Jcantrone

UIUC and UW-Madison are definitely top-ranked Comm depts and super competitive. If your GRE score isn't up to snuff, definitely throw a few safety schools in there.

My advice? Spend most (maybe even all!) of your time preparing for the quant section. Why? Because, even with practice, verbal scores don't budge very much. And you seem pretty confident on the verbal section anyway. Quant scores, however, can be hugely increased. I took the test twice, two years apart, once to get into my masters program, and again to get into PhD since I wasn't very confident in my first score set. The first time around, I studied maybe 2 or 3 weeks out, without much of a study plan. Verbal score was good, quant was pitiful. Second time around, I started studying 8 weeks out (with a solid study plan) and only improved 20 points on the verbal, but over 200 on the quant! Improving your quant score is the best way to increase your overall combined score.

From what I understand, the Journalism/Mass Comm dept, and the Comm Studies dept are entirely separate. So, JMC shutting down will have no affect whatsoever on the Comm Studies dept.

Thanks! Glad to hear you got off the Pitt waitlist as well! (Small world) Hope that your top choices get back to you soon; at least you have a great offer at a great school to fall back on

Hey commtome, I've withdrawn myself from the waitlist at Umass and sent my acceptance letter to Pitt! Feels good to have that decision out of the way. (My girlfriend is very glad to not have to hear me obsess over the deeper meanings of emails with DGSs and so forth.) How are things going with you?

Two of my friends were rejected; one was accepted. They all knew by mid-march. The campus visit weekend was Mar 18 I believe. Not sure how their waitlist works, so you may be waitlisted. It is one of your top choices? Perhaps you can ask for an extension on decision making until you've heard back?

Hi lastminute, I'm in social sciences too, and was having similar concerns but ultimately feel at peace. Can I ask what the schools you were choosing between, or among, are? And what your field is? I can offer my honest, unbiased opinion on your options and your final decision.

I've said it before on similar posts, but I really think there is some merit to telling people that "School A" is always going to be the one that, deep down, they actually want attend more-- otherwise you wouldn't call it School A in your posts; it'd be School B (or C or D etc.) School A all the way.

Interestingly, although perhaps not helpfully, I have noted a tendency for people to label as "School A" the school that they really, truly, deep prefer; and "School B" as the school they are somewhat more ambivalent about. My take? Always go with your "School A"-- that's where you really want to go to begin with.

Ugh, I feel for you. This sounds like a horrendously tricky position to be in. If there were ever an appropriate occasion to accept an offer and back out later when more information becomes available, this is the occasion. All the best to you.

hmm..well they HAVE to be letting in some people from the waitlist. Just depends where you're at on that list. I wouldn't necessarily abandon all hope.. if it was the grad secretary who told you that, there's a chance she might not be up to speed on the rankings of the waitlist (I'm sure the rankings change a bit, depending on whose accepted their offers and what their research interests are) and might be responding with a sort of boilerplate message to all applicants who ask.

If you have definitive funding from any of the universities that you have heard from, I'd pick that school. If you haven't heard about funding from any of them, I'd pick Bloomington (great program, and from what I've heard, they fund all their students, though I'm not sure how they hand Fulbrights.) Good luck!

that sounds very hopeful! congrats! which school? (if i may be so bold to ask!)

depending on your budget, you may be able to afford a 1bdr or studio.. I'm looking into them myself, and there seem to be a lot of affordable options (600-700 for 1 beds and like 400-500 for studios.) landlords usually know about their fall openings in may or june.

good karma to you, jmac! were you given any indication of where you are ranked on the waitlists? If you were told you rank high up there, you should definitely (fingers crossed) get off at least one of the wait lists, because nearly half of every admit pool accepts offers elsewhere. Best of luck

theres been some movement! seems an MA applicant was sent formal waitlist notification. hopefully they'll start putting out more notifications very soon

just another encouraging tidbit: (learned in an economic history course...yes, im a nerd. but then, isnt that why we're all here?) after a recession, federal and state gov'ts tend to pump money into educational institutions pretty much first and foremost. this will not only increase funds across depts, and possibly lead to new tenure track positions, as well as give senior tenured professors the confidence to retire. so in about 4-5 years, the market for comm phds should be much, much rosier than it is right now.

this waiting is getting ridiculous.. i cant believe there are still programs who have yet to put out any kind of notification to their applicants! (even if the notification is just to say "hey you're in a big waiting pool whose applications are still active blah blah blah.) anyway, hope all umass applicants get some (hopefully good) news soon!

this waiting is getting ridiculous.. i cant believe there are still programs who have yet to put out any kind of notification to their applicants! (even if the notification is just to say "hey you're in a big waiting pool whose applications are still active blah blah blah.) anyway, hope all umass applicants get some (hopefully good) news soon!

thanks for the info, commtomme! always good to connect with fellow waitlisters. only we can understand each others anguish! out of curiosity, where does Pitt rank in your list of potential schools? (it's pretty near the top for me, since i'm hoping to study rhetoric pretty exclusively.) i also get the sense that it's a fairly elite program if you're into rhetoric. (always hard to compare comm programs against each other though.) good luck to us both!

bump! i received notification that i am on the waitlist.. any fellow waitlisters (or anyone turning down their admission to the program?) this waiting is killing me!

*bump*

ugh, im still waiting on amherst too. so assuming that means im waitlisted also. when you guys emailed the coordinator, did she give any mention of how long their waitlist is, or whether it's ranked?

damn, those are some nice offers. im guess School D is out lol..

School A- teaching assistantship; full tuition waiver, health insurance, 15,600 stipend. 4 years. School B- teaching assistantship; full tuition waiver, health insurance, 15,300 stipend. Not sure how many years. pretty standard.