Hi Daniel,
I would also recommend John Hopkins as an excellent online program. I took a couple of courses there before entering into an on site program at IUPUI which is where I finished my MA degree. But my experience with JHU was great so I wouldn't count the school's "for profit" tendencies against them. My understanding is that the online programs operate under their Advanced Professional Programs division which targets a particular demographic (working professionals) and probably accounts for this type of marketing strategy. I, myself, am leery of for profit schools so I understand your hesitancy.
As for library programs, there are many schools that have online programs. My MLIS is from San Jose State University which I would highly recommend, but I'm currently a doctoral student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which is known to have the stop library program in the country, so that would be my other recommendation. Again, there are a lot of online programs available, and it might even be less expensive to enroll in a school located in your home state.
Additionally, since you specifically want to be an archivist, you might even consider Clayton State University's Archival Studies program or San Jose State's Archival and Records Administration program which are both completely online and are focused on archives rather than museums or libraries.
Lastly, I think there are pros and cons to both online and onsite programs, and each are beneficial depending on your individual needs. But if you do choose online learning and you're not already a museum employee, then you'll want to make extra effort to make connections with museum professionals in your area and to secure ongoing relevant work experience (i.e. internships, etc.) at area institutions.
Hope that's helpful!
Jamillah
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Jamillah R. Gabriel, MLIS, MA
PhD Student | Graduate Research Assistant
School of Information Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
jrg3@illinois.edu------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 07-09-2018 05:06 PM
From: Elizabeth Bazan
Subject: Best Museum Studies Graduate program (Online)
I graduated from the University of Leicester's program in 2013. I really enjoyed it and found that tuition was much cheaper than US schools and books were included. At the time there was no requirement to travel to campus, but there was a yearly summer school for the distance learning program folks. I attended one year, and really enjoyed the week. I believe all of that is still in place. I really enjoyed getting an international perspective as part of my degree. I completed the Education/Visitor Studies degree rather than the general Museum Studies degree, but I found the department in general was great and very responsive and encouraging. If you go the Museum Studies route rather than Library Sciences, I recommend checking Leicester out. Good luck!
- Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Bazan
Assistant Curator of Education
Illinois State Museum
Springfield IL
Original Message:
Sent: 07-05-2018 03:34 PM
From: Daniel Williams
Subject: Best Museum Studies Graduate program (Online)
Hello all.
A couple of months ago, I completed my undergraduate program and received a B.A. in History with two minors which were Art History and Graphic Communication from Western Illinois University. During my time in college, I volunteered at the towns local museum where I worked mainly with archives. My career goal is to become an archivist. After some research, a couple of posts on AAM, and even viewing a lot of job descriptions, a Master's degree is mainly required. Right now, I'm pursuing a Museum Studies certificate that I will complete in Summer 2019. I feel like I might as well pursue in a Master's in Museum Studies in Fall 2020 (After I take a couple classes to raise my GPA by a few points), and I prefer the program to be online.
If anyone who received an online graduate (Museum Studies or even Library Science) degree online, what was your school of choice and do you recommend it? Currently, I'm looking into Johns Hopkins University for a Master's in Museum Studies online. This might seem silly to some of you, but I have a little red flag with them calling, leaving me voicemails, and emailing me every two days about the program after I requested some information. This is usually what a "for-profit" school would do. Before Western, I was considering going to Westwood or Art Institutes which are for-profit schools and this is what they did. Kept bugging me. I am positive that Western did not do this type of thing when I was considering them back then.
To me, it seems it is an "I have to do what I have to do" situation. The reality seems that just a Bachelors and a bonus certificate isn't going to cut it for what I want to do for a career. I'm not worried about "you won't make more money with a Masters" or anything like that. I just want to get into my field and career and be happy.
I will look into the Society of American Archivists website which I know it might be the best option for my questions, but I wanted to ask the AAM community as well.
Thanks!
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Daniel Williams
Museum Intern
Macomb IL
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