Best Graduate Programs in East Asian Studies - Updated 2020

What is a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies?

A graduate program in East Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary program that analyzes the languages, literatures, histories, and cultures of China, Korea, and Japan from the premodern to contemporary periods. If you pursue East Asian Studies, you will also gain a deeper understanding about the politics and international relations of these societies. In some East Asian Studies programs, you will be required to learn one of the East Asian languages. East Asian Studies is an important field because it bridges the gap between America and East Asia, which are two extremely different parts of the world in terms of politics, history, and tradition.

With a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies, you are highly qualified for a career as a translator, foreign correspondent, writer, foreign consultant, or international marketing advisor. If you have a bachelor's degree in business or finance, you can also become a financial advisor for Asian markets.

There are 54 schools offering graduate degrees in East Asian Studies. Harvard University had 21 international graduate students in its 54 program, which is one of the highest counts in the country. Harvard University had the most women graduates in this program.

Princeton University

Ranked as: #1 in Best National University
Tuition: $49,450
State: NJ
Acceptance: 5.48%
The East Asian Studies Program and Department offer two certificates for minoring in East Asian Studies. The East Asian Studies Program Certificate is administered by the East Asian Studies Program Coordinator. The East Asian Studies Department Certificate is administered by the Department.

East Asian Studies Program

The program will award certificates, but no Princeton credit will be given. The Shanghai Peking Opera Company is a government-sponsored cultural enterprise established in 1955, with Peking Opera master Xinfang ZHOU as the first principal.

Harvard University

Ranked as: #2 in Best National University
Tuition: $46,384
State: MA
Acceptance: 4.73%
In addition to the PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the department also administers the PhD in History and East Asian Languages The HEAL program has long been one of the premier doctoral training programs in East Asian history in the United States. The justification offered then was that the student of East Asian history must know well the main languages for scholarship in East Asia and that therefore a PhD in the field required special consideration for the extra time needed for preparation, research, and writing.

PhD in History and East Asian Languages

By offering representation and advocacy for different voices within the graduate student body, the committee presents the department with the opinions of graduate students on issues that directly affect their academic and professional interests and well-being.

Yale University

Ranked as: #3 in Best National University
Tuition: $42,100
State: CT
Acceptance: 6.35%

East Asian Studies M.A.

Candidates for the Ph.D. degree must take a qualifying oral examination no later than the end of the sixth term. The exam will cover three fields distinguished by period and or genre in one or East Asian national literatures or in other fields closely related to the student’s developing specialization.

University of Chicago

Ranked as: #4 in Best National University
Tuition: $57,759
State: IL
Acceptance: 7.26%
The department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations offers both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, though the M.A. degree is usually viewed as preparatory to doctoral studies. In other words, graduate education is primarily geared toward the Ph.D. degree and the department does not have an independent Masters degree program.

East Asian Languages and Civilizations

A sample of current scholarly writing in English, related to their proposed area of study in East Asian Languages Civilizations. All applicants for whom English is not a primary language may be required to submit current scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language or the International English Language Testing System

Columbia University in the City of New York

Ranked as: #4 in Best National University
Tuition: $46,216
State: NY
Acceptance: 5.91%
An array of East Asian courses in other areas such as political science, sociology, anthropology, art, law, history, and business is also available, as are interdisciplinary programs with the departments of Religion and History and the Interdepartmental Committee in Comparative Literature and Society.

East Asian Languages and Cultures PhD

Duke University

Ranked as: #8 in Best National University
Tuition: $53,540
State: NC
Acceptance: 8.91%
Students with a special interest in the Russian and East European legal systems now have the opportunity to receive a Graduate Certificate in Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies: Specialization in Legal Studies.

Certificate in Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies

The university department explores East Asian, South Asian and Middle Eastern cultures—primarily Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean—through the lens of language and literature social movements, nationalism and diaspora popular culture and the media gender, visuality and feminism film theory, cinema and aesthetics and the implications of religion on identity and globalization.

University of Pennsylvania

Ranked as: #8 in Best National University
Tuition: $34,882
State: PA
Acceptance: 8.41%
The cross-disciplinary Ph.D. program in East Asian Languages and Civilizations is designed to train graduate students who can teach and conduct independent research in a variety of humanistic disciplines using Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Mongolian, or occasionally other languages of East Asia.

East Asian Languages and Civilizations, PhD

Preparing students for careers in academia and industry in East Asia for over 150 years. On May 21, 2019, Professor Christopher Atwood, Graduate Chair in EALC, received an honorary doctorate from National Mongolia University.

University of California-Los Angeles

Ranked as: #23 in Best National University
Tuition: $26,544
State: CA
Acceptance: 14.04%
The M.A. degree in East Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary program intended to enable students to develop a broad understanding of an individual East Asian culture or to engage in comparative study of two or East Asian cultures. Students pursuing the East Asian Studies M.A. are normally expected to concentrate on one particular country by choosing a variety of courses in various departments. These may include those covering other areas of Asia, those partially covering East Asia, Asian-American Studies, as well as relevant methodology and theory courses.

UCLA East Asian Studies M.A.

University of Virginia-Main Campus

Ranked as: #23 in Best National University
Tuition: $26,830
State: VA
Acceptance: 26.43%
The Master of Arts in East Asian Studies at the University of Virginia is an interdisciplinary program intended for students who want in-depth exposure to East Asia at the graduate level while also gaining competence in an East Asian language. The program is designed for students who seek a rich knowledge of East Asia as preparation for careers in business, government service, and media, or as preparation for entering professional schools or doctoral programs. We encourage students who have begun college-level study in Chinese or Japanese to apply. In addition, we offer language training in Korean and Tibetan.

Master of Arts in East Asian Studies

University of Southern California

Ranked as: #25 in Best National University
Tuition: $44,712
State: CA
Acceptance: 12.96%
By allowing a greater degree of flexibility, the university interdisciplinary approach enhances students' research skills and enables them to become well-rounded scholars.

East Asian Languages and Cultures Ph.D

The East Asian Area Studies Master of Arts is an interdisciplinary program designed to provide advanced academic background on East Asia. In order to pursue a joint MBA MA degree, students can for the MA in East Asian Area Studies during their first year of study in the MBA program.

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