GreenEyedTrombonist

Yay for not getting another thread locked! I would suggest everyone read fuzzy's advice that they posted when they locked that thread. It's a good reminder. Today I'm going to vent that I have a ton of work to do and very little time to do it in. This seems to be a normal vent for me, haha. Also, my cats are fighting on the bed right next to me... -__-

I just ran this on one of my SoPs and got a 14.3 grade level, 34.3 Flesch-Kincaid, and an 8 passive voice count. That does make me feel better about my SoP's in general.

Lol! So, minimum 12-15, absolute max submitted is 40, but they'd rather it doesn't go above 25? Good job submitting 20 Also, omg I may now become obsessed with this tool. I write for multiple audiences and have trouble gauging if I'm writing at the right readability level. Yay, quick tool to help me figure out if I'm in the ballpark.

I totally get the mom thing. I live at home now, because it made it possible to get my MA, but for a time I lived 6 hours away by car. My parents helped me move and when we got to the apartment, before I had even stepped foot in it, my mother showed herself around the entire place and then started telling me where I needed to put all my furniture and stuff. Eventually I snapped and said something like "or I can put it wherever I feel is best" and she stopped being as controlling in her advice. She still sends things to me on Facebook, including articles about how girls with nagging mothers are more successful. -__- I do love my parents and tell them a lot of the details of my day, but I also don't tell them about any big plans I have until I've worked out some things (usually). For instance, I told them I was going to Japan about a month before the visit when my plane was already booked. I told them about applying to PhD programs after I'd decided on the schools, my tentative research topic, etc. I also understand the cat deal. Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage are my orange tabbies and I'm not going to move somewhere without them. They're also 15 lbs each so trying to squeeze them into a carrier small enough for flying regulations is just not going to happen.

@Sleam Thank you for the offer! I actually have access to a cabin in the woods already, haha. I just need to figure out a car situation (don't own my own) so that I can go get groceries sometimes (and get to the house).

Ok, take my advice with a grain of salt because I'm attending a local terminal MA that costs less than $10k a year in tuition and fees. My first year I had a grant from FAFSA that covered 75% of my payments each semester. Essentially, I only needed to pay 1k a semester out of pocket, so I got a small loan (5k) to cover that and additional expenses. I also took on a job as a student researcher (in addition to my freelance writing gig) and began paying off the loan immediately. For my second year, since I knew I'd be covering moving costs and not working as a student researcher, I took out a 12k loan (partly to pay off the rest of the 5k loan and the rest to cover school and moving expenses). However, I got a last minute job as a TA in the fall and was asked to return to the program in the spring. Being a TA gives me a full tuition fee waiver plus a small payment every month so I didn't need that giant 12k loan. This has made it easier to pay off the other loan, increase my monthly payments to the bigger loan, and afford conference fees while considering moving expenses. Essentially, first year I covered grad school with a need-based grant, student researcher position, and a small loan. Second year I only needed to work as a TA to cover my school expenses, but took out a loan because of reasons. Ultimately, I'll be leaving this program with a 12k student loan that I've been paying monthly on to keep the interest down and may do some contract work to help pay that off until I get into a doctorate program. However, my situation isn't exactly normal, as I didn't need to pay rent, bills, or most living type expenses over this last 2 years. Again, grain of salt, but minor loans, student jobs, grants, and living with family got me through grad school without astronomical debt.

