Mmphln

Surprisingly, after I resigned myself to my expensive (but top-choice) school, this morning I received a letter from York University offering me full funding. So wow, my plans changed really quick! I'm so glad this month of checking application statuses and opening my email in dread is over..It's not a top-choice school like many of you got into, but I am more than pleased with the result.

Thanks! it's a moot question now, I belatedly got a full funding offer from York this morning (three days after I was accepted and was told if I had a funding offer it would have arrived already). So...yeah, I guess I'm going there! It's so weird, I didn't expect it. I can always train later, I can not afford to pass up a full MA that's for sure

Ok, I told my boss, my family, and my friends that I would be able to tell them what I'm doing next year on monday (since I knew I would have all the admission decisions in by today). This is my dilemma: I graduated with a BA two years ago in Toronto in Comn Studies and Film Studies. Due to lack of funds from my loan debt, I had to go back home which is a small city in western Canada. Unfortunately I was not able to find a job in my field, and had to take a job at a decent paying, but soul sucking data entry job. That was when I promised myself that I would go to grad school the next year. Just as admission deadlines for grad school started, I found a job at a television production house, which has been wonderful. My boss has told me that she wants to train me to go up in the business, eventually to the point of running my own programs. The pay will likely still be low over the next few years (but steady). I still don't like the city I live in though and don't want to pass up a chance to get a MA while I have the chance. The MA that I want to go into is at the University of London and is a 1 year practical degree on how to become a producer from the ground up, complete with dissertation at the end and a (presumably) unpaid internship. It's in the heart of London and I would love to go there, and I do feel like I would be learning information that would help me in my career. But it costs $40,000 with tuition, residence, and food, which at salaries for starting out in the business, is quite a lot (I thought at least). And I have no guarantee that it will actually lead to me getting a better job. My other option is that I could just leave this job next year and try to apply for jobs in other cities where I am not guaranteed a better working environment, but will enjoy my spare time more. My boss has hinted that I could come back to my old position after my MA too... So, what is your opinion? I am really wanting to go to the MA, but I have the opportunity right now of training personally under an experienced producer who will be paying me for my time which is really tempting, and the job market in this industry is never very steady at the best of times

The agony is basically over now for me..What a terribly stressful month! Now the torture of rationalizing spending that much money on the grad school I do want to go to...

I haven't heard anything from NYU yet...I phoned today and they said they should have everyone notified by March 25th (not likely I'll get in though)

I'm in Communications so I get a lot of confusion. Usually people think that means I work with computers or repair phone lines, or do media relations, or PR... Which technically, any of those I could do within the field. Instead, I study television

I went to York for 4 years, so I'm pretty familiar with the area and such. If you need a place to stay, definitely go to craigslist, thats where I found all of my places. You'll have to decide if you want a room in a house, which is common, many families rent out their basements, or even groups of students share a house, or your own apartment, which can be significantly more expensive. There are always a lot of places available, it should be easy to find a place where the lease starts in september, renters are used to students I wouldn't live on campus. While the campus life can be pretty lively, since it is located so far from urban toronto, I have never encountered a dorm room I liked. The new townhouses are terribly uncomfortable, if you really want to live nearby there are a few older apartment buildings and townhouses on campus I can recommend though (avoid sentinel. At all costs.)

A case of writing dyslexia, I meant USC of course

I have been notified that all of the SCU decisions were put in the mail on friday (at least for the peter stark program). The advisor on the phone was so pleasant, she told me that she would scan in my decision letter and email it to me right away. I did not get in, which is quite sad, it was my first choice

I was wondering how important time length is to people trying to decide between schools? For myself, I kindof relish the idea of getting the MA over with in one year like the UK schools do, but at the same time I wonder if that's enough time to do a proper degree

Oh my goodness, thanks so much for your help! I definitely have a lot to consider now... As for the RAE, I looked into it, East Anglia has the second highest ranking in my field, with 50, 40, 10, 0 royal holloway is somewhat worse at 20, 55, 20, 5, and bristol is not listed I was wrong about the residency fees, it was something I had been told, but I looked it up and it's 3 years of residency, not 1 to be eligible for home fees..I just wish they had a discount for commonwealth since the scholarships are no longer active

I did notice Holloway was gorgeous..one of the reasons I'm considering it. The other being that it is more of an industry based masters than academic, which I think is really good (It was for a producing MA). East Anglia was for media studies and they gave me the best financial package (well, the only), and Bristol was originally television studies, until they cancelled it and admitted me into film studies instead. The price though is so high...I was thinking it might be worth it to try to defer admission, go to the UK and work/intern for a year and then go if I still want to. Am I correct in that you can get resident fees if you've lived there for a full year?

nevermind about the UT question! I was just rejected officially by email Feels relieving in a way, now I can stop obsessively checking my status online

I have found in my experience that acceptance and rejection letters are vague in their titles, I have received an admission with the title: 'Status of Your Application' and a rejection with the title 'Your Application'. I used to think I could tell if the mail package was big or small, but this year I received three admission letters in little envelopes. So yeah, in any case, I do everything else that I possibly have on my agenda for the day before I open it, because like was said, you can't concentrate on anything after if you either get in or don't get in. Then I usually sit and stare at it for a minute before screwing up my eyes and clicking on the link or opening the envelope. Then I open it and read it, and either receive the sinking feeling that lasts for a bit, or the irrepressible smile that comes to my face for a while

So how long do you think it will take them to finish updating the site/emailing out the rejection/acceptance letters? I know there's not much chance of me getting in with their acceptance ratio, but I just need to know for sure!