I’m graduating Touro College in a week. I’m going to Brandeis University’s Master’s program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies for grad school. They just put the course selections up and I’m going to consider which courses to choose and talk to the advisor and a friend about it…still, I was wondering if anybody had any advice. My specialization and main interest is the development of American Orthodox Judaism.
Much obliged for any answers,
Baruch Pelta
When I was in your spot - the summer before starting grad school - my school sent us all a packet with lots of info, including a (rather generic) suggested potential schedule. It helped in making my decisions. Maybe you’ll get something like that?
The only other thing I can say is that if you want to take a class, take it now. Don’t tell yourself you can take it next year, because there’s no guarantee, I’ve discovered, that this professor, even if they’re not a visiting professor, will be around at the same time next year.
I can’t offer any specific advice on your course of study, though! b’hatzlacha!
Become a Red Sox fan?
Expect it to suck at first.
I’m currently halfway through a difficult Masters program. Full-time coursework, hundreds of pages of reading every week, and 24 hours a week of unpaid internship on top of that.
The only thing I can compare my program to is culture shock. Like those first few weeks when you land in a foreign country and you have no idea how to get anywhere or how the public transit system works or how to say, ‘‘Please hand me that fork.’’ You want to tear out your hair and scream and just find one person who speak English and you can feel everyone staring at you thinking what a moron you are. As you cry yourself to sleep every night, you begin to think your decision to come renders you certifiably insane.
But you stay, because you know it’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and eventually you learn the local customs and realize you actually really do like the taste of pomegranate, now that you think about it. The inconveniences begin to fade in the background and you begin to experience a different world.
And when you finally come home you can’t believe how much you’ve learned and how much you’ve changed. You can’t even fathom the person you would be if you hadn’t had the courage to stay.
That’s grad school. Hang on tight.
I appreciate the advice, y’all! (But fellow teeming millions, the more the merrier)
But I’m also wondering how I should arrange coursework. I see there are a lot of “Readings in” courses, but there are some courses with classtimes…what’s the difference?
Also, there are courses are on ancient Jewish history, medieval Jewish history, Israeli history, Talmud, Jewish sociology, Jewish education, and Jewish literature. But my big interest is American Jewish History. Should I diversify or just try to take as many classes related to my specialty as possible?
“But I’m also wondering how I should arrange coursework. I see there are a lot of ‘Readings in’ courses, but there are some courses with classtimes…what’s the difference?”
What I mean is, what’s the difference between taking a course with classtimes or a “Readings in” course? Is one harder than the other? Does one generally have more coursework than the other? Is one more flexible…? etc.
If your goals include teaching at the college level, diversify, diversify, diversify. (Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about your field, but I think this is probably good advice for would-be faculty in almost any humanities discipline.) The majority of jobs out there are at teaching-focused schools. To be competitive for those jobs, you’ll want to be able to show that you have enough breadth of knowledge to teach the massive intro survey course in your discipline, or even an upper-level course that’s out of your immediate comfort zone.
Oh, and make friends with the other grad students in your cohort, because whether you can get along with them can make all the difference between enjoying grad school and being thoroughly miserable.