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Everything posted by Jae B.
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fresh breath
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fresh veggies
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flash drive
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lunch break
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summer lovin'
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Crunch Fitness
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For the record, I'm nearly in Pea-jay's camp on this one. I picked a school right in the midst of where I want to have my career. I've got a ton of connections here already, and will be gaining more over the next two years for sure! The only other school I really considered is so prominent and well-known in my field, I was sure it'd be regarded in my ideal area -- I'd already seen a few relatively successful people here with their degree.
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Congratulations on Columbia, and good luck! I was hoping you'd get off the wait list! I was stumped about the $1,000 fee, too...unfortunately, that's all I've got! The idea of zapping that from my savings account hurt, bad. If I'd planned to accept, I would have tried to talk Columbia into applying part of my scholarship to cover the fee for me. Otherwise, I don't know what I would have done. Definitely write to admissions and financial aid now, so they can talk to you over the next few days. (I e-mailed them during a busy time, and two people wrote back to me within the two following days.) I'm sure they must have experience with other people having this problem with their epic $1,000 fee. About USC: if you don't plan to apply for a PhD at USC or something, and Columbia really is your dream school, I don't think canceling USC now would hurt you as much as missing out on this opportunity with Columbia. That said, I don't know the actual consequences. Can you feel out an answer from someone in the administration? Again, congratulations!
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Sssssssyyyrraaccuusseee! Sorry, I had to do that. ...It's late. (I don't think journalism is a dying field, exactly, but a challenged one, and we could use more talented people to help us cope....) But, seriously, Syracuse sounds great for you and your preferred field. Especially if it's smaller -- 400 people are accepted to Columbia to get J-School degrees, and I'm guessing they're not all wildly successful just because they spent $75,000 on a top Ivy degree.... Even if they can use it for something else. I'd rather spend less money, have smaller classes, and, in your case, work in a subject I'm actually really interested in. Good luck making a choice. Where are the other Public Relations / Journalism people?! Eh.
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Captain's quarters
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Aye Captain
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sweet dreams
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lost dreams
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glamorous sky
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October fest
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college years
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college grad
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winter fest
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Closeness would be good for making early connections, but if you can attend a program that fits you better, wouldn't it be okay as long as the folks you're interested in working for have heard of and have respect for it? Maybe you can look up employee profiles on LinkedIn and see where they went to school.
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Sunday school
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Okay, I get it now! What a nice dilemma to have. As I said before, I would go with Syracuse for the economic value and more intimate classes. Although I should preface that, because of the school's low-profile, I felt I did not know enough about it during my application period to actually apply there. But I'm a West Coaster, so maybe Syracuse has a higher profile in other areas? Also, as a journalism person, I would never accept double the cost for one top program over another -- as is reflected in my own jaw-clenching decision -- because of the state of employment and wages in my field. But in public relations, I understand you may be able to expect better returns. So, maybe my harsh perspective about costs and debt (NOOO!) is overboard for you. I considered applying to NYU, for their "Reporting New York" program. (And I was in looove with that program!) In fact, NYU was the last school I ruled out applying to, to save time, effort and money, and because of prestige, ironically. The school does have the more prominent brand, but I don't think that's necessarily worth the added expense. From a journalism perspective, my research indicates that Syracuse's Newhouse School has a higher (perceived) ranking than NYU's journalism programs, hence my decision to rule NYU out last-minute when I wanted one less application to fill out. But I'm not sure about a correlation in those rankings between journalism and public relations education. You're probably a better judge on that one. I know there's more discussion of NYU vs. Syracuse in these forums, as well as each school separately, with conversation surrounding the actual value vs. inflated value, reputation, campus structures and climate (important stuff -- don't you have a campus and atmosphere preference?), etc. Public relations is a trickier topic, though, because I see how the stronger NYU name could potentially be more important for you than Newhouse rising as a new communications competitor.... Aww darn! Tough one to decide a winner. Still, I say, when in doubt, go with the money.... Especially for a master's degree, an opportunity to save is golden. Also, couldn't TAing at Syracuse be valuable on your résumé for the time-being, or no? (Could you still potentially TA at NYU, since it's a two-year program? I ask because TAing is a separate application process once you're a student in my program, not something awarded in advance. But I know some schools, especially with shorter programs, don't offer it at all.) I believe you can work to gain the same New York connections from either school. Plus, you could be part of building Syracuse's reputation! That's also a neat opportunity, I think. Good luck making a choice!
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Oh no, I wasn't complaining about people daydreaming. I was complaining about professors who automatically blame it on laptops. Frankly, people will stare are your laptop regardless of what's on it. Sometimes they're just bored, and unfortunately their eyes locked on the screen may become painfully obvious to a professor, who may blame the laptop user whether they are actually taking notes or playing Farmville. The person playing Farmville should be reprimanded, not someone taking notes. But I'm finding far too often professors forego all reprimanding and just ban laptops or force laptop users to sit in the back, alongside the wall, or clustered somewhere TAs can keep an eye on them. Sometimes the student staring is totally legitimate; just reading your notes -- perhaps glancing to catch something they missed or feel they misheard. One friend of mine (who is learning English) had great difficulty understanding a professor's Russian accented-English, so she'd read notes off my screen and type them herself -- no harm in that. For a short time, I had another friend sitting by me in one course, who apparently read off my screen continually. He would whisper in my ear each time I misspelled a name. "It's Lippmann, double-n, m-a-n-n." My point is, people who stare at laptops because they're bored -- when there's nothing "distracting", flashing or Facebook to see there -- will stare at something else if the laptops are absent. Arguably, staring at a laptop with on-track notes is better than staring out the window. So I agree that professors should, as you said, check with suspect laptop-users to make sure they're on track, but I don't think they should automatically ban or sequester laptops because of "distraction" in general.
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Sorry I missed this! Congratulations on picking Syracuse! Excellent choice. Smaller class sizes and lesser expense = win. Are you studying both Public Relations and Journalism there, or just Public Relations? I sincerely hope to visit Syracuse someday. It seems like such a neat school, and I'm glad to hear about it in these forums.