commsch12
-
Posts
33 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by commsch12
-
I've been told so many times "DON'T GO TO GRAD SCHOOL UNLESS YOU GET PAID FOR IT" that I feel compelled to pass that advice along. One thing to consider, obviously, is whether you will make enough money in the career for which this degree prepares you to make debt worth it - and humanities jobs don't seem to be very common or well-paying these days, in general.
-
@dec4rhapsody, I have a similar background (BA in English, MA in political science) and negligible work experience, and was accepted to two of the five programs I applied to this year. I don't know how representative I am, but I'd say work experience is much less significant than a clear idea of what you want to study. Academic publications also seem to help immensely, though I don't have any of those.
-
If UW is University of Washington, I also was accepted Friday - global/political communication interests. And now I've heard back from everyone so will be far scarcer on the boards for a while while I recover the rest of my life.
-
@edost and same for University of Washington, presumably. Waiting nearly over, finally ...
-
@nix, ah, ok. I applied to the information school - though it looks like that program too makes decisions in the next few weeks. Just out of curiosity, are most people here interested in more qualitative research vs. quantitative? That's the general impression I've gotten from research interests described here.
-
@Nix, what Berkeley program did you apply to?
-
OH, and @s@lly, this raises a very, very good question. When WILL you tell your employer your plans (assuming you get in, fingers crossed for you!)? The traditional two weeks notice seems a bit cruel and disingenuous given that we will know our future at least three months before we leave for the fall ... not sure what is appropriate here, though.
-
@S@lly, haha, me too - employed, that is. I think my employment is also helping distract me from compulsively checking boards, though - I mean I only check two or three times a day, instead of maybe 100.
-
@brancan, if you haven't received a UMich email it could be a good sign. I think they send letters to accepted folks. At least, I haven't gotten an email, and was told to watch for a letter. @fanon_fanatic, thanks! I'm pretty excited about it. I was pretty happy with all the programs I applied to (I limited myself to a handful on purpose, so I'd be happy going to any of them), so I feel like I'll be satisfied even if I get in nowhere else. Of course, still not looking forward to those rejections :/
-
@iamhere, that's what I was wondering re: ratings systems. That and the fact that it's a newer discipline seems to mean there's no real consistent ranking system that's very helpful.
-
@brancan, I was shocked. I haven't really been expecting to get in to any of my programs - I applied half so I could tell myself I gave it my best shot before I settle down to journalism. Good luck to you, I hope you hear good news soon.
-
This is an outdated question now that we've all applied already, but how did you all figure out program rankings/how much did that play into your app decisions? I had a terrible time finding ranking systems and finally scoured websites of a bunch of the programs ranked in the NRC rankings (http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124717/) to look for programs that fit my interests. Did anyone have a better strategy? Is it my imagination, or do comm rankings not really exist?
-
@nullsymbol oh, good point. Communication PhD for me.
-
FYI all UMich applicants, I called to ask a transcript question and was told they put letters in the mail today. Waiting ... almost ... over ...
-
Preparing for a PhD
commsch12 replied to JonesTheNoob's topic in Communication and Public Relation Forum
Do you know what sort of thing you want to study, and why? I've discovered that communication is a vast field that is entirely overwhelming if you don't have some idea of direction, and it's hard to figure out where to go next without knowing where you want to end up. What questions interest you? Do you want to teach when you get out? Do research? -
Not only have I not been accepted to any programs yet, the Penn Annenberg application portal is offline now, so I can't even go through the cathartic "check to see if my status has changed" process. Sigh. I did, however, just re-read "The Children of Men" in 1.5 days. I'm about to start on "The Marriage Plot," I think.
-
@fanon_fanatic, I went to Niger a few summers ago for a reporting trip where I studied the food shortage and left really interested in returning and studying. So potentially Niger and surrounding West African countries. With the recent famine in the Horn of Africa, Somalia also really interests me, but I imagine is nearly impossible to study for logistical reasons. @Iamhere I really admire you and anyone else who applied to more than 10 programs. My five were more than enough for my wallet and creative powers to handle.
-
@fanon_fanatic, I did look at UT-Austin. For some reason I decided they weren't a great fit - maybe they do mainly American stuff? I don't really remember, they all run together in my head. But I remember wishing it was a good fit because I hear Austin is a great place to live. Oh, and I along with you like comm partly because it seems to be pretty open to quant and qual research (though I assume it depends on the school and program, like all things). I'm drawn to qualitative type work because of my background in journalism - I love talking to people and hearing their stories and doing that type of ethnographic work. But I also know the value of using numbers to back up the faces and make the story more generally applicable and useful, and find survey research and other quantitative stats work fascinating.
-
@fanon_fanatic: I chose comm because it seems like the best home base to do the research I'm interested in. I have a bachelor's in English and master's in poli sci, so hardly any academic experience with comm, but media communication fascinates me, particularly foreign correspondent-type reporting. I debated for a while poli sci vs comm PhD programs and just decided after looking through course offerings and professor backgrounds in both departments at a lot of schools that comm topics appeal to me more broadly than poli sci. There's a very narrow topic window in poli sci that I would be happy studying, but I know both in grad school and as a professor one generally doesn't get to just focus on that window of interest - and the rest of the field of comm interests me almost as much as the specific area I want to study. All that said, though, I have to admit it strikes me too that comm is a sort of interdisciplinary non-discipline. But I wonder if that's not one of its strengths.
-
Gracie, from the results last year it looks like every school is different but my schools notified throughout Feb.
-
Agreed 100 percent.
-
@Edost, yeah, got the email from University of Pennsylvania. I wouldn't worry about it ... I feel like I could spend the next four to six weeks microanalyzing everything about the admissions process and at the end I would probably only have a nervous breakdown to show for it. At any rate it's not an acceptance which is what we all REALLY want @Nick, have you been to UW before? What's the campus like?
- 453 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- Communication
- Ph.D
- (and 3 more)
-
Penn applicants, did any of you get this email today? I have no idea if it means anything, except hopefully they haven't rejected me yet.
- 453 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- Communication
- Ph.D
- (and 3 more)
-
I love Macbeth. Hope you hear good news from your programs. Where did you apply for poli sci?
-
I got a Kindle in my Master's program and was pretty happy with it. I mostly use it to read articles, but it saves so much paper and ink and takes so much less space on my bookshelf ... I graduated last summer with a political science master's and am currently working as a journalist. You? What books have you been reading? I know what you mean about feeling purposeless - I almost started looking for more programs to apply for to give myself something to do. I've lost count but I read a mashup of fiction and nonfiction including "The Night Circus" by Morgenstern, "After the Quake" by Marukami, a book about the politics of famine and "Boomerang" by Michael Lewis. All fairly good. Also, I haven't read much Fanon but I loved "The Wretched of the Earth," which I read in undergrad. What sort of comm research do you want to do?