natebassett

Last year I applied to several programs in Communications and Media Studies. I have a Master's from The New School and I felt like my research, work and recommenders were very strong, although my GRE scores could have been better. Since spring, I have been frustrated since I failed to get into many of my top picks. I am fortunate that I got a good offer and will be starting somewhere in August with a great assistantship, but I was still feeling envious and upset with myself. "Why didn't I get into this school?" I ask myself. While waiting for responses, I became upset every time I saw another potential student get a positive reply from one of "my" schools. I felt hurt by their good fortunate - I couldn't feel good for them because I was so upset for myself. This has bothered me on and off for months now and I did not have a good answer until today. I was reading this article, and this bit struck me: For a long time now, I have been working in myself to understand forces which motivate and construct us as people, and in some sense restrict our freedoms. By that I mean normative conceptions of what it is to be an __x__, things that tell us about our identity. The most obvious example is gender - for instance, men and women historically have a series of expectations to be considered an authentic or valid person with that identity. Obviously, not all women have to be housewives - masculinity is not so narrow either. Zen is a major source of comfort to me. One author, Charlotte Joko Beck, wrote "In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice, but compassion. Not me against you, not me straightening out the present ill, fighting to gain a just result for myself and others, but compassion, a life that goes against nothing and fulfills everything." So we have to understand that two lefts don't make a right, fire can't be fought with fire, and things like anger, envy and frustration have to be negated with the very last thing we might consider. As with everything, academia has its own set of forces which construct people who identify with the institution. These forces can be harmful and destructive. If I am honest, I'll say that I was disappointed I wasn't accepted to more programs. But my future peace of mind relies on understanding those forces and counteracting them in a way that negates their restriction of my freedom. In this case, consider charity as a resistive, radical act. Certain behaviors and ideas are considered radical when they confront and delegitimize the existing order of things: radical silence, anti-work, pacifism, anarchism. Beck's quote shows how compassion is radical, when we forgive people who have done us wrong, in the same way that radical theology presents non-violence and a refusal to condemn others even when there is a legitimate grievance. If you recognize that envy is a tool of the institution and society to produce a certain result from its members ("more qualified applicants," "stronger research," "sexier work" etc), then you can realize that it does not always suit your individual purposes. This article also supports my point: "run your own race." Particularly if you are involved with academia for ideological reasons - the Buddhist concept of right livelihood would prevent a moral person from working as a defense contractor. If you feel (like I do) like you want your work to be part of a greater effort to broaden human understanding, to improve and increase personal agency and to do some good through teaching and research in a way that satisfies personal moral or ethical expectations, then envy has no part in your career. It is potentially a force which supports the existing order and is not essentially useful or helpful for you or others - it is competition for the sake of the institution, not the work or your own meaningful accomplishment.

poop - I meant to give you positive reputation but clicked the wrong button... congrats on getting into both programs! dunno if you've made your decision, I havn't been checking the forums for the last few weeks. I think it depends on what your research interests and focus is. I was very interested in new media, social movements and public opinion from a critical perspective so I contacted a professor at UIUC who specializes in that, and he told me he was the only one with that focus and couldn't recommend I apply there. Madison seems awesome but I was more focused on the Comm Arts department. Those are both very good offers - the TA ship will give you great experience, but the fellowship at UIUC will give you more freedom I imagine. Congrats again!

Hi, so if you have loans through the department of education (which you probably do), there is a form that you can fill out to get defered if you are in a graduate program with a fellowship. Here's my question - I got an assistantship from UIC where my tuition and fees are paid and I have to be a teaching/research assistant. Does this qualify me for deferment?

Checked my NW status just now and found a rejection notice... letter was worded probably the most politely of any one I've gotten... doesn't matter much because I also got a rejection email from MIT this morning. Which means UIC is where I'll be going. Luckily they made me a good offer.

I just graduated from the MA Media Studies program at The New School. My experience was this: people who are interested in doing research, a thesis, who are interested in interdisciplinary work and who want to pursue phd programs, (as well as loosely-defined artists) were in the MA program. the MS program was created while I was there because of a demand for focus on business-style education and media management for working and potential media and communications professionals. If you are interested in doing a PhD, MA is usually the way to go. MS (unless it's a STEM program?) is usually a professional/career degree I think. You mentioned CBPR, so if you're interested in things like that (as well as PAR and AOR, which would fit nicely with your research interests) then I think an MA may also be more appropriate. The nature of the degrees will probably vary based on program and department though.

Has anyone actually been rejected from NW yet? Why wouldn't they reject people who weren't invited to the interview weekend?

STILL no word from Northwestern... try the status checker? Hopefully any day now!

I just got mine a few minutes ago... looks like I'll be in Chicago one way or another.

different department, doubt it means much

I still believe that "no news is good news" and that a lack of any news does not indicate a pending rejection - it means that you are still in the running. Accepted until proven rejected I suppose.

Anyone heard any news from Madison or Northwestern? I'm thinking seriously about my UIC offer but I think they want an answer by the end of next week.

Like I Give A Fuck - it's a meme. To really explain what I was saying, we were at the New School which has a reputation for radical politics and I felt like I was very much in the spirit of that with my critiques. Very interesting to hear about how that is structured in France! I know that in much of the English speaking world media studies is something that has structured and established programs, but in the US this is not the case, these subjects are often dominated by other disciplines (such as Communication) which can skew away from studies as a research/theory thing to a practical/commercial exercise. I did not know what the state of these subjects are in France, but at TNS we drew extensively from French/continental philosophers and critical theory to understand media phenomenology

I have that sentiment towards PR/advertising people - I think there is a specific sentiment towards commercial/for-profit institutional communications professionals, as well as those who are accruing the skills to promote their agenda, something that speaks to the phenomenon of market forces taking advantage of a media-illiterate population. If you wanted to make it a good vs evil thing, I do think that it is far more ethical to provide critical perspectives and analysis of those forces, as well as promote greater public literacy so that people can evaluate those messages better on their own. This sentiment is very strong in me, to the point where I grievously offended a PR phd candidate during a panel we were both on at a grad student conference. She was talking about how to use smart mobs and collective organization for commercial motivations which I found completely antithetical to the ethos behind the examples she provided. We were at The New School so LIGAF

First acceptance! UIC sent me a very nice letter from the department, with a very nice offer including an assistantship. I'm super excited, it's still sinking in. Very glad I visited Chicago last week but wish I had taken the chance to visit the campus.

Everything I've done up to now has been under the guise of media studies so that's how I usually describe myself - when I have to explain I usually say something like "I study the way technology mediates the political and social relationships of groups of people" blah blah blah