>Other than Oxbridge and Harvard I've never thought of some PhD programs being much more prestigious than others
Wow, Europe must be very, VERY different. Here I was told that a PhD from anything *short* of Harvard tier is basically "reconsider your career choices, m8."
Jesus. What a difference. Sounds much better. Almost all I thought about for two years is "am I going to get into the sufficiently prestigious schools? Did I waste thousands of dollars on applications, and years of my life, for nothing?" Constantly worrying about prestige was torture.
My advisers suggested applying to some European universities mostly for a comedy option if all my other apps were denied. I believe the exact quote is
>You'll never work in academia, but you'll have a nice few well-funded years living in Central Europe!
As for the French/German requirements, I think it's partly the CMS trying to construct its own legend as the most rigorous language-training place ever, partly that NA students are notoriously godawful at being multilingual, and partly that most of the programs are aimed at areas more traditionally dominated by German/French. In any event, the exams are pretty easy.
>Is that what your Master's is for, preparing you for the PhD?
MA's in the states are traditionally just part of the PhD, so it's the first leg of that (ideally) 5-7 year process. But these days, lots of people are getting 1-3 year MA's and then going to PhD. It's getting pretty crazy.
