it doesn't seem like a good fit for me. Thanks for the suggestion though.

If you're interested in getting your MA in Chinese history' date=' a strong working knowledge (if not complete fluency--reading, writing and speaking) I'd think would be a prerequisite for admittance.

This is something I've looked in to a lot as I'm pursuing the same path. Contacts in MA and PhD programs back home say that most candidates struggle with the language requirement. If you want to increase your chances of getting into a good program, I'd say come to China and learn the language first. Once you know whether or not this is a language that you want to take to fluency, then decide about your MA.[/quote']

I'm considering trying to come as a language student to learn Chinese and then return for a MA program in light of what has been said about classical Chinese. It seems that it's not possible to learn the language necessary for successful graduate study (at least for early Chinese history) during the two years that the CSC scholarship allows for Chinese language study prior to a grad program.

You're very well right in that I may decide that it's not a language that I would want to take to fluency, but I believe I would enjoy the experience of learning it and living elsewhere regardless of where I decided to go in the future. The way I see it, MA or none, experience with Chinese can only benefit me in the future. Even if it doesn't, I could always remember I had a hell of an experience, yeah?