whitmanifesto

@mintless if don't hear back from the department, which they may not due to the number of emails they receive (though, I don't think that's a good excuse, I didn't apply to program that I routinely didn't get response) see if there is a graduate student Union or association, try to contact them. At Wayne State the union is very active and most of the representatives are from the Comm department (they have a field focus on democratic participation and culture so that's not surprising) but at Purdue they have an association specific to communications. Most of the BigTen have large comm programs and their own association. They usually have a person whose paid per semester to answer questions for graduate students and it could be much easier to understand internal processes. Less anxiety waiting.

@Dan_Xu @Matt Minich I'm sorry to hear that. That is a very competitive program. I hope you hear better news soon.

If you get off the waitlist, the fact you were waitlisted won't effect you anymore. You'll be just the same as everyone else. They wanted you enough to not outright reject you, so just wait to see what happened. You will have the same access to all the research resources, conference funding, classes, and you will get an adviser like everyone else. My partner was waitlisted at NU and he has the same access as everyone else, gets on really well with his adviser, and loves it (he does get shit from prospectives for being waitlisted, but people in the system understand this is mostly about chance and has a LOT of bias). A lot of people I know that are at really good schools, didn't get in until their 2nd or 3rd try.

I applied to the Rhetoric track in Communication Studies. I really hope they send something out tomorrow. Maybe they're on the same day (the visits) since the programs are so close with so much crossover.

I have a friend that recently was forced to leave academia with a Media Studies PhD, and it seems the best chances are for those with technical skills (video editing, audio, etc) but that means you're in the same boat as the MFA people (super competitive). There it would be even more based on you're specific research. I imagine it would be much easier if you were focused on telecom law or on connections between cultural studies and D&R for companies. A lot of the big schools have heavy data focused research to work at places like Google or Yahoo. If you're focused on non-academia, I would make sure you have "hard" skills: stats, computer, engineering, and law. I'm focused on labor organizing as my backup and large advocacy organizations because I don't have the patients for "hard" skills. I have considered law school if I don't get into a program with good funding opportunities.

I calmly read my email n the parking lot just as I got to work. Then texted my partner. It wasn't my top choice (where my partner is) so I've held off my celebration. If I get either of the Chicago schools I will be going out for steak.

I don't know how common it is, but I would imagine you would have to have a one degree in the field or your dissertation would have to be very indepth in ethnography and a committee member that was an athropologist. I've seen many communication people in library science and sociology and English PhDs in communication department. It really depends on the job posting and the requirements in the job posting. It's all so varied.

Most programs you would teach 3-4 courses a semester, including public speaking since its the backbone of most Communications departments (funding is funneled into program through course enrollment and that's a major undergrad requirement). Then rotate between 200-400 level courses, probably shifting between quantitative or qualitative research methods with another few professors and the 300 and 400 level courses that are your research area. Some fields do a lot of consulting type research, my area is more media representations and community focused research. There's also a lot of investigation type research in the media industry (this is what my current adviser does) such as who owns what and how does that effect democratic participation? I know more about Media Studies. The large conferences include ICA, NCA (holds the PhD guides) and local regional Communications Associations (Midwest is CSCA). Internet Researchers Association is big with media people as well, I'm in the steering committee for Union for Democratic Communications conference which is a critical theory focused conference, and then many also attend sociology, anthropology and literature (rhetoric) conference (interdisciplinary is almost standard in our field). I am in a department that is split between PR, Media Studies and Performance theory so some of the graduate students also attend Popular Culture. I do cross-disciplinary work with History and Anthropology (my first field) so I will and have applied to their conferences as well. I do work on environmental justice and media representations, so I attended ASLE. Some big journals are house in the conferences above but also New Media and Society (housed at UIC) is important to the field. H-Net Commons is a very good resource for looking for conferences by subject and location (subject is good for communications since it's such a large field) as is EasyChair. You will mostly likely join conferences to be on the steering and planning committees, edit or review for conferences and journals, and spend a LOT of time in meetings. Plus the service that is required at the university level (teach, research, service mantra). Each department will have a set of conferences their members regularly attend and encourage their students to apply (mine applies to UDC, NCA, CSCA, PC/AC, primarily). You will submit work to conferences in hopes to build onto it and edit it that will lead to a publication, but also to network. Based on your research, you will develop your own list of conference, journals and associations that are best to your specific interests and peer group. Thats one of the most important part of your graduate school experience if you decide to stay in academia. Because there is such variety, it's hard to create a guide for the entire field ( I didn't include any of the major ones for Health or Organizational Communications, and I know nothing about PR and Marketing associations.) Communications is a spin-off social science and humanities field, so the professional life greatly reflects that.

@E-P I spoke to the union rep and she said its probably because I was suggested for one of the fellowships, since all they're applicants are accepted with funding. Her and her partner didn't know about their funding until about the time of the visit. It's just because Wayne State sends out their acceptances much earlier than other departments, probably because they get their first acceptances snatched up by the other Michigan system schools. Downside of not having the name in the title. My assigned adviser is from Purdue as well, so maybe that's why he wanted me, plus my POI was in her first year at the program, so she might not be allowed an advisee until next year. Thats how Purdue works, you have to have a Grad number first. I'm still waiting for NU and UIC. If I'm accepted to both that will be a very hard choice. I like the profs at UIC much more, but my partner is at NU.

