mediahistory

Hooray!! Congratulations, TVPhD!

To my understanding, a letter of intent is what it sounds like: a description of what you intend to do as a graduate student, should you be accepted to the program. In a letter of intent, you can tell the adcom about topics, methods and theoretical orientations you want to pursue as a Ph.D. student, as well as what you plan to do with your Ph.D. once you earn it. While the letter of intent is chiefly a place to talk about what you want to do, it can also be a great place to demonstrate your attitude toward your work. Adcoms love to see someone with a passion for a particular topic, but they also want to see flexibility and willingness to grow and change as you learn. Let them know that you're open to creative and intellectual growth as you move through the program. It's also a great place to show your familiarity with the unique resources available at that school- perhaps they have a particularly great research library, or a good record of encouraging interdisciplinary work, or what have you. Three faculty members is a good number. You want to demonstrate to the adcom that you could, if accepted, put together a dissertation committee of faculty members. Committees usually have at least 3 members, so you're good there. If you can find folks who share topics of interest with you, great. Methodology is another good way to demonstrate a good fit. It's ok to mention that you can learn from Faculty Member X because s/he uses a methodological approach you like, even if you have less in common topicwise. I see no need to explicitly rank the faculty members you mention. In terms of persuasiveness, though, I suggest you open by discussing the faculty member whose interests have the strongest fit with your own. Be as specific as you can about why you want to work with that faculty member, and tie it to work you've done up to this point. EG: "Given my interest in small-town newspaper practices (see CV), Professor Genius' expertise in the political economy of rural news coverage would be a fantastic resource for further studies." Good luck!

Thanks! That was me. I sent you a PM. Best of luck to everyone!

Has anyone heard from NYU's MCC (PhD) program? I've seen a few waitlistees on the results page but no acceptances or rejections.

To give a really basic definition, communication scholars study human symbolic practices. Another definition that gets a lot of play is Harold Lasswell's: "Who says what, to whom, in what channel, with what effect." Raymond Williams would add, "with what intent." As yourfavoritedylansong says, that creates an incredibly broad field of inquiry. I think there is plenty of room in those formulations to talk about gender and sexuality, identity, community, marginalization and so forth. It might help to familiarize yourself with how Comm scholars categorize their work. Here's the list of divisions for NCA: http://www.natcom.or...ex.asp?bid=5067 and for ICA: http://www.icahdq.or...tions/index.asp

This is off the top of my head, but here's another way to frame the question: If you had to teach an intro class, would you rather teach Communication 101 or Sociology 101? Also, there may be a bit of flexibility in terms of where you end up. Communication faculty sometimes have degrees in related fields like English, Rhetoric, History and so forth. I wonder if perhaps your specific research interests are more predictive of where you'd end up than your nominal department. Again, a caveat- I'm much more familiar with Communication than Sociology so this may not hold true in both directions, especially considering the innate interdisciplinarity of communication departments.

It sounds to me like you would be very much able to focus on your research area through a communication department, given your research interests and the overlap between the two fields. I have to admit though that most of my knowledge about sociology comes through a communication filter. Perhaps you could contact the schools you've been accepted to, and ask about the placement of their graduate students once they graduate? If you're referring to the dept I'm thinking of, which was addressed in another thread, their placement rate after graduation is very, very good. Think professorship placement or, at very worst, a postdoc at another top tier school. One thing you will find in communication departments in general though, is some tension between quantitative and qualitative methods. There's room in communication departments for PR practitioners as well as critical theorists, so that tension is sort of present at conferences and so forth. Is that the case in sociology as well? To an extent, I think it comes down to the fundamental commitments of communication departments versus sociology departments (or the sub-paradigms of each discipline, I'm not sure if this holds true for sociology but communication scholars range from quantitative post-positivism to qualitative and philosophical approaches which have more in common with anthropology and/or literary criticism). Does one align more closely with your intellectual positions than the other? I think the question of future opportunities for research depends to an extent on your intellectual positions. If you argue that meaning is made intersubjectively, comm is going to facilitate your studies better than if you wish to look at areas not so focused on "meanings made between people." Good luck and congratulations to you, in whichever program is lucky enough to have you! Edited for typo

Hooray! You'll ace that interview.

I'm still waiting too. It's so difficult to stay optimistic! Speaking of bizarre ETS situations, when I was at the testing center there was a gent there who didn't write cursive and was refused from taking the test until he could produce somewhat joined-up letters

As did I.

Congrats red_crayons! Your research area sounds really interesting (I do similar textual analysis with archival investment materials) and it goes without saying that Cornell is a great school. Welcome to the board.

Oops- after reading this thread through I see it's customary to give stats, so here goes! BA psychology, 3.176 gpa, research assistant 2 semesters. 5 years experience in industry, executive position 2 years (retail/merchandising). MBA (full-time 2 year), 3.6 gpa, top 15% of class, graduate assistantship 1 semester. MA Communication (Research Track), 3.93 gpa, research assistantship 5 semesters, Alpha Sigma Nu. I am in the final semester of this program right now. GRE: 640v/680q/5.5a 1 conference presentation pending Applied to: UPenn-Annenberg PhD in Communication NYU PhD in Media Culture and Communication Columbia PhD Communication I chose these programs based on fit with faculty first, then factors like completion rate and number of graduates placed in tenure track positions. I visited all 3 and met with professors in October. Met with 1 prof apiece at NYU and Columbia, met with profs and the Dean at UPenn (meeting these awesome scholars was really inspiring). I'd be thrilled to be offered a place in any of the programs I've applied to. Research interests: Technology and culture, history and political economy of mass communication, critical-cultural studies, economic ideology.

That's great news, vit! Congratulations! I applied to UPenn, not Penn State (sorry for the ambiguity); I don't expect to hear back from them until the end of the month.

Applied to Media, Culture and Communication PhD program. No response yet. Hopefully we don't have much longer to wait!