Dith Vader

In my culture (Chinese? Indonesian? Asian? IDK), my parents have repeatedly told me never to use red ink for writing to someone with more power than you have. So, like, a teacher can grade your scores with red ink to assert his/her authority. But a student can't sign his/her letters to teachers with red ink as that would rude. But I doubt it matters in the US.

I'll be moving there from Indonesia, but I've been wondering whether I should secure my housing before I arrive or stay in a hotel for a few weeks while hunting down an available apartment downtown. Which is a better idea?

I think the general guideline is 10% leeway. So with 500 words, you can have between 450-550, so you're okay!

Let me know when you've finalized your decision! It'd be great to know someone on campus before I even arrive

I think I know what you mean. I thought that I wouldn't get accepted anywhere but now I have several admits and I keep thinking that it must have been some logistical error... I'm scared that they'll find me out once I get there! ):

There's a big chance I'm going to CUNY for journalism this Fall 2010

Wow... I'm amazed and touched by how many people replied and offered words of encouragement to me. Thanks you guys, it does give me some assurance to have you give me your take on the matter. I also feel more confident about pursuing grad school after reading this thread Your question truly brings home the whole stupidity of dividing people by race... I don't know the answer to that, I haven't quite asked them. But the way I see it, I think they'll be okay with Chinese from Malaysia, Singapore, and first generation Chinese-Indonesians who live elsewhere. Simply because our customs would still be very very similar. But Chinese from China, Hong Kong, Philippines, or anywhere else are too different. Second or third generation Chinese, or any other race, from the U.S. are basically American. I actually think that most of their discrimination is for the sake of maintaining a good family name, which I must stress is VERY important. But yeah, even if they might be tolerant, other people might not be, and that matters too. But you know, my generation isn't so uptight about that, so my parents might be worrying too much about how other people (read: my social peers) might see me. Wow, thanks for that!! I was actually thinking of this other group, PERMIAS, which is a group for Indonesians. But IAC sounds good It's a toss-up between a dorm (if I get into NYU) or an international house for me too!

LOL! My parents have been telling me to write a book instead of going to grad school and I have to keep telling them that I don't have a decent book in me yet! Wealth-poverty dynamics sound very interesting. As for me, I lean more to the cultural side of journalism, but not culture in the sense of arts only. What interests me most is finding connecting threads between events that might at first seem discrete, as in finding the bigger picture to what's happening in the world. Like trying to figure out the spirit of the time, the Zeitgeist --though that word has several conflicting meanings imo. Most of the guys I've met usually stare blankly as I try to explain this. Journalists are pretty rare. None of my personal friends are journalists though some of them own various media stuff. I do know quite a few, but I know them professionally. They're not newspaper journalists though, they're writers for lifestyle magazines (the stereotype goes that they're pretty and trying to snatch some rich guy by covering social events and interviewing them, but I do know some who aren't like that at all), and as such their job is more glamorous than what we're pursuing. People stare at me weirdly when I tell them I want to be a journalist, it's almost the same as telling them you want to sweep floors for a career... journalists don't get much respect here, you see, mostly because too many of them are pets and not watch dogs. Sadly, we're known to lick boots, not pursue truth. I'm excited about going to NY, honestly. Even aside from getting a grad degree, it'd be a great experience. I'm still deciding too, and waiting for one more decision. Either way, I hope to see your name printed in some excellent publication in the future

Thank you. The greatest fear for me at this point in life is making decisions that will affect my entire life trajectory (or so it seems to me), and it's so much easier when I was younger and more reliant on other people choosing for me. But it is time, I should finally take the reins from them --it's just an awfully scary move! It would surely hurt my parents to hear this, and so I would never say it to them, but it does sometimes feel like I'm a possession... You know, like they care so much about the outside, like looks, grades, etc., but so little about what I feel and what I want. I hope that they'll realize soon enough that I'm a person too, with my own wants, and hopefully it wouldn't hurt them too much once they learn that.

LOL! So even if I do end up an old unmarried journalist, I could be a bestselling old unmarried journalist with a self-help book in my portfolio! Thank you for the encouragement! I assume you're also doing journalism? (I stalked your profile and website, friend ) Have you decided what school you'll be attending?

