michellelaura92

@mintless, I'm a first year PhD student at Iowa with @pato's husband and I can guarantee that everything she said is true. I just want to speak a little to our department's take on the waitlist: The students they grab first generally fit the research interests of current faculty. At Iowa, we're strongly triangulating research on gender, LGBTQ topics, race, democracy, etc. Lots of social justice research happening here. There is no difference in academic caliber between students who are immediately accepted and those who are waitlisted. If you weren't rejected, Iowa wants you. They don't accept people without funding and that is why we waitlist more than we accept. It's a matter of funding availability and research fit. Iowa grads get jobs and I hope you consider us.

Also, I see that you're looking at University of Illinois Chicago. Just a quick heads up: the state of Illinois hasn't had a budget in YEARS. I just spent the last 6 years going to school (undergrad and grad) in Illinois and I cannot tell you how many times our funding was threatened. At one point last year, public universities were closing and tenured faculty members were losing their jobs. Since then, we have a facade of a budget, but nothing is guaranteed. I just got my M.A. at Western Illinois University and things got so tight with budgetary constraints that they stopped stocking bathrooms with toilet paper, printing in my department was halted, and I was told multiple times that I may not get my stipend the following month because the university simply didn't have the money to pay their teaching assistants. This isn't to say that the University of Illinois Chicago program is amazing or competitive. I honestly don't know much about it. I just want to warn people that the state of public education in Illinois is dire and worrisome. You have a great list of schools to consider. The best advice I could give would be to be very careful when considering public universities in Illinois until the state government gets its act together. Best of luck to you though!

FIRST - You as an applicant 1. What did you study in undergrad? Master's (if applicable)? My two bachelor's are in Communication and Spanish, and then my master's is in Comm also. 2. What were your grades like in undergrad? Master's? 3.98 cum GPA for undergrad, 4.0 cum GPA for master's. 3. What are your research interests? Celebrity feminism in online spaces, modality switching, parasocial relationships. 4. What teaching experience did you have before applying? I have taught for two years in my department (Public Speaking). 5. What about research experience? I had two conference papers and two publications at the time of application. 6. What about miscellaneous experience (unrelated to Comm/corporate/private/etc)? Lived in Ecuador for a minute, and I run a corporate internship program. 7. How old are you (or, what is your age group)? 24 SECOND - Deciding to pursue a Ph.D. 1. What made you decide to pursue a Ph.D. in Communication? I love school, whether it's being a student or instructor. Academia is where I want to spend my life. 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 spent about 8 months researching the programs I was interested in. I contacted faculty members at each school and had phone conversations with them over the summer before application season. Those faculty members put me in contact with the current grad students who were candid about their experiences. Everyone was very kind and patient with me throughout the process and the millions of questions I had. 3. Did you visit or contact graduate students? How did thaaaat go? Oops, got ahead of myself. Yes. I talked to a bunch a grad students. That's probably the most important thing in this search. 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 got three professors who I trusted (my advisor, my mentor/co-author, and a professor who I had for 5 classes) to write my letters. THIRD - Actually applying 1. How did you look for programs? I scoured the NCA website for programs that did Feminist Rhetoric or who had scholars who published in that area. 2. How did you decide where to apply? I'm a first-gen college student who wasn't supposed to go to college in the first place, so I decided where to apply based on my instincts (that's such a BS response, I'm sorry). For me it depended on fit, the friendliness of the faculty & grad students, and how successful the programs' graduates are. 3. What was your biggest priority in a program? Cultural fit. 4. How many schools did you initially set out to apply to, and how many did you actually apply to? I wanted to apply to 2 but applied to 3 per my mentor's recommendation (her alma mater). 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? Verbal was 157 and Quant was 156. Writing was 5.5. I cried when I got my verbal and quant scores because I thought they would disqualify me from getting in and I couldn't afford another $200 to take the test again. 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 specifically mentioned my interactions with the faculty and grad students, in addition to how my research interests relates to theirs. I also stressed cultural fit because that was a response I got from every program I applied to. 7. Did you feel good about your applications? Why or why not? Not really. My undergrad advisor told me I wasn't good enough for grad school, and being first gen, I thought I was being naiive and clumsy through the process. 8. If you knew then what you knew now, what advice would you give yourself? You are good enough, but keep fighting for it. 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)? I applied to Arizona State University, University of Iowa, and Indiana University. I was accepted and offered a fellowship at all three. 2. How many were you waitlisted for? Did you make it off the waitlist? None. 3. How many were you rejected from? None. 4. Did you get into your top program? Did you expect to get in? I did, but the process felt pretty awful. Iowa called for Skype interviews. I thought my interview went pretty well and one professor said we'd hear decisions in less than 24 hours. We didn't hear for 48 hours, so it was 24 hours of panicking. 5. Did you receive funding? Yes, teaching assistantships and recruiting fellowships. 6. Once you've made your decision...how did you decide which school to attend? I knew in my heart that it was always going to be Iowa, but the funding/cost of living ratio did make the difference. Insurance, stipend, how expensive the area is, how long fellowship funding lasts for, etc. that all is a factor. 7. If you didn't get admitted to a program, will you apply again? N/A 8. What do you want to do with your Ph.D.? I mean, tenure track professor but the market is awful so let's cross our fingers. FINALLY 1. In retrospect...what was the best part of the application process? Getting to know the grad students. They're the best part of this whole thing. You need to decide to spend the next half a decade of your life somewhere where you like the people. 2. What was the worst? The waiting. 3. What advice do you have for future applicants? Contact faculty during the summer and make those connections early. Do whatever you can to make yourself recognizable once your app crosses their desk. 0

