How has your degree benefited you?

[kdavid]

I'm set to graduate with an MA in Chinese History this summer (2014). I'm interested in hearing from people who have already graduated from a PRC/HK/Taiwanese university with either a certificate or degree (BA, MA, PhD). Specifically, I'd like to know:

 

1. How you're using the degree now (i.e. how the experienced has helped you get a job)

2. How employers have viewed your Chinese education (e.g. they've been impressed, skeptical, etc.)

3. How you found the experience overall (e.g. did you get the education you thought you would, was it a good use of your time, etc.)

[OneEye]

I'm not part of the audience you're looking to answer this, but maybe this will be useful anyway.

 

I'm in my first semester of an MA program in the Chinese department at 國立台灣師範大學. Wait, rewind a bit. A while back, I emailed [famous professor in the US] and told him I want to do my PhD under him. He's been exceptionally helpful in giving me advice while I've been in Taiwan. I emailed him again after I got accepted into the MA program to update him on my situation and get some advice. "I'm working as a freelance translator, my 文言文 is pretty good, blah blah blah." But I know I need to learn Japanese too, and I know that he spent some time in Japan before starting his PhD, so I mentioned moving to Japan as an alternative option to doing the MA here. He told me "I think it makes a certain amount of sense to study in Japan if you can afford to."

 

Now, in my field, the professors at 師大 are fairly big time. It's no 復旦大學, but they hold their own. And my field is early Chinese excavated texts. Yet he as much as said "Don't bother, go to Japan instead."

 

The only reason I'm in the program now is that they offered me a good scholarship. I figured, if my wife finds a job in Japan, I can quit this program and say I took a year of graduate-level courses at 師大 ("dropped out" doesn't sound as good). But if she doesn't, then I'll have a year under my belt and can finish it before going back to the US and starting my PhD, and I'll even make a little money out of the deal. At the very least, it will be good for my Chinese, and I've learned a lot in my field already, in just one semester.

 

Long story. Anyway, maybe it says something that one of the top professors in my field as much as told me not to bother doing an MA in what's considered a really good department over here. Maybe it doesn't. On the other hand, someone else, a PhD student at [major west coast university], told me that in his department, an MA from a Chinese or Taiwanese university is like a golden ticket into the PhD program because they know they won't have to spend money to get your language ability up to snuff. I've also been told by a department secretary at another university that one of the main things her department looks for in PhD applicants is language ability, because that makes you competitive for teaching assistantships.

 

So who knows. At the least it won't hurt me, and maybe it will help.

[kdavid]

Thanks for sharing.

 

I'm actually equally interested in your experience so as to see how mine fits into the wider picture of Chinese higher education. (I have read your posts on this topic before.)

 

I have my second thesis committee review this Saturday. Hopefully they don't "revise" the topic again; especially seeing how I've already written all 53,000+字 of the darn paper.

[OneEye]

So, how'd the thesis review go?

[kdavid]

Hah. Exactly how I expected it to.

 

They spent 30 seconds reviewing the table of contents and critiqued the whole project on that.

 

Many of the issues they raised were already addressed (in the f'in paper)!

[OneEye]

Sounds about right. I have a friend who just finished her thesis for an MA in political science at a university in Beijing (not sure which). She used some Taiwanese sources (she lived here while she was writing it), and they rejected it based on that alone.

[kdavid]

Ridiculous, but not surprising.

 

I used a few Tawainese sources as well, but, of course, they didn't get past the table of contents, let alone to the bibliography, so this wasn't brought up.