trizzleYO

Yes yes, my flight time is horrendous, but I shal be there. I'm pretty darn excited for it.

Yo Nate, how big are you, bro ?

There are some threads that discuss lower GPA admit stories on some other sub-forums. I believe if there are guidelines they generally pertain to the Graduate College of the given university and if the dept wants you those can generally be skirted around. Personally, I have a mich worse UG GPA, and it doesn't seem to have prevented me from making it to comittees / consideration stages. Best of luck !

Man, I have an awful undergraduate past, including many F's / 0s from multiple unis. I have a 4.0 in my MA studies (Regional public uni), but I don't think that's very impressive. I would suggest to anyone taking the GRE to seriously study for it, as I've been informed that many programs will use it to at least cut through the mess of apps. Mine was good enough to get to the table (which I think is the goal for a bad GPA student - Though I regret only taking a week to study for it as I think an otherwordly score that was probably within my reach would likely have sealed many of the deals), and I've received a good (and surprising) deal of interest from programs (I applied to the top programs). No official accepptances yet, but 4 interviews and one scheduled visit, and still to hear back from a bevy of programs. Also, I would suggest addressing the bad marks in the SOP. I put aside a paragraph for that (at the advice of a program's grad director and one of my advisors), and it certainly doesn't seem like it has hurt my chances. Best of luck, fellow misfits ! Don't hang your head, you may be surprised at how appealing you still are !

Congrats ! A really good friend of mine goes there and she's both an awesome person and quite happy !

I don't know, I kind of hate these kids too. Granted, they're just kids and kids will be kids so w.e., but we have so much that I find it irritating when people complain about not getting what they want. Obviously, there are two sides to that coin, and I believe in fair practices, but this is not the labor market, and I know a lot of people like this and they're generally very judgemental, spiteful people. We can also gripe about generalizations, and yes, everyone deserves a voice, but sadly they're useful to your brain - there just isn't enough time or room in the day to accommodate the possibilities of every single person. We can do our best, and as a minority, a college dropout, community college come-backer, I try to give eveyrone the opportunity to be themselves, but I'm not going to spend the brain power to go out of my way to defend entitled kids.

"I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal."

A.k.a. The best childhood food.

I share this sentiment, and in addition, I must have matching socks for no good reason at all. Also, I almost never wash my pants because the risk of ruin is absurdly high for Jeans. And I would strongly recommend against the repeated wearing of UGGs without socks. I once dated a lady who did that. It was... not pleasant.

I have noticed a disturbing trend in fortune cookies. Oftentimes, I receive not fortunes, but wisdom. As an avid purchaser of chinese food I find this to be both distressing and unsatisfying. I wonder, has anyone else noticed this? P.S. Relevant good and relevant short film -

1.) This thread is amazing 2.) I think this thread doubles as a "How to avoid getting married while in grad school" forum 3.) Amazing

Congrats to everyone who has heard news. I'm a tad envious of the lot who got USC invites... I also got an invite to the PSU Communications (I believe there are two Com depts/colleges so that may be a cause of confusion) - Open House, looking forward to it. In addition, within the same hour as that news I received word of a phone intereview at Cornell with a POI. Needless to say it's going to be a nerve-wracking weekend / week / month / season.

This is the longest winter break in the history of winter breaks. That is all. Just kidding, hopefully everyone had / is having a fantastic break / holiday .

Congrats ! Sounds like you've had a very good cycle thus far

Heh, i think the losing sleep part is in the coming months...

Man, I would seriously reconsider applying for any MA graduate work that is not funded. Your point about New York is funny. While true, you should get something out of it if you're paying for it, that's not exactly a fiscally wise mindset (why go 10k in debt - WHEN I CAN GO 50k?!). I think research into funded MA programs would be a good idea, as would trying to forge some academic LoR relationships.

Hah, you seem a bit biased against quantitative methodology. Hearing about your MA work, this isn't that surprising. But know, many, many, many researchers use quantitative methods for more than market research / advertising. Personally, I find experimental data to be of great importance - especially non-self report data. Which is not to say I do not value other data or philosophical approaches, just that I find experiments to be a great way to explore specific phenomenon.

deadline day !

We seem to be slacking. I know I am. How's everyone doing in their process?

Absolutely! With a great GPA, good scores, and I assume some LoR from some of the top scholars in the field (Annenberg), you will be a great candidate. In all honesty, you're way ahead of the game. I just winged my way into a MA program (didn't take GRE) that has sent students off to very good PhD programs, and I hope to be the one to get to the top tier. The Communication track isn't known for it's GRE scores on the quant side, but I believe the more qual programs like some you mentioned generally have pretty high marks. Without question though you can be in a program, but the decision may be whether you want to side-step into an MA program first and probably have a better chance at a top tier program for your PhD, or just discover fi you actually like it. And to the person above, I was probably a bit misconstrued and never meant to imply guessing for what committees are looking. If anything, I am vehemently opposed to that type of consequentialist behavior. That is one major distaste I have unfortunately come across in my experience with academia. So in a two-fold matter, I would like to aim for fit as well as one's own true passion. Anyway, as an MA student, I'm always bored. Anyone on here who ever would like to chat just PM me. I like to make pals.

Greetings ! I'm going to be a Fall 2013 as well, though I will have an MA. As for suggested schools, studying New Media can be done as more of a cultural/film studies in which most of the programs you have listed partake, or a more quantitative approach, such as USC Annenberg, Stanford, Michigan State; WVU, UKentucky, UC SB. Luckily, most programs in this field offer funding for their graduate students via assistantships / fellowships, so you should be ok there. For the schools you have listed, however, I would speculate that you need higher GRE scores. Though they probably are not as important to the qualitative programs, I would imagine the mean/median verbal scores are in the 160s for the incoming classes. If you are relatively set on pursuing the PhD, a funded MA may be your best bet for this cycle. Whatever route you choose, make sure you know the scholars at the University with whom you would be working. PhD programs will be about fit, not that you're supposed to know everything now, but people against whom you are competing (say me, for example) have graduate degrees, publications, conference presentations, and in general, a defined interest of study.