I studied 16 semester in my BA programme.
Tomorrow, my (second) first MA programme will be about to start. My first-first MA was hum, I think about 3 years ago. I cancelled the attempt after about a year due to personal difficulties, and thought I should finish my BA dutifully before, and well. Now I’m standing here. I still did not finish my BA as of today. Still 5 responses and 10 pages of a paper due… haha. Crazy academic world 🙂
Anyway. I wanted to write about my MA. I’m not very satisfied with my schedule. The MA curriculum is pretty crowded. I choose 35 ECTP, 1 lecture, 3 seminars. Equals 3 papers.
BA thesis was 30pages. Mine was- including the appendix- around 60 pages.
MA thesis will be around 70-80 pages (whoo, I guess I’ll hit the +100 pages sweet spot in total then?!)
MA paper: will be ~15-20 pages. (BA is 10-15 pages)
So that means this semester I might have to write around 60 pages. And every following semester (4 semester= 120 ECTP). So one BA thesis per semester. Wow.
I am also very sad that I won’t be able to attend excursions due to lack of time and money. I also won’t be able to just sit in lectures and enjoy them for no perticular reason. My schedule is indeed very tight:
Monday: 12- 14 seminar, break, 16- 18 seminar
Tuesday: 12- 14 seminar, 16-18 seminar. Inbetween: work (hopefully I’ll make around €50 each week)?
Wednesday: work (maybe €20 each week), home office (writing papers, library, etc)
Thursday: 12- 16 seminar, work (maybe €10 each week)
Friday: 12-14 seminar, home office (writing papers, library, etc)
That means through work I will be able to get around €80 a week, so that’ll be €320 per month. After rent (€200) and insurance (€120), I’m left with the pocket money my dad generously gives me to support myself: with this, I’ll also have to pay the ~€300 tutition fee each semester (about €100 per month). The MA will cost me about ~€5200 (insurance+tutition fee), excluding rent. Using this calculation, I need €420 per month (insurance+tutition fee+rent), excluding food and other expenses like photocopying/buying books, etc. There will be no space for saving up money, except when I’d be working during vacations/ weekends/ nightshifts.
If I keep this schedule, I’ll might make it through MA in 4 semesters and graduate in 2016, aged 29. My goal is to start my PhD before I turn 30- so if the pace is too fast, I can give myself 2 extra semesters.
Growing up sucks 🙁 I understand what they meant by that now… aged 27…
I’m glad I took my time for BA, and volunteered for so much, participated in many happy excursions and took only the courses I wanted to. I won’t be able to live that happy, sorrow-free student life anymore, ever. That makes me very sad. How can other students rush through BA? MA courses are boring and dull, and you won’t be able to participate in excursions anymore. PhD time might be different again, hopefully…