swazibound

I'm surprised I don't see questions about QoL more often. So, I'm wondering if any current students (MA or PhD) in Comm or Rhetoric can talk about the quality of life in their programs, and in being a grad student in general. How's your work/life balance? Are you happy with your decision? It's a broad question, so anything that relates to your day-to-day life is relevant!

Good luck @GreenEyedTrombonist! Gonna submit my revised BA thesis! It'll be my first time submitting to a conference, let alone one in Communications...

Hey all, I'm thinking about submitting for the NCA this year (for the first time) and I'm trying to find the division that works best for me. Since I will be a first year PhD student at the time of the conference, I'm wondering if it makes sense to submit to the student section. There are other sections where my research fits pretty comfortably though. Is the student section legit? Less or more competitive? Any advice is appreciated!

We enjoyed getting to meet you too, @GreenEyedTrombonist! I really hope you end up going - I'm pretty sure I'll go as well!

@whitmanifesto, This is pretty rad! Thanks! I'm wondering also if you or anyone else knows how well interdisciplinary translates into the job market. Like, could someone trained in communications professor get a professorship in Anthropology?

I'm wondering if you kind people have found any good resources for understanding the professional life of Communications scholars. Job market reports are fine, but I'm also looking for more qualitative accounts of what being a Communications professor is like. For instance, what is the culture around publications and conference attendance? I'm especially interested in the impressions of people who have completed/are completing an MA, or are going through their PhD programs right now. There's a lot of ambiguity in this field, which makes this a harder task than say, Sociology, where a plethora of such resources exist. I'm particularly interested in Rhetoric and Media Studies subfields, as opposed to say, communication sciences or journalism. So, your thoughts on these fields are especially appreciated

Looks like UW - Madison is releasing acceptances for the Rhetoric track now. I got my acceptance by phone call. Best of luck!

@twin35 I was told the same as you during my interview (rhetoric track). Edit: But also, what you and @surprise_quiche are saying doesn't seem to be mutually exclusive. They could also have a cap by department.

Thanks @Ishouldbewriting! One resource I found is the Madison program profile for Comm Arts, which shows some impressive stats. Although, the PhD completion rate in this program is slightly lower than the national average for "peer programs," at 58% compared with 69%. Though not a game-changer for me, it's seems noteworthy. https://tools.grad.wisc.edu/webextras/education/academicprograms/profiles/201PHD.pdf Neuendorf, et al., 2007 ranks the program at #1, though it's a bit outdated. And doesn't account for the strength of the departments subfields, which I'm sure is more important than the general score.

@whitmanifesto That sounds quite intriguing! Which movements have you looked at? My work so far actually looks at the movements on the opposite spectrum, at the alt-right movements.

Is anyone here planning on studying rhetoric? If so, what program did you apply for? What topic are you interested in studying? And... why rhetoric, exactly?

Hey folks, I saw some discussion of Madison interviews, so I thought I'd give my experience. I got an interview email on Monday from a faculty member that basically boiled down to this line: "As we work through the applications, we really like to talk to our top applicants to make sure that we offer what they need and to start the discussion about doing a recruiting visit." We had a Skype chat later that day, and they* opened up with a general description of the program and what their strong points were. The rest was basically them answering my questions, so I wouldn't say it felt like an interview. The faculty member did not explicitly say that I was accepted, though it felt strongly hinted at, and they gave me the dates for the student recruitment visit. At the end I was told that I would be contacted later for another conversation with a different faculty member in my specific subfield. So the interview was a good sign in my case, though I'm not sure how much we can extrapolate. Madison was the only comms program I applied for, so I'm not sure what the protocols are for other schools in the field. The other programs I applied for were in Sociology. I'm rather curious; what is Madison's reputation in Communications (specifically comm arts)? I assumed that the Annenberg schools had the best reputation, but I'm sure it depends on subfields. Comms is a crazy field to me - so broad! I don't even know where to begin to get a sense of it all. *Using they as gender-neutral; it was one individual.

I got a research grant for Swaziland! I'll be doing linguistic anthropology research at a youth club, a support group for HIV positive youth.