[pinksugar]

Well as some of you may know, based on my results that come out tomorrow, I may be accepted to do a Masters degree in Museum Studies. (Pass = accepted, fail=wait another 6 months)

The lecturers seem to expect me to have a fairly good idea of:

A. Where I want to go
and
B. What I want to study for my thesis/dissertation thingie ma jing.

There are quite a few places I would LOVE to go, and I've applied where appropriate - like UNESCO world heritage centre, and a few museums I particularly like. I have dual Aust-British citizenship so if I was to do my internship in England, I would also be able to work part time which of course is better than having to save up enough to take 4 months off work within the next 6 months)

The problem is this: I'd like to go somewhere in Europe, like a heritage listed house, or a heritage/conservation center, but there isn't a huge list anywhere so I'm kind of short on ideas. Sooo... yeah. Any suggestions? I only speak english so I suppose somewhere that had a strong english tourist trade or was english speaking would be best...

As for the thesis, I have no idea. I can't think of anything interesting to study! eek!

Help!

[pinksugar]

haha, as Aprill would say, Bump Help?

[Arielle123]

First of all I hope that you get accepted! That's rough that you have to know all that before even entering a program. I actually looked into grad school in australia and that was one thing that turned me off. It doesn't generally work that way here (though I can't speak for all disciplines but it doesn't seem to in the sciences).

I didn't know what I wanted to do my thesis on until after I joined my lab and had been working for. It's such a big and hard decision.

I honestly don't have much advice for you (sorry) mainly because I know nothing about museum studies If you want to go to europe go for it definitely. This is the time to go for those dreams. Even if the choices are limitied that's not necessarily a bad thing. All I can say is pick something to tell them that you think you'd like to study and you can definitely change it later on. Nothing's set in stone.

I just wanted to let you know that I feel your pain. All this grad school stuff is sooooooooo hard

[pinksugar]

lol thanks A.

ufh this whole thing is so hard. Do you reckon that I should only look at English speaking countries? or should I take the opportunity to go somewhere I really want to go, like Greece, Italy or France?

[Arielle123]

It is really hard

I can only speak from my experience. I know that the sciences are done mostly in english. So people publish in english mostly and even give a lot of talks in english. So I probably could've gone to a non-english speaking country. But it still would've been hard because everything else would've been in a language I don't speak.

I think it'd be hard to go somewhere you don't know the language though. School is hard and stressful enough without adding that. It's one thing to learn the language emersion style, but it's a whole different ballgame trying to learn it while trying to get a degree.

I know that students coming here for grad school have to be very fluent in English. I'm not sure what other country's standards are.

You could come over here, we have lots of foreign students

[Karren_Hutton]

I love museums!! I have a question, Rosie... is muesum studies the study of museums and their operation?

[pinksugar]

lol. It is indeed! it's stuff like - conservation, heritage, preservation, but also, things like layout and flow, emergency policies, WHAT should be displayed, cultural sensitivity, prevention of looting in war-torn countries.

Basically, what makes a good museum good? what are the issues facing museums today? (like, are they all old and dusty and full of boring old stuff? can they be young, innovative and interesting as WELL as educate? and if so, how can we do that?)

Yup. Don't get me started. I'll talk your ear off

[Carolyn]

My understanding is that most students learn english as well as their native tongue, in the European countries.
I am so envious of your opportunities - Europe is rich in history and culture. It would be wonderful to work at many of the museums there although I would apply to the one's in Ireland.
Do you have a listing of all the museum's in Europe or do you have apply to the various cities and they will forward on you resume?

[Aprill]

Originally Posted by pinksugar

haha, as Aprill would say, Bump Help?

ahahaha, I cant help ya right now,but good luck!!!

[pinksugar]

It seems that you apply directly to the organisation you're interested in working at. It's a bit of a drama though, since there are SO MANY, and it's difficult to find somewhere that will have things for me to do.

(like, if the museum never changes it's displays at all, then wth would I do there? dust?)

[magosienne]

hmm. although i'm far from a museum fan, i know Paris has a few of them, lol. le Louvre, le museum d'histoire naturelle, le musée d'Orsay for those i remember now.

i second Carolyn's post, here we learn english as well as our native tongue. i think i speak for Europ when i say you're expected to speak french, not of course fluently, but enough to find your way around, if you catch my meaning. in Parisian universities there are people coming from everywhere in the country, as well as international students, so we have no problem speaking english if we're not understood in french.

[CinnamonKitten]

pinksugar - I'm going to be of no help with suggestions, but I just wanted to say that museum studies sounds soooo interesting. Unfortunately, it wasn't something I even knew existed when I was in school so I ended up in majoring in something that I had no interest in whatsoever (economics). But I would have loved to work in a museum!!!