I got my first acceptance, even though they're deadline was Jan 15th, they're working much faster than the program I applies to on Dec 1.

I've received my first acceptance: Wayne State University. Funding waitlisted, and their welcome week is Feb 23rd. Ill be attending since I don't live far away. Waitlisted funding is normal there for their first admit list, so I'm not too worried. I wasn't assigned the POI I expected though. Still, a relief.

me too. im constantly in a state of rush trying to finish what my page hopping and being sick has distracted me from. i just want to know something already

I've only applied to 3 schools, two are really Competative and the other isn't well known at all. The anxiety is so bad my immune system had dropped and I've gotten the flu. I wish I'd just hear SOMETHING back soon. I can stand this wait.

@Merina I didnt as well, but Communications doesnt seem to have submitted there's yet. My application isn't rejected tho yet. One person applied to the Comm degree and got a MTS interview, so maybe they just had more applications. They only had about 60 last year so hopefully our emails will come soon!

@surprise_quiche did you learn anything about the acceptance timeline? And JR's advisee numbers, from the grad students I met during my campus visit there is a lot of interest in gender studies in yhr last few cohorts.

When I applied to Indiana University and Purdue main campus, those statuses never changed on the application until April, even tho I found out via email I was waitlisted at both and then reject by both in April. Now, I've applied to Northwestern and even tho I know they've started their process, their system doeant have 'penidng' as an option. Wayne State started 'pending' 5 days before the due date and UIC is just "submitted". Neither rare close to their decisions yet. Each department is different in how they update the apps, and each uni has a slightly different system. I wouldn't worry until you start seeing people submit their results on here.

McChesney. He's really big in the critical analysis of political-economy of the news industry. There are a lot of political researchers tho. Their information/library sciences also have a lot of overlap in comm, esp with copy right and I intellectual property issues. Its a very good school, but I'm really attached to post-industrial areas for my research and if I get into UIC I can still access their archives.

@pinoysoc Purdue is VERY Health Comm, especially Organizational Communications in Health fields. They just ended their Rhetoric track too, and are expanding their Health and Org fields. I'm currently in one of their satellite campuses and work as an aide very high in administration, and I would NOT recommend Purdue system unless you are in LOVE with the work of a specific prof and willing to ignore a lot. They have a very conservative Republican political slant (not the profs, most of them hate the administration, but the campus in general, there have been a lot of cases of hate crimes and they have a very high sexual assault rate at the main campus), and very RP and Business focused. I absolutely hate being at Purdue. My ex used to be a Pharm student at the main campus, and I hated visiting that even more.

@HopefulRhetorician Is it Urbana-Champaign's Communications dept you applied to in Illinois? The school has some of the largest news paper/journalism archives in the country, I was planning on applying there last year until I found out the POI I liked doesn't even live in the state anymore (we're both members of a very small conference, I was very disappointed to learn he doesn't take much advisees anymore).

Also, yesterday I had a long conversation on Twitter with the Graduate Union President at Wayne State (they're also a Comm PhD student) about the process. Lucky for me, the two people I picked for POI, both huge fans of Gramsci (my current advisor is a Gramsci scholar and my writings have plenty of historical materialism/Marxists stuff in it) and are low on advisees right now, so with my activist research I am REALLY likely to get in. Even more! My first pick has ZERO advisees and my research is right up her alley. She also told me, there are faculty and one non-voting graduate union rep on the committee and they met last Friday for the first time and it was very long, so they were def going over the application packets. They are meeting again this week and they are scheduled to send out their first round beginning of Feb. The visit for invites is in March, when funding packets are more complete (fellowships to be decided). This isn't a very "competitive" department, but they have very active faculty with a lot of research published every year.

I had the same problem with Wayne State and it fixed the next day, I didn't even have to call in. If you only just missed the due date, it takes them a few days at the graduate school and the department secretaries to certify the info and put them into packets for the committee. I had to call NU about my name change to have all the info in the same package and they were very helpful.

If you apply without an MA you are admitted to the MA/PhD track at any institution that offers both. The only except is if the program doesn't give an MA and only PHD (uncommon). If you have an MA, they may decide that they will not accept your MA credits in their program and put you in the joint track (MA credits are a requirement of the total credits needed for a PhD in the US). This is most common when you're MA program is not in the same field as the PhD or your MA program is much lower in ranking than the PhD program. As long as they don't say "we're putting you in the MA/PhD track to APPLY to pass into thr PhD program you are ok. Some programs (UofChicago) is notorious for "admitting" people into the MA with no intention of letting them get a PhD.

I applied to the Rhetoric track in the Comm Studies PHD program and the two have a lot of bleed over in their faculty and students. I haven't heard anything but someone else requested an informal interview with a faculty and is having it today (so its not official in anyway). Last week of January deems to have been the first round of acceptance and interviews over the last few years.

Mines intersectioanl, so I'm looking at where immigration, incarceration and environmental racism meets. Contemporary.

I applied to Northwestern Univeristy Rhetoric and Public Culture concentration and Wayne State University's Democracy and Particpatory Culture (which is a rhetoric focus) because my main theory is critical media studies, and though ethnography is my main data collection method (originally trained in anthropology as undergrad) I focus on ideological articulations of justice, democracy and inequality in activist coalitions across race, gender and class. My research puts me primarily in rhetoric (intellectual or ideological studies usually falls in those programs now).