FIRST - You as an applicant 1. What did you study in undergrad? Master's (if applicable)? Anthropology for my BA (took a lot of bio anth classes) and Applied Anthropology for my MA (focused on cultural anth instead) 2. What were your grades like in undergrad? Master's? Undergrad I didn't do super well my first 2 years so I ended up with a 3.69 overall when I graduated. I currently have a 3.97 in my MA. 3. What are your research interests? I'm very interested in the effect of online communities on a person's physical life and vice versa, especially in regards to geek culture (more specific answer). In general, I love digital ethnography, pop and geek culture, gaming culture, new media, and online communication, especially in forums/chatrooms/livestreams. 4. What teaching experience did you have before applying? Before my MA I had quite a bit of tutoring experience, high school TA experience, and experience working with and teaching children. I now also have TA experience for an undergrad course (been a TA for this course for a year now). 5. What about research experience? My research experience before the MA was negligible to none (1 semester as a student researcher on a collaborative project between my school and the French Ministry of Transportation and...something, I don't remember, haha). I now have research experience on several projects, including a community leadership project, a collaboration with Nissan regarding the effect of autonomous vehicles on parking spaces, an exploratory project regarding whether more detailed research was warranted regarding women who work online and with new media (spoilers, the answer is yes), and my graduate project on the formation and growth of an online, philanthropic, geeky community operating on Twitch. 6. What about miscellaneous experience (unrelated to Comm/corporate/private/etc)? I was a puppeteer for 2 years and worked in a ceramics studio for a while, if we're talking completely random. I also work as a freelance online writer for a few geeky websites and host my own Twitch and Youtube channels. 7. How old are you (or, what is your age group)? No lie, I just had to check. I'm 26, haha. SECOND - Deciding to pursue a Ph.D. 1. What made you decide to pursue a Ph.D. in Communication? An anthropology professor at UCLA suggested that, given my research interests, Comm programs like USC Annenberg might be a good choice. Lo and behold, there are so many comm programs that relate to my interests! 2. Did you contact faculty at the programs you were interested in? What did you say? How often did you communicate with these people (POIs)? I did contact POIs at each school I applied to, let them know some stats about me and my research interests, mentioned why I was contacting them specifically (articles/books they wrote related to my interests, for instance), and basically asking if they were accepting new students or could potentially help answer questions I had after visiting the department website. One of these I communicated back and forth with over the summer and he did want to interview me, but school policy got in the way of that (more on that in my signature), but the others I, sadly, did not engage in a longer conversation. 3. Did you visit or contact graduate students? How did thaaaat go? I did not visit or contact grad students. 4. How did you decide who to ask for letters of rec? Were they all professors or did you get letters from outside of academia? I asked all professors and wanted people who could speak to my classroom performance and research performance, essentially speaking to my ability to excel in a doctorate program. As such, I got rec letters from the grad program coordinator/quant methods professor in my program, my theory professor who was also my boss for the leadership project (also a president of one of the anthro association's and with a strong network), and my advisor/professor/boss on the Nissan project. THIRD - Actually applying 1. How did you look for programs? There were a few ways. I looked at anthropologists I had cited in my grad proposal and where they were teaching and researched anthro programs with an emphasis on visual products. People and profs I contacted also recommended programs to me that I then researched, so it almost became a snowball sampling strategy, haha. I am no systematically going through comm programs from a university list I found and writing down professors who seem to have similar interests to research later. 2. How did you decide where to apply? I applied to programs where the POI or DGS got back to me and expressed interest in me attending the program. I didn't apply to one school because the prof said he was the only one doing research in my area and, unfortunately, it wouldn't be good for me to try to get in there (they did recommend other programs and seemed genuinely disappointed he couldn't recommend I apply there). I did try to narrow my search to programs with POIs that were a good fit for my research interests and didn't bother looking up whether the school was R1 or anything. 3. What was your biggest priority in a program? The fit of potential POIs was most important to me, though it also turned out that I only applied to schools in pretty urban areas, so I guess that was a side-effect of my research interests? Obviously, I also preferred schools with funding, but a school without funding but a great POI match did earn a spot on my app list. 4. How many schools did you initially set out to apply to, and how many did you actually apply to? I had 12 schools on my list after my initial research phase, but I narrowed that down to 5. I expect, if I'm not accepted this cycle, I'll be applying to more next cycle, but that's because I'll be including more Comm programs. 5. What were your GRE scores like (either specifics or vaguely)? How many times did you take it? Did you feel good about your scores? I have taken the GRE twice in my life and only retook it because the previous time had expired (that 5 year limit). I did do better after a year of grad school, and the scores I sent out were V:164 (94th percentile), Q:156 (63rd percentile), and AW:5.5 (98th percentile). I would also like to note that I haven't taken a math (other than stats) for about 9 years now, so I'm not that mad at the quant score, even though I wish it was better. I also don't believe in studying for the GRE, but that's just me. 6. How did you frame your experience/interests/fit in your statement of purpose? Did you focus on something more heavily than other stuff (like faculty or experience)? I hardly remember what I wrote for my SoP. I feel like I focused more on interests and fit in my statement, over my experience. I do think my SoP needs to be reworked for next cycle as I didn't spend that much time on it this time around. 7. Did you feel good about your applications? Why or why not? I felt pretty good about my apps when I turned them in, but I'm not feeling that good now because I have received 2 official rejections and 1 expected rejection, plus I haven't heard anything from the other two programs. I know sometimes this comes down to luck, but I do feel I have some work to do next cycle to make myself shine as an applicant. 8. If you knew then what you knew now, what advice would you give yourself? Write the SoP first and spend time really editing it, getting opinions on it, rewriting, etc. Maybe review some math facts before taking the GRE...Also, don't legally change your name between signing up for the GRE and taking it. It's a huge headache. FOURTH - GETTING IN (OR NOT) - feel free to update/answer later 1. How many programs did you get into (and which, if you don't mind sharing)? None yet, still waiting to hear from 2. 2. How many were you waitlisted for? Did you make it off the waitlist? None known. 3. How many were you rejected from? 2 so far with a 3rd expected any day now. 4. Did you get into your top program? Did you expect to get in? Nope and I hoped to, so it was disappointing to get a flat rejection. 5. Did you receive funding? N/A though I would like to mention that being a TA has fully covered my tuition for my MA this year with a tuition fee waiver and I received grants last year which covered 75% of my tuition, so it is possible to get funded in a non-funded MA program. 6. Once you've made your decision...how did you decide which school to attend? N/A though funding package will be a huge portion of that decision, if I'm ever admitted to more than one program. 7. If you didn't get admitted to a program, will you apply again? Yes, I do plan to apply next year to more programs. 8. What do you want to do with your Ph.D.? I love writing, conducting research, presenting my findings in various ways, teaching, and grading. In an ideal world, I will be able to teach, do research either with grants or through contract work, and present at conferences/conventions and through other means, like podcasts. Even if I can't get a position as a tenure-track faculty, having a PhD opens doors to more grant opportunities, contract work, and other methods of earning money that I would enjoy. This is a minor thing, but I also believe that academic books written by someone with the "Dr." title appear more legitimate to the "regular" person and I do want to write books about my research and work. I also am currently doing a project, which I love, but I want to continue my education and delve deeper into theoretical frameworks that relate to my research interests. FINALLY 1. In retrospect...what was the best part of the application process? Other than the name issue, the GRE wasn't stressful for me. I like taking tests most of the time and, for whatever reason, I was really vibing on the essay portion that day. I also enjoyed writing everything I needed to do on a whiteboard in my laundry room (I like organizing and spreadsheets). 2. What was the worst? I feel really awkward talking about myself in a professional capacity, so requesting LoR's wasn't the best and writing my SoP and emailing POIs was uncomfortable. 3. What advice do you have for future applicants? Find this forum early, ask for advice and help, and don't get more hyped over the name of the school than the fit of the program.

