milara
-
Posts
126 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by milara
-
But... which rankings is he paying attention to? There are multiple rankings out there with varying methodologies, some of which are more scientific and some of which are less so. Does he realize that reputation and ranking is an unreliable measure?
-
Congrats to all who have received acceptances in the last few weeks. And for those of you who haven't... hang in there. For those accepted to UW-Madison, I was told that they would have a visit day on Friday, March 23rd. Unclear as to whether it is funded. If anyone is currently considering an offer from any of the schools to which I've been accepted, give me a shout in personal email. I'd love to chat.
-
My guess is that they are perfectly aware that a lot of people have received acceptances already, and so they wanted to make sure that you didn't assume that you were out of the running and accepted another offer. Having said that, the fact that the adcom director took the time to speak with you personally suggests that you are important to them. I'd interpret it as a "better than neutral" sign. You're still in the running, but it's also still a competition. FWIW, Northwestern TSB said it would take ~2 weeks to hear back from them. UW-Madison said that they plan to finish the review on February 24, and have decisions about assistantships and admissions out by March 1. They also don't do interviews. So at least you can be confident that a lack of response is no reflection on your desireability as an applicant!
-
So, back from the Northwestern visiting weekend for TSB and MTS candidates. A few notes: One of the current students in TSB who is international told us that she was not invited to the weekend; instead, she did a series of Skype interviews. One of the professors told us that they do in fact watch what happens on this website. So, beware -- Big Brother is watching! In other news, I wish more schools would give funding decisions with their offers. It would make things so much easier...
-
@tealover Re: responses... if your graduate school is signatory to the Council of Graduate Schools Resolution, then you have until April 15. http://www.cgsnet.org/?tabid=201 UMass-Amherst is signatory to the resolution (the signatory schools are listed in the PDF).
-
Thanks for the advice, @MediaMom! I'm in the position where they have a visit weekend next Thursday-Saturday, and they only sent me the admission letter late Friday, so they want my RSVP for the weekend ASAP. I don't want to waste their money and my time if they can't offer me funding, but if funding is still undecided, then it seems worthwhile to go. Thanks! And you on your acceptance to UConn.
-
I just got an acceptance from Michigan State University's Media and Information Studies program. I'm very happy to have been accepted, but they don't mention any funding. Anyone have advice on how to broach the subject?
-
Hello all! I gave into temptation and emailed all the schools from which I've heard nothing, asking if they do interviews, what their timeline is, In case any of you are applying to the same schools, here's what they said: Michigan State University, Media and Information Studies: The admissions committee is meeting to make final decisions on Thursday, February 9th. We should hear from them sometime the week of the 13th They will let us know via email and mail. Visiting weekend for admitted students is March 8-10 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Information Science:Before admission, their short list of applicants will receive a phone interview with their probable advisor. After the interview, the faculty members submit their picks to the doctoral committee, and they make final decisions. The doctoral committee meets on Wednesday mornings Admission decisions are given via a phone call from the school's director, Stephanie Teasley, followed by an offer letter via email. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Journalism and Mass Communication: [*]They've begun reviewing applicants [*]They had about 200 applicants this year. [*]They hope to finish the review February 24th, and have decisions about admissions and assistantships out by March 1. We're almost through this time of uncertainty. Phew.
-
So one of the programs to which I applied (U Michigan iSchool) invited someone to interview, according to the results page. They said to give them 4-6 weeks to reach a decision, and it's been longer than that. Do you guys think it would be appropriate to call or email and ask them what their timeline is looking like, or ask about the status of my application, or even ask them how they will inform applicants?
-
Ugh. I just had a phone interview with a doctoral committee. I hate getting off the phone and feeling like I completely flubbed the interview. I'm sure it isn't as bad as I feel it is, but it FEELS bad, y'know? You'd think, too, that having one acceptance under my belt would make me calm and confident for my interviews, but the truth was that that isn't the case. In the good news category, I did receive an invitation last night to the interview weekend for Northwestern's Technology and Social Behavior program. Wee! Message me if you're going too. I wonder if we're at the same time as the MTS program's weekend?
-
You called it. I was accepted to the Media, Tech, and Society area. Thanks for the congratulations, and best of luck to you as well!
-
Okay. So you've received a letter informing you that you've been accepted and/or funded. They want you to reply "as soon as possible." But you're still waiting to hear from other schools. What is it appropriate to say in response? Here's a few of the things that I can imagine saying or asking. What do you think -- are any of them bad ideas? What would you ask or say? Thank you. I'm still waiting to hear from other schools What is your deadline for responses? Will you be having any sort of event for prospective students? If not, can I arrange to visit independently? Are there any particular faculty members who expressed an interest in my application, or who would likely be assigned as my advisor with whom I could speak? (obviously I can get in touch with the professors I mentioned in my application, but there may be others, or a subset, that particularly return the interest) That's all I can think of for now, but please, by all means, add your own ideas, or comment on mine.