I'd say 50% of the guys I've met are intimidated, while the rest didn't show it but might also feel the same way. And... as backward and racist as this sounds, having a relationship with a non-Chinese Indonesian (heck, I can't even marry a native Indonesian) will be bad for me, my parents, and the guy. I might get disowned/shunned, my parents will cry their eyes out, and the guy will be despised by my extended family and also family friends. I don't know if this is the exact scenario that will play out, but it's highly likely --more likely, at least, than my family accepting him. I'm not exaggerating. That's my dream! I really hope I can juggle both. You've asked me some very wise questions. I think I do need to consider what I want exactly, not in terms of what role I want but what I want from it, like you said. In regard to being a housewife, I think I want security, relationship-wise and also financially. I also want to have children, to teach and be taught by, and to leave as my heritage. As for being a journalist, as cheesy as this sounds, I know a lot of dark corners in Indonesia that I want to shed light on. I want to call a spade a spade, to uncover the hypocrites that have so far hidden under the shield of money and power while throwing scraps at their toy dogs, their pet journalists --again, however, doing this sort of work might endanger my family. Indonesian law can't protect me the way U.S. law might protect their journalists, it's still very much swayed by money. Good to know you understand, too. I'd hate to be married to someone who treats me like an idiot just because I'm a woman. What about you though? How have/will you juggle your career aspirations and your family's wishes for you?

This is just something I'd like to share and perhaps discuss, because I want to know if there are other people out there like me. So I'm a 21-year-old female Chinese-Indonesian (as in Peranakan, Indonesian with Chinese lineage, not dual nationality) who has applied and been accepted to various graduate schools in the U.S. for this coming Fall 2010 for journalism. My family's pretty well-off in Indonesia, so there's a set way of conducting things... For example, my usual weekend is spent being introduced to other 'respectable' families, especially those with sons of 'ripe age', and/or going on blind dates set by my parents and his parents. Because I'm already over 20, you see. Note that I don't mind all that, I genuinely think that some of those people I've been introduced to are intelligent and kind. I'm glad to know them. I am also not against semi-arranged marriages, because (say what you will) I believe in compatibility and common goals over love and chemistry. But recently, after hearing about my acceptances, my parents have been urging me to cancel my decision to go to grad school. They have the best intentions, I sincerely believe that, but it boggles my mind that they cited reasons such as "men would be scared of you if you're too smart" and "when you come back, you'll be 22-23 and you'll have shorter time to find a husband" and "stop being so idealistic and selfish and try harder to settle down". I am worried. I do want to marry and settle down and rule over a big house like a proper taitai (Chinese madam) with my plump and beautifully-dressed children going to prestigious and expensive schools. It's a very appealing image. And the road I'm choosing, going to graduate school, taking journalism, doesn't fit with that image. On the other hand, I think I'll be awfully unhappy if I were to be confined to the role of housewife only. I don't do polite conversations, I invite debate. I don't cover up family scandals, I want to uncover them and show people the way things really are. I'm horrible at sucking up and better at being painfully frank. And I think I'm going to be one terrible and bored housewife. But I'm scared of turning into a cynical old unmarried journalist either

Whoops forgot my GRE! Program Applied To: MA/MS Schools Applied To: Columbia, Medill, NYU CRC, CUNY, Carnegie Mellon Schools Admitted To: Medill, CUNY, Carnegie Mellon Schools Rejected From: Columbia Still Waiting: NYU CRC Undergraduate Institution: University of Melbourne Undergraduate GPA: I don't really know... but I got first- and second-class honours (H2-H1) mostly Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): Undergraduate Major: English Literature and Psychology GRE Quantitative Score (Percentile): 750 (83%) GRE Verbal Score (Percentile): 700 (97%) GRE AW Score: 5.5 (92%) Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): ~6 months Years of Work Experience: Very few, maybe just a few months Describe Relevant Work Experience: intern at two magazines, now working full time as staff writer Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): Very strong. I wrote about my personal experiences that led me to adjust my course to journalism and what I plan to do with what I study (long story short, improve media in Indonesia). Strength of LORs (be honest, describe the process, etc): Not very, I'd think. Two academic and one personal, the personal one is strong because he knows how I work, but the other two are professors who hardly knew me aside from essay consultations. Other: I have really good writing samples, imho.

