Can you still (if all the stars align) get hired into an English department with an M.Sc. if it's from a British school?
What kind of "department" are you talking? The Msc is an odd degree by American lights, it's basically much shorter than the American MA. It's also not really equivalent in that it's intended for specialization, field changes, or foundation work rather than the first half of the PhD like the Mphil/MA. (The Mphil is almost always what the MA portion of the US PhD degree is, for reference.) If you mean hired into a university department, yes, it's possible you'll have problems caused by its oddity and its non-terminal nature.
This community is explicitly for American programs, but I actually applied to all UK schools. If you've got any particular questions I'll be happy to answer them, with the caveat that I'm an anthro/econ person and not an English person :)
That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for! I plan on doing a PhD after the Master's program, but it would most likely be at the same or a similar British institution. Some of the programs I've been looking at (Edinburgh, Cambridge) state in their degree description that the M.Sc. (I'm not sure about the M.St. but maybe it's the same?) is adequate preparation for a PhD at that school and can transfer easily into the program, but I was just wondering what that would look like outside of the school.
Oh! I didn't even realize this was just for American programs, I feel so silly. Do you know if there is an equivalent community for U.K. programs? I couldn't find one so I thought this was it, but I guess I was mistaken!
You want to be really careful about generalizing Cambridge, Oxford, Durham to other universities - they're basically a totally different program. That said, MScs tend to trade around easily (in some cases, keep in mind I don't know about English :). I don't know about MSt, I haven't run into any!
Haha that's what I'm starting to learn! What do you mean, trade around easily?
I haven't run in to any either, which is why I was flummoxed to see Oxford offering one. But it's Oxford! They ought to know what they're doing, right?
When looking to take a masters in the UK and then having my work transfer back to the US for a Phd, I was asked how many credit hours did I work in my subject. Basically, if the course you are looking only has say 20 credit hours the schools you are looking at for your phd might not accept that as enough work to justify a masters.
You're best best is to call the schools you are looking at for a phd and ask how they treat masters from the UK.
The way I see it (and have been told by many people in my field) is get your degrees where you wish to be working. If you want to teach or whatever in the US, stick with the US system.
I totally agree with this, especially if you're going into academia. The only reason I applied to UK schools exclusively is because I have no intention of coming back.
@ tisiphone: Me too! I'm not entirely sure where I want to "end up", but I know I want to do my Master's (and PhD if that works out) in the U.K., so teaching there would be lovely too.
@ mallyns: About credit hours, that makes total sense. Several of the American PhD programs I was looking at require you to do the two years of course work no matter what kind of post graduate work you have (or have not) done, presumably to do away with the equivalency hassle. The division of degrees across the English speaking world is confusing!
If it helps, it is extremely difficult (but not impossible) to get a job in the UK even after you get the degrees. The reason being is that they have to hire citizens first and only if they can't fill the slot with someone from there, then they can look outside for people.
Plus there is this whole point system to qualify for a visa.
Things are different over there and if you haven't gone, I recommend taking a trip to see what it is like and what the schools are like. I went and my top choice for a UK school turned out to be horrible. I knew right away I could never go to that school. Horrible professor's and a horrible town.
That's not necessarily the case; for example, it's fairly common to get (some) funding at LSE, even as an international student. In the general case, though, you'll be self-funding.
Thanks so much! Yeah, the MSt would be at Oxford. Edinburgh is equally funny about their degrees (for the same reason as Oxford, I think) as their Master's is an MSc.
I will definitely have more questions for you once I start the application process. Oxford really does seem to be it's own universe :)
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What kind of "department" are you talking? The Msc is an odd degree by American lights, it's basically much shorter than the American MA. It's also not really equivalent in that it's intended for specialization, field changes, or foundation work rather than the first half of the PhD like the Mphil/MA. (The Mphil is almost always what the MA portion of the US PhD degree is, for reference.) If you mean hired into a university department, yes, it's possible you'll have problems caused by its oddity and its non-terminal nature.
This community is explicitly for American programs, but I actually applied to all UK schools. If you've got any particular questions I'll be happy to answer them, with the caveat that I'm an anthro/econ person and not an English person :)
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Oh! I didn't even realize this was just for American programs, I feel so silly. Do you know if there is an equivalent community for U.K. programs? I couldn't find one so I thought this was it, but I guess I was mistaken!
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I haven't run in to any either, which is why I was flummoxed to see Oxford offering one. But it's Oxford! They ought to know what they're doing, right?
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You're best best is to call the schools you are looking at for a phd and ask how they treat masters from the UK.
The way I see it (and have been told by many people in my field) is get your degrees where you wish to be working. If you want to teach or whatever in the US, stick with the US system.
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@ mallyns: About credit hours, that makes total sense. Several of the American PhD programs I was looking at require you to do the two years of course work no matter what kind of post graduate work you have (or have not) done, presumably to do away with the equivalency hassle. The division of degrees across the English speaking world is confusing!
Thanks so much for your responses!
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Plus there is this whole point system to qualify for a visa.
Things are different over there and if you haven't gone, I recommend taking a trip to see what it is like and what the schools are like. I went and my top choice for a UK school turned out to be horrible. I knew right away I could never go to that school. Horrible professor's and a horrible town.
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I will definitely have more questions for you once I start the application process. Oxford really does seem to be it's own universe :)
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