The Pedanticist

As a general rule it's tough to get great funding for an MA at a top rated Ph.D granting institution. The other problem is that many faculty at these types of places will be focusing their time on their Ph.D advisees. I'm not saying that you can't get funding and good advising at a top comm ph.d program, I'm just saying that you ought to think about going to a standalone MA program as well.

As I mentioned to Swans in a message, personal info is fine so long as it really does apply to your interests or values. It's really all about fit.

Hello, Applicants! I hope that the application season is starting well for you. Last year I went through the same process and ended up at USC Annenberg. If you have any questions about the USC Anennberg program or South LA then feel free to shoot me a message.

I've decided to officially accept my offer from USC!

I disagree. Ranking should play a significant role in your decision making process in those cases where you are choosing between schools that are ranked significantly different. For example, I wouldn't recommend going to a school that is traditionally ranked in the last couple of schools ( i.e. you should not go to south central louisiana tech) if you have an acceptance from another school that is ranked higher. The exception might be if the school is "known" for a certain sub-area that you're super interested in (i.e. you know you will be doing that sub-area.) However, most people change their interests during graduate school, so even in that case it seems problematic. The reality is that prestige does matter to a lot of potential employers. In some disciplines more than 50% of the tenure track jobs go to graduate of only 5 schools.

What are you going into?

Honestly, it's pretty difficult to know what schools mean when they talk about "being at the top" of a waitlist. If you have an acceptance elsewhere at a decently ranked program then you might use it as leverage to ask exactly where you are on the waitlist, especially if it gets into April and you haven't heard anything. I hope that it all works out for you!

Nice! Congrats! Funding?

Were you at the recruitment weekend in Feb?

Yeah, if I accept my offer at USC then I'll likely just bring my motorcycle. A car doesn't seem terribly necessary.

The most important question to ask (which is also the most difficult) is what are the politics in the department? Make sure and also ask what the direction of the department is. Also ask about recent placement records.

I work in the rhetoric and philosophy of science and have interests that spill over into this area. I applied to mostly comm studies programs and will work on the area through comm.

Congrats!

Congrats!