Anyone want to talk grad schools with a recent Urban Studies UConn grad?

[mdr]

Hello all, I'm a Cyburbia newb but I thought I'd just throw this out here -

I just graduated from UConn's Urban Studies program and I'm feeling out grad school options. I've definitely been most interested in the spatial, geographic classes and my closest adviser (and professor for 2 independent studies) has her background in geography.

I was pondering applying to UConn's Geography department but I've had plenty of discouragement from my adviser and others because things out at Storrs tend to be heavily quantitative and maybe not perfectly geared toward my interests (which are, apparently, more along the lines of cultural geography, place studies, maybe even social theory etc).

The other immediate option would be Southern Connecticut State University. I've been more or less told straight up I'd be completely welcome at Southern but it's a Urban Studies graduate program taught by geography professors, and there's not a possibility of any sort of assistanceship at Southern like there would be at UConn.

I've also been told other schools that could work for me are Clark in Worcester which would be a hell of a commute and out of state tuition or Syracuse but I have pretty good personals reasons for not relocating at the moment. I realize that limits me quite a bit.

My main concerns at this point are the pros and cons of going on in a degree in Geography vs. Urban Studies. My career goals are somewhere in the non-profit sector or government. It's not an dream of mine to teach but I wouldn't rule out going beyond my masters or staying in academia for a while either.

Of course there other option would be to work for a while and not rush into a degree that may not be very useful. I graduated with a 3.6 GPA and I got a 1280 on the GRE, btw.

[jwr108]

If your interests are in cultural geography, place studies, and social theory....check out Clark University and the University of Kentucky. They are two very good PhD programs with faculty who have research interests similar to yours. That is an important factor when investigating graduate programs, of which you picked up on with UConn...you also have the University of Iowa and Michigan State University which are two amazing PhD programs as well.