Jump to content

flip-a

Members
  • Posts

    17
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by flip-a

  1. Speaking of interviews - does anyone know which schools typically do interviews before admission?

    I've heard that Northwestern does it (Irvine too apparently), and that USC doesn't.

     

    Would love to know about the other programs!

     

    How do you guys feel about the interviews? And, to the people who already had some - how did they go?

     

    Personally I'm not too fond of the idea... (on account of shyness) but I am of course as eager as anyone to get one.

  2. Right on, congratulations on the good news!

    & please keep on posting for everyone's sake :)

     

    Programs I'm waiting to hear from:

    Brown

    UCSB

    UT Austin

    Northwestern

    IU Bloomington

     

    Good luck everyone!

  3. Hello everyone,

     

    I'd really be thankful if someone could give me an insight on living in Bloomington.

    I am an international prospective student who is applying to 5 PhD programs this Fall, and one of my preferences is in Bloomington.

     

    However, I have met several Americans recently who strongly discouraged me to go there. They say the university is great, but the city is not really a city but a village, and it can get depressing fast. This makes me a little uneasy. I'm not very fond of the idea of moving to someplace potentially depressing for 4-6 years. :-/

     

    Can anyone give me feedback on this & on their experience in Bloomington (especially in a PhD program)?

    Thank you

  4. Hey Swagato, thank you a lot (I mean it) for the info. That's really the kind of information we are needing at the moment for decision making.

    Especially regarding Berkeley's program, which I was more/less about to dismiss (although I did send an inquiry e-mail to confirm the facts).

     

    I understand that fit is highly important. I've corresponded via e-mail with faculty from some of these Departments, and some professors have given me positive feedback regarding my interests/fit or showed interest in working together. That looks like a good sign. However, they haven't seen my full application materials, so I still need to be extra careful in finding that perfect fit.

     

    Any more sound advice you might have gathered from year 1 to 2? (Oh, and congratulations on attending a great program)

  5. Thanks for the thorough explanation, that really helps to get a grasp of how it works. Now that I continued my search I found out examples of what you just posted.

     

    I actually *did* find a humanities lab, which works more less in the terms you described in terms of funding - only it is an inter-university initiative, and therefore works differently regarding admission and administration.

     

    Other than that, there were really no labs in the programs I looked at. So it is not necessary to contact professors before applying. However, I did contact a few about whose work I was particularly interested (as was suggested by the Fulbright people) and in the end I think it was a good thing - I found out some valuable info from the replies (regarding funding, how close the program might be to my interests, whose professors are accepting students in the years to come, and so forth). With rare exceptions, professors were quite receptive and actually gave valuable, lengthy feedback.

     

    It might not do anything for the admissions (and that's not why I contacted), but it helps in having more elements to elect a final submission plan - so it's already helping, in my case, regardless of the outcome. 

  6. That's cool!

     

    Actually after recently contacting faculty at several programs, my list came to resemble yours a bit more:

     

    I'm also considering Berkeley (besides the program itself I'm interested in the Critical Theory designated emphasis), and USC's Critical Studies.

    I've been told that Berkeley had major budget cuts and fellowships for doctoral students are now rare, though, and even more so for international students (unfortunately, I'll have to take that into consideration before applying).

     

    Harvard's Media Anthropology program looks outstanding - and so does the Film and Visual Studies program + electing a secondary field in Critical Media Practice.

     

    As you were in Chicago, did you have any contact with Northwestern?

  7. Hello, I have a somehow urgent question:

     

    About "faculty accepting students" - this only happens in science departments, or in the humanities too? In Portugal, one should contact specific faculty for tutoring perspectives before applying.

    But I have contacted some professors asking whether they are currently accepting students, and they answered that the program does, not specific faculty.

     

    If some can please clarify how it works, i'd be grateful.

    Thank you

  8. Planning is definitely vital, but overplanning (planning, as AboveTheRim said in the above post, naps, and other little things) seems to be counterproductive in my particular case. At the times when I did it, my planning became so abstruse that it started confusing me instead of helping. But then again, it really depends on the person!

     

    Other than that I also go for the "big rocks/little rocks" setup.