For the record, I applied to five schools: Carnegie Mellon, NYU, CUNY, Columbia, and Medill. Got into Carnegie Mellon, CUNY, and Medill. Rejected from Columbia, and still waiting from NYU. I applied to NYU's CRC journalism program (regrettably, because I love all the other programs too but I just had to choose the most selective one :/), and that's my FIRST FIRST FIRST choice because it's very unique. Anyone heard anything from them? And, people who got in last year, what were your stats? Just so I can compare it to mine and stop sweating over it if it's impossible anyway D:

Big students loans are a bad idea, especially if you do journalism which will not pay back as much as, say, law or medicine. That said, NYU does carry more name recognition than CUNY, although both will give you equal opportunities to build your portfolio. Plus, CUNY gets you to intern and pays you for it! All in all, the only thing that stands out from NYU, imo, is the name, and that doesn't count as much as experience does. As a note, I'm going to CUNY

Me too... I'm so worried about it that no food tastes good ): I don't think they would grade the tests on a pass/fail basis since they did say that they review all applications "holistically" --but sometimes that word is used to stop people from asking about the admission process, so who knows? What I'm doing now is basically reading up on U.S. and world history and memorizing people's names. I've heard it said that as long as you're a news junkie, you shouldn't have any problem.

I'm applying to journalism school, and the programs I chose lean towards being practical instead of theoretical, which is also why I wonder if they actually need the student body to be that culturally diverse. In a sense, however, it's good news for me if universities don't rely on government funding. It means higher fees and more debt for me in the future, but it also means that my chances of getting in isn't limited by funding --imagine, if the universities receive funding for, say, 10 international students per year, then I have to be within that top ten, but if not then the limit isn't set in stone. ORmalv sounds right though, I know so many people from my country who are doing Engineering/Science-related graduate studies in the US right now. Right now I'm not so worried about the amount of money I have to pay for graduate studies (I'll worry about that after I get an offer...), I'm just concerned about whether being an international applicant will make it more difficult for me to get accepted or if they'll judge me the same as they do local students. I really hope it's the latter ):

So, apparently, being an international applicant may work against me because funding is more difficult to come by (?) or the school gets more funding for local students or there's limited funding for foreign students. I've also heard that enrolling more international student costs more because of all the facilities and extra help that they might require. Is there any other disadvantages to being foreign that anyone can think of? Is there a difference between private and public universities in this case? What about Master's as opposed to funded PhD? On the plus side, international students add more cultural diversity to the campus --but economically speaking, I don't think it gives anything to the university except for more international applicants? I'm unclear about this. I know it's seen as favorable to have a culturally diverse student body, but what sort of advantage is it, really? Unless the program is something akin to history, sociology or anthropology, I can't see why having international students would be worth the trouble (I'm an international applicant here so I'm playing the devil's advocate). However, I went to Australia for my undergrad and they have a different system there. Local students study with funding from the government whereas international students pay the full fee, which is almost twice the amount that locals pay. Since funding from the government tends to take a long time to trickle down, universities there actually like admitting international students. What's the system like in the U.S.? What's the funding like for international students --or is there any at all from the government? What are the real costs and advantages for universities admitting foreign students? I've been browsing the forums to find a similar topic, but I haven't found any conclusive info on it. If anyone's on the admission board of any uni, your input will be much appreciated --not that I'm not interested in hearing what everyone has to say about it! Thanks in advance!!

I'd love to hear from everyone else who applied to J-School for Fall 2010! (If only to know that all the other applicants are very strong and I have no chance in hell...) I'm applying to five schools, with program, reputation and location respectively as the factors I took in my decision. They are: Columbia Uni's MS program, NYU's CRC, Medill's MS program, Carnegie Mellon's professional writing and CUNY's MS program. Anyone else applying to the same schools? I'm sure there are lots applying to Columbia and Medill at least. I'm so dreading the writing tests...

After reading about across-the-board rejections recently, I'm trying not to imagine what I'll do if (IF!!!) I get accepted since I only applied to 5 schools. Could be my worst mistake ever sigh. But if I don't get in anywhere, here are the people I'd tell first --after having a good cry by myself: 1. My parents 2. My sisters 3. My two best friends (to whom I'll weep and marathon chic flicks and eat ice cream from the tub a la breakup therapy) 4. My LoRs And I'd answer to whoever else asks about it but I'd never go out of my way to tell them. I think the list for good news would preeetty much be the same. I like keeping good news to people close to me, too.

LOL Joe29, that's exactly what I thought too! My GPA is okay-ish all through my undergraduate years, but then my GRE is pretty good because I suddenly found the motivation to actually study again pffft. Suffice to say I didn't really like studying at my undergrad uni. Iiiii think my writing samples are alright, but I don't have the confidence to say that they're REALLY GOOD. Or maybe they're simply... you know, not really good. Yeah, right now I think that more than anything they'll reject me because of my lack of experience (I'm applying to journalism schools) since I've only recently discovered that this is what I want to do. Most people seem to have decided to be journalists since they're in high school!