That's awesome! He added me on Facebook yesterday. I'm so happy for you both I'll have to make you guys dinner sometime.

I wish there was some sort of legal requirement against that practice. If you pay the application fee and put all the time into applying, don't you at least deserve to hear some sort of decision?

I hope everything works out for you two! Congrats on committing! annnnnnnnd I officially committed to Iowa. So excited!

That's wonderful! Is that where your husband will go too? I met him at the Iowa visit but I didn't get a chance to say hi to you!

I was at Indiana University for their rhetoric program, which recently migrated to English instead of Comm. But I have mono and thought I could tough it out for the visit. I made it through most of the day but had to call it quits because I felt like I was going to die. I'm committing and declaring this week, but I think the hardest part is telling the professors who have reached out to me that I won't be going to their programs. The Comm world is so small and you don't want to burn any bridges, right? I'm such a people-pleaser and I don't want to disappoint anyone. Anyone else feeling this?

Are people starting to make their decisions? I have my last visit this weekend but I'm excited to see where everyone else is going to end up!

YAY!!! That's awesome. You need a celebratory pint of ice cream!

I'm so sorry! It's possible that Iowa is still behind. They promised offers on Thursday and I felt much like you when I heard nothing. But they might be staggering the acceptances or something. There's still hope for your partner!

I got my Iowa acceptance today for rhetoric with a fellowship nomination. I hope everyone else hears soon!

Congrats! That's awesome! Anyone know anything about fellowship offers? I've been nominated for a fellowship but I'm not sure if accepting a fellowship for the first year would adversely affect my employment chances post grad.

Yeah I got an email from U of Iowa today about interviewing. They said they're holding interviews Tuesday and Wednesday, and sending out offers on Thursday. It's definitely nerve-wracking but perhaps interviewing is the best way to judge cultural fit for the program. For those of you who are interviewing with Iowa this week, best of luck!

Hey everyone! So I didn't even know Grad Cafe was a thing until this weekend. I'm applied to PhD programs in Rhetoric (U of Iowa, Arizona State, and Indiana U) So far I've hear from: ASU: accepted with funding Indiana U: accepted with funding and a fellowship nomination. Has anyone heard from U of Iowa? I talked to some of their current grad students and since they hosted a conference last weekend, it seems like they're still screening apps.