    Having a weekly planner where I can visualize tasks helps not to loose track of the things to do. I try to just write down the really important things, for the reasons I mentioned above. When I start annotating "Call friend x", "Buy fruit y" and so forth it just confuses me visually to look at so many unaccomplished tasks and it increases my anxiety.

     

    One thing that is useful is to set goals for your study/work instead of periods of time which you plan on spending doing something ("studying for 2 hours" may be crammed with distractions and then those 2 hours aren't productive; but if you set yourself to "study chapter 1" then you'll accomplish it regardless of the time it takes).

     

    Also making time for resting is paramount!

  9. This post started by being a typical "what are my chances" post but I decided to change it for something a little more interesting and helpful.

    I would instead urge other international applicants like myself to post useful questions that they have concerning grad school applications - especially questions that aren't very clear to someone who does not live in the US.

     

    I'll start by posting my own:

     

    - Do international students have to pay out-of-state tuition or can they register as residents?

    - 12 credit hours = 1 semester, right? (it seems like so, but the credit system isn't so transparent to those not acquainted).

    - Are professors usually away during July, and are they back in office in early August? (I ask that because I would like to contact some faculty but I've heard that now is typical summer-vacations time..)

    - How difficult is the GRE really?

     

    Thank you!  :)

  10. In keeping with the forum's tradition, I'm starting this year's Media/Film studies own thread. It would be great to share some thoughts, anxieties (and hopefully good news). I've found past threads to be really helpful, with insight on the various programs, which I so much need as an international student.

     

    I'm looking for Media and Culture type PhD programs where I will be able to focus on Visual Culture from a non-Art History perspective.

    I've found some great matches -

    Brown's Modern Culture and Media,

    NYU's Media, Culture and Communication,

    Northwestern's Screen Cultures (if combined with the Critical Theory cluster, for instance),

    Harvard's Film and Visual Studies (though it's too Film Studies-focused and therefore not quite it)

    UC Santa Barbara's Film and Media Studies

     

    I will submit applications to 5 programs, and I'm thinking of going for 2 really competitive ones, 1 "fighting chance" and 2 where I'm likely to be admitted.

    The problem is that I'm not really sure of how competitive some of the programs are. I know that all that I listed are really hard to get into. (Except Santa Barbara, about which I have no idea).

    I'm also looking at UW-Madison, Indiana-Bloomington, UCS, and I've picked up a few more names from the threads to look into.

     

    Anyway, some ideas on other good but less competitive programs in terms of admissions would be greatly appreciated!!

    International students tend to know of the area's more publicized programs and all else is somehow hard to evaluate.

     

    It would also be great if everyone could start by making an introduction and sharing interests/program considerations.

     
     
     
     
  11. Hi everyone,

     

    I recently finished my MA in Multimedia Art in Lisbon, Portugal.

    I am now applying for a Fulbright scholarship, in order to do a PhD program in the US.

    TheGradCafe forums helped immensely in narrowing down interesting programs.

     

    My MA comprised both studio practice and theoretical research presented in the form of a dissertation.

    Mine addressed a semiotic theory of appropriation in artistic practice.

     

    In my MA we did have Media Theory, Critical Theory and Visual Culture courses. However, everything is focused on the somehow limited and self-reflexive questions of "art". I believe I have acquired critical thinking abbility and independence, but lack knowledge of content regarding the areas that interst me (for instance mapping visuality in popular culture, media archeology).

     

    I have come to a crossroad that leads to two areas: Visual Studies and Media/Culture programs (such as MCC at NYU).

    Visual Studies programs offer the possibility of critical media practice, which I find really interesting. Media/Culture programs seem to be strictly textual.

     

    The problem with Visual Studies programs, however, is that they are often also concerned with art in some way (as the otherwise excelent "Film and Visual Studies" offered by Harvard or VS programs offered by Art History departments).

     

    My question is how fit is someone with my studies background for a program like MCC. Given that my interests fit with those of the faculty, and I am interested in filling a content gap in my former education, do you think it could work?

    I've found out that there is one "Creative Media Practice" course at NYU - MCC. This could perhaps bridge the gap between theory and practice.

     

     

    One last question: does anyone know of Media/Culture programs that accept critical media practice as a complement to academic textual research without being Film-studies related?

     

    Look forward to reading your thoughts on this and hope this discussion might be useful to others!

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use