[nabs-l] Career: Academic

[Leye-Shprintse Öberg]

BS'D

Karl,

Thanks for your answer!

If I decide to go for a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, I'll probably do it in Canada or the States. I don't think that I'll skip my M.A. because I'll need that time to prepare the foundation of my application to a program. In Europe, our university education is built in three steps, bachelor's degree, master's degree and doctorate degree, so I think that it's not so easy for an European student to skip that step.

I understand that people can get the perception that teachers and students don't get to know each other during an online program, but that doesn't need to be the fact. I've always been welcome to send my questions and schedule a meeting with both my professors who I've had on campus and also to them who I've had online. All sorts of relationships need some work, so I'm not so worried.

I'm interested in the Blind academics' list and I would be happy if you would share your future experiences with me, which subject is your Ph.D. in?

I wish you a good evening!

LeSholom,
Leye-Shprintse Öberg
leyeshprintse at ymail.com
http://www.leyeshprintse.com
Envoyé de mon iPhone

> On 20 Jul 2016, at 17:23, Karl Martin Adam via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi LeSholom,
> 
> I imagine this varies a great deal based on the country that you would want to get your Ph.D. in.  I can't tell you much about being a Ph.D. student because I'm not starting my Ph.D. until the fall, but I will say that at least in the U.S. in most academic fields it's better to skip the MA if you can and get straight into a Ph.D. program because you will not be able to transfer more than a semester or maybe two (if anything) of your MA credits and because MA programs are usually unfunded while Ph.D. programs are usually funded.  Generally what I've been told is that admissions committees primarily care about the quality of your writing sample and the quality of your letters of recommendation with GPA and your GRE scores being secondary factors--though many schools set cut off points and only look at applications with GPA and GRE scores above a certain threshold.  In your case, your English proficiency test scores would also be important.  Of course your letters of recommendation will mean more if they're by well known scholars in your field, and if they can say good things about you (the latter is harder in an online program since your professors won't really get to know you in person).  Committees are really trying to find out whether you will be able to do well in their program and do research that will look good for the school, so any evidence that you have of conducting good research (things like publishing articles or presenting at conferences are good here) or any evidence that you have that you can work hard and deal with the stress is important.  I imagine you will get a lot more advice from people more knowledgable than me on this list, but you might also try the blind academics list.  I don't know the website off the top of my head, but I can try to find it later.
> 
> HTH,
> Karl
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Leye-Shprintse Öberg via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Date sent: Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:47:39 +0200
> Subject: [nabs-l] Career: Academic
> 
> BS'D
> 
> Good afternoon everybody,
> 
> I've started to ponder if a career in academia would be something for me. I'm preparing my B.A. in Comparative Literature and after that I'll do my M.A. in Comparative Literature, I'm doing my B.A. online and I'll probably do my M.A. online as well, will it be seen negatively if I'll apply to a Ph.D. program in the future, the online program has the same curriculum as the campus program. In my country of birth1 it"s very uncommon for student to do Ph.Ds., so I've very little knowledge of what a Ph.D. program includes. Would a Ph.D. student be willing to give me the insight of how a life is for a Ph.D. student, I would be very thankful.
> 
> LeSholom,
> Leye-Shprintse Öberg
> E-mail: leyeshprintse at ymail.com
> Blog: http://leyeshprintse.com
> Facebook: http://facebook.com/leyeshprintse
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeyeShprintse
> Sent from my iPad Pro Mini
> 
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