-
@clarisse09, I found programs via a variety of methods. For communication schools, I started by using the 2004 statistics that you mentioned to give me a list of programs to examine (for information schools I used a different set of rankings from US News). I eliminated any that were in regions where I was not willing to live, and any that were unlikely to be able to offer me funding. Then I examined each program carefully to see how well it matched my interests. During this process, I realized that there were some top-notch schools missing from the ranking. While I couldn't comment on the quality of those schools' doctoral communications or information science programs, I felt that this warranted further investigation. So, I went to some more generic rankings and looked for top 50 schools in the regions I most wanted to live, and then looked at their programs to see if they could fund me and if they were a match for me. This process was laborious and at times it made me want to tear out my hair. I'm sure I missed programs that would have been suitable. But I think applying to nine programs was more than adequate. In the category of good news, today I received a request for another interview today, and an offer of admission from Purdue Communication! *does the happy dance of joy*
-
@clarisse09, what is the name of the program at UMich to which you applied? I applied to Information Science.
-
Congrats, @fanon_fanatic! I just heard from Purdue -- for some reason they never received one of my transcripts, so I resent it. Bah. And then I discovered that one of my schools had this supplemental application they wanted me to fill out, so I logged in and filled that out. Boy did I feel dumb. I hope this won't hurt my chances at either school -- that would suck.
-
@iamhere : Congratulations on your acceptances! You must be super-psyched. I hope you get more good news. I also applied to Purdue, but I haven't heard from them. They had a rather confusing set of deadlines, stretched over the month of December. I was reassured that a 12/31 submission would be on time for consideration. I don't know if I haven't heard from them because they don't want me, or because I submitted my application later. Ah, the mind games we play with ourselves as we play the waiting game. *sigh*
-
I received an email inviting me to do a conference call interview for one fo the schools to which I applied. The email says that "a group of faculty members and current doctoral students will participate in the interview." I want to ask them who will be participating in the interview, but I'm not sure if that's kosher. What do you guys think? What kinds of questions is it okay to ask in response to this sort of interview request, so that I can better prepare for the interview? Thanks in advance!
-
@fanon_fanatic: The US is post racial now? In what universe? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what that term means. Does it mean "No longer bound by racial divisions"? Or "Free of racism"? Or something else entirely? I know this is off-topic, but it's also very interesting, and so I had to ask...
-
I'm sorry to hear that. I never looked into Canadian programs, because SSHRC only gives grants to students who have an A- or better average in each of the previous two years of study. My final GPA for my master of journalism was an A-, but my GPA in my first year was a B+. Since I promised myself that I wouldn't go anywhere that couldn't offer funding, I've assumed that eliminates Canadian schools. I suppose that some of the top schools might have other fellowships they might offer, but what are the odds? The Ontario Graduate Scholarships look at the average of the previous two years, but very few of those are given out, and I just didn't feel like I could count on those. Plus, iirc they are much smaller.
-
@brancan You know, there are lots of so-called gender or women's studies departments that actually do queer studies at the doctoral level, despite their names. It's vaguely irritating because of the whole conflation of gender identity and sexuality, *insert the usual rant here*, but program names aside, they'd probably be a good home for you. I have a good friend who was studying the intersection of Furry, queer, trans, and fan culture with respect to a variety of things, including cyborg theory and various forms of media. She was at IU Bloomington but transferred to Arizona to follow her advisor. I should also direct your attention to both Guelph and U of T's programs. Guelph hosts the annual sexuality and health conference, which addresses a wide variety of topics, including queer, trans, poly, and kink issues. That suggests that they might have programs that are less focused on health that are appropriate for you. I don't know what programs U of T has, but given that Margaret Robinson (http://www.margaretrobinson.com/) graduated from their Theology department, there must be some support for queer studies. (checking) Sexual Diversity Studies, U of T http://www.uc.utoronto.ca/content/view/284/1809/ Not sure if Guelph as a program, but they did lead me to this: Canadian Sex Research Forum http://csrf.ca/index.html And, uh, sorry if this is all stuff you already knew...
-
@fanon Thanks! I both love and hate being interdisciplinary. First, it's hard to find programs that can meet my needs -- or that will want to. Second, I get this impression that the common wisdom is to focus on one area of interest in your application. I hate that! I don't want to talk about just the health communication research, or just the evidence-based discourse (which overlaps with an area called deliberative democracy, from what I hear). And I have other areas that interest me too that I didn't even touch upon. I notice that you are also very interdisciplinary. At least most of the programs I've applied to could be host to most of my research interests. But some of yours seem at first glance to be unrelated -- though maybe I can't see them from the same angle that you do. If my perception is in synch with yours, though, I can't imagine how difficult it will be for you to choose between the disciplines you love if you are admitted to all of the programs. Do you have a primary discipline, or a preferred program? As for your question, Comm was the obvious choice for me -- it was the information science programs that were unexpected. Oh, sure, you'd think that journalism programs would be the place to go, but there are virtually no doctoral programs in journalism. Also, most journalism programs have very naive notions of the intersection of journalism and online technology, in my opinion. They're too invested in the industry's institutions to see the forest for the trees, and too lacking in knowledge about what can be accomplished with computing. There are by contrast a ton of Communication programs, and while many are ill-suited to my interests (for instance, a strong emