Ville

It's unfortunate to see many U.Penn rejections on this thread. I received the rejection on Saturday too, but it was expected so I was not that bothered by it. I'm deciding if I should wait for more results, particularly from Georgetown and MSU or if I should just accept the offer at PSU now. I'm thankful for a kind board member who corresponded a few emails with me to encourage me to consider MSU's excellent health comm/new media program. However, I'm leaning towards not waiting for any more offers as I have received PSU's letter of admission last week. The details include full funding for PhD after I've satisfactorily completed my MA and received an approval from my advisor to continue. Has anyone accepted an offer at PSU? I hope other schools will be sending out positive news to those of us who have not heard anything soon.

I'm applying to CAS with a focus on health comm. Yeah, mass comm. is a different college so may be your results will be announced later?

I've just received an email from Penn State that they're pleased to offer me an admission to their Master's Program and I will be receiving their letter with more details this afternoon! I'm ecstatic right now. But I don't know if they're also sending out their decisions to the Ph.D. students this afternoon. Thanks PRguy101! I was happy to be accepted at Purdue, but now that Penn State gave me a good news. I think I'll likely go to Penn State. I hope naptown, mediahistory, deanne and whoever is applying to Penn State hear the news soon. Good luck everyone!

Hahaha. It amazes me to see the notorious rivalry between UCLA and USC. I remember meeting a Ph.D. student from UCLA in Bangkok last year and when she found out I was interested in applying for USC, she did her best to convince me to go for UCLA. I really wish there's a relevant communication program at UCLA for me. Having lived in Singapore and Bangkok all my life, I would prefer to live in large cities with moderate weather like LA. But my preferred programs seem to be heading towards small college towns with extremely cold weather like Penn State, Purdue & Michigan. Good luck to everyone here! I hope we all will get accepted into the program of our choice.

Thanks for your insight on the profs at these 2 schools. I was corresponding a few emails with Prof. Lynn Miller at USC and her current research in using virtual interactive & gaming technologies to reduce risky bahavior and HIV prevention actually fits perfectly with my experience and interests in using new media for health/social change campaigns. But ahhh, I need to stop thinking about USC now. Can't apply now anyway. I guess I can still apply to USC after getting an MA. :-)

Hi Deanne, Thank you for the news from USC. I'm surprised to hear they're still allowing late application. I still want to apply but after discussing with the Fulbright Office, they're not going to move forward with it. They told me that they're already helping me to apply to a Master of Comm. Mgt and they cannot assist me to apply to another program in the same school. This is a bit tricky since the grant I've been awarded is for a Master's Degree only and they're not willing to help me with the Ph.D. application. I've explained to them that if I'm accepted into the USC Ph.D. Program, I can still get an M.A. by submitting a thesis during the second year. But they're still not going to help. :-( Oh well, I guess I'll just let it go. I think pursuing a doctoral program is too premature for me at this point. It makes sense to do an M.A. first to build a solid foundation in conducting an academic research. I certainly don't want to fall behind and suffer through the doctoral program. And most importantly, I don't think I'll get accepted into USC Ph.D. Program to begin with. Why are you skeptical about USC's quality? Based on this ranking, it seems the school is doing well across the board, though I see their health communication area is not in the top 10. I've been told by my university instructors here in Thailand to go for Syracuse, USC, Northwestern or Texas-Austin. But they're from the faculty of advertising, PR and integrated marketing communications, so I guess they don't really have a clue which US school is strong in health comm. I'm sure you will get several offers for a Ph.D. Program. Spending additional 2 years for another MA before doing another 4-5 years for a Ph.D. doesn't sound too enticing! I'm applying to U. Penn (Ph.D. in Comm & I did the application by myself without Fulbright's help.), Penn State, Georgetown, Michigan State, Purdue (accepted!), U. Arizona, Emerson College & USC (Master in Comm Mgt). At this point, U. Penn is more like a dream spot but realistically a (very) long shot. It's also a Ph.D. Program which I have to settle with Fulbright. I'm waiting anxiously for Penn State and if I get an offer, I'll most likely take it. Georgetown is an interesting choice since it's not in health comm. The CCT program offers courses in how media & technology influence social change and it is still relevant to my interests. I'll probably choose Georgetown only if they also offer merit-based scholarship to me, since my sponsor can't cover everything. Georgetown has great reputation in Asia, especially in international development industry and its degree can help my career in Asia more than Penn State. If all these 3 options fail, I can take comfort in knowing that I can still be in Purdue. For me, Purdue, Michigan State and Arizona are in about the same level so I'm not really sure which one to choose among this group. I don't think I'll consider Emerson or the Comm Mgt program at USC now since they're more practical in nature and won't give me a good foundation for the doctoral studies. That's all for now. All we can do is ....wait and wait and wait.