Yay! Another digital ethnographer! How are you enjoying Irvine?

SWAA is a great one to attend! I'm excited for the abstracts I've heard being submitted so far.

Sneaks into the Facebook group @DBear

I've received two rejections and one implied rejection. Only really waiting to hear back from a PhD program that's notoriously difficult to get into and an MS program that's also difficult to get into. I'm pretty much resigned to not being successful this cycle and planning out my applications for next year. I do think I'm lucky in that I'll have an MA after this spring and contract work is common in my field, so I could feasibly work over the year without abandoning a job if I do get into a program next cycle. It still hurts to be rejected, but I'm hoping the final rejections will come at the same time so I can mope and be miserable for a weekend while freaking out about my future and then just move on to the next steps.

There's definitely no rule saying you have to publish under your legal name. I think everyone's hit it pretty much on the head, but I just wanted to contribute my own story. I'm a freelance writer who writes under two names and a graduate student in a terminal MA program. I also just finalized my divorce last fall. I made a point to never let anything I wrote be credited with my married name since I knew it would change once my divorce was finalized (my two writing names are my now legal name and the screen name I use everywhere). This was a pretty easy process for academic publications (I've worked on a few research projects with public deliverables and presentations) as I just made a request with the research leads prior to publishing.

@DBear You are awesome and clearly a good fit for these programs or else they wouldn't have picked you! Don't feel guilty for being accepted. <3 ^^What I was going to post when the forums were down. Also, I only applied to one Comm program and was already rejected from it. Y'all are stuck with me.

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd share that SWAA has extended their submission deadline to the end of February. It's being held in San Jose, CA this year, which is a pretty awesome place, and the theme is Parameters of the Possible. Submit an abstract and come to San Jose this April for some conference experience, Here's a link: https://swaa-anthro.org/submit-an-abstract/

Serious congrats @DBear! Mind sending over some of that good juju?

@DBear NYU is for anthro

I liked it for you @DBear

So it sounds like you might be hearing pretty soon!

Hey all! So, I'm pretty sure this app season is a wash for me. One of the things I've discovered, though, is that many Comm programs seem to have programs that fit my interest. Coming from an anthropology background, I'm not super sure how to go about finding these programs. So, if you know of any programs that relate to my interests (digital communication, geek culture, gaming culture, etc) or a place that I could find a list of potential programs, please post below and let me know! Thanks so much!

I turned in my MA application to the anthro department pretty close to the final deadline, but I was given notice of acceptance within a week. I know others who received acceptance within a day or two, but all of us actually did our undergrad with the department so they knew our work ethic and previous academic history (I did take a 3 year break between undergrad and grad though). The social work side might be completely different since it's a different department. When was/is the application due date?

Not in the same situation, but I'm finishing up my MA at SJSU right now.

Would you mind sharing what the coverage will be for each school and whether that includes payment for tuition or if that's waived/covered/factored in somewhere else?

Hey all, Just wondering if the people who got Irvine acceptances have gotten the official email yet.

I feel like when schools say that we should assume it means next week. Hope you hear soon!