How do you apply for a PhD while you are in a MA program (LORs)?

May 05, 2013 03:12

I have a question about how people apply to doctoral programs while they are in a master's program without taking a year or more off ( Read more... )

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tisiphone May 5 2013, 08:44:19 UTC
Where are you applying? December 1 seems like a really early deadline. That said, you can ask your advisor/tutor/supervisor at least for a recommendation, and they'll probably give it based on any work you've done already.

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roseofjuly May 21 2013, 18:13:00 UTC
That doesn't seem too early - my earliest PhD deadline was December 15.

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indicolite May 5 2013, 13:49:20 UTC
You can't possibly ask your professors who you've barely gotten to know in a couple of months, and probably barely even submitted anything to get graded, to write you a letter of recommendation for those applications, right?I know people who have done that, and got in ( ... )

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flamingjune07 May 5 2013, 18:25:07 UTC
My real answer is that I have no idea, and that this is one of many reasons I did a 2-year MA, heh. I do know people who've done 1 year programs and gotten into solid PhD programs; my impression is that they go out of their way very early on to establish a rapport with their professors so that the profs are able to write at least somewhat informative LORs.

Also: I imagine there ought to be a graduate advisor or some such in your MA department who would have some good advice about this; you're surely not the first person to worry about how best to line up their MA with PhD applications.

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roseofjuly May 21 2013, 18:12:34 UTC
You either take a gap year, or you get your undergraduate professors to write you a recommendation. And no, that doesn't look weird; it's expected. Those are the people who know you best, and can vouch for your performance as a student. In fact, even if you do decide to take a gap year (which is not a "year wasted." Any year of your life is not a waste, it's just a year out of grad school) you should still probably have one or two LoRs from undergraduate professors.

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