Hello all-
I'm just finished my first year of a masters in musicology, and I'm trying to think of where I should go for my Phd. For the most part, I've decided to wait a year or two before pursuing for my Phd (I'm sure most people can relate as to why I'd want to do that!) I want to pursue it abroad, in either France or Germany. I have a BA in German, which would work well for Germany, and I'm currently taking private lessons in French.
Before asking about any specific programs, as I already have a few ideas for that, could I have some feedback about this decision?
In my undergrad (U of Texas at Austin) every was pushing me to go abroad for grad studies. I decided to hold off on that for financial reasons and pursue my masters at Texas State University. At my grad school, I have a German adviser who is completely against it and gets all parental and over-protective on me when I bring it up (and never gives me a reason - he avoids talking about it (!!))
I understand it's a big decision and that will effect me the rest of my life, but I'm really willing to take that risk, especially given the state of my country at this time.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated.
Also, there are other organizations like AMS (like IMS-International Musicological Society), no? I wouldn't have to necessarily stay in complete contact with AMS, right?
In my case, I stayed at the same school after finishing my BA (a situation that has its good and bad points), but if I could afford to study full time & travel, I would be in England - I've only done one course so far, and most of the work I find really interesting has been published by people there.
Environment plays an important part for me. During undergrad, I had to go to school while going through cancer treatment, which really sucked, being in America with the system they have here. Being a poor student, I qualified for government insurance, which was good for what it offered, but France would has the second best health care system in the world. It sounds like a weird reason, but if I'm thinking of a place where I might want to settle down, I would never want to raise a family in the US where my family would have to deal with the same type of stuff I did. I might be jaded, but I always seem to be able to handle the gut-decisions I make.
With your interests, it does sound like you need to be in Europe. Go for it & good luck!!
Just to be clear, I have visited Canada (Montreal) and loved it, but I fear the Canadian dollar wouldn't do it for my American debt!
Thanks for your support!
It's good you're doing a terminal masters here though; because the whole combined MA-PhD program thing really doesn't exist too much outside of the US.
I think that as a whole, Europe fund the arts more the US could ever hope to. I could be mistaken, but I studied abroad twice in undergrad (Vienna and Florence) and was encouraged to come back!
thanks for the positive feedback, I'll keep everything in consideration as I make my decision.
Right. Usually I'm pretty nationalistic, but given your interests, Canada would not be the best place for you.