Hi Deanne, Nice to see a fellow health communication applicant. Your professional experience in health-related organizations is very solid and this should compensate for your GRE scores. My verbal score is lower than yours and I sure hope the committee doesn't discard my application because my verbal is lower than 600 and my writing is less than 5! I spent 2 months studying for GRE and it was a horrible experience. I remember getting panicked when the clock showed that I have 2 minutes left on my first writing part and I couldn't finish my last few sentences. Given one additional month, I think my verbal and quant. will go up and my writing will be less clumsy. But what is done is done and I don't ever want to take GRE again. What amazes me is knowing a few applicants from India and China who can score more than 650 V and a perfect 800 Q (we have a joke that it's an utter failure for any Asian students who do not get a full Q score). However, they have a dismal 3.0-3.5 for writing and TOEFL scores of less than 90. So, I'm not really sure how GRE can be an accurate measurement of our English ability. It may be a good measurement of our memory power, perseverance and ability to remain calm! What would be your focus in health communication? My current focus is in health & social campaigns and how to integrate new media & edutainment channels to motivate the target audience into activism. It seems like everyone is applying to U. Penn and Penn State! It must be super competitive to get accepted into these two schools. I'm wondering why there are not more applicants to the Ph.D. Program at USC since it seems like they have more resources (in terms of the number of faculty members, areas of research, class offerings, more substantial stipends, etc.) The Ph.D. program at USC is my dream school but I didn't apply because I just couldn't work out with my sponsor to send them a financial statement by December 1st. For whatever reasons, USC graduate office will not process my application without this financial statement, which is ridiculous since all accepted Ph.D. candidates, including international students, get full funding from the Annenberg School. I was quite bummed since I was in touch with a professor who believed I could work on her current research project. IIE, the agency which helps Fulbright grantees to do university placements, is still applying the Master of Communication Management in Health & Social Change at USC for me, but this program is now at the bottom of my list. My goal is to move on to the doctoral program and this Masters degree is a professional track, lasts only a year and doesn't seem to prepare me for the doctoral studies. The tuition fees is also outrageously expensive, almost $42,000 for 8 courses. Including living expenses, I'll be paying $64,000 in one year. I just don't think my sponsor will cover everything for this amount. Anyway, that's just my rants. :-) Just wondering, why did you also apply to Masters programs since you already have an MPH?

Hi Everyone! It's great to finally find an active thread on communication. I can't seem to find anything substantial at College Confidential! I'm a prospective international student from Bangkok, Thailand. I've been awarded Fulbright Scholarship to pursue a Master's Degree in the US for fall 2010. My undergraduate GPA is 3.86 (major - advertising), TOEFL iBT score of 113 and GRE score of 580 for Verbal, 710 for Quan. and 4.5 for Writing (kinda sucks). I have 5 years of professional experience at a major advertising agency (1 year) and 2 non-profits (4 years). My non-profit work entails mostly program management, research, monitoring and evaluation on HIV/AIDS prevention and anti-human trafficking campaigns. I have also taught part-time for courses in interactive media, effective communication and social campaigns for about 3 semesters at a local university in Bangkok. I stopped teaching 2 years ago after it became too overwhelming to balance working fulltime during the weekday and teaching during the weekend. For the past couple of years, I've also done two presentations at international conferences in Philippines and Thailand and deliver trainings in Taiwan and India. My focus for the graduate studies is in developing effective campaign messages, campaign impacts evaluation and using new media for health/social change. I am planning to move on to the Ph.D. Program after my M.A. Here's the list of schools that I've applied. Most of the M.A. programs below are in health communication, unless otherwise stated. And yes, they're listed in order of preference! - University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D. in Communication. - Penn State University - Georgetown University, CCT Program - Michigan State University - Purdue University - University of Arizona - University of Southern California, Master of Communication in Health & Social Change Communication - Emerson College U. Penn is a bit of a long shot since I don't have an M.A. But it seems the school has accepted students with only undergraduate degree before. My GRE score is also below average here. This is also the only Ph.D. Program that I've applied, since the school doesn't offer an M.A. admission. Penn State has told me they will release the results to the first choice of applicants sometime this week and they have been corresponding with me to verify my Fulbright sponsorship details so I guess I'm being considered. Georgetown told me the results will start coming out by the end of Feb, and the merit-based scholarships results will be sent out mid-March. In addition, I've just received an email from Purdue this morning that I've been accepted! But I will wait for other results before making a decision. Sorry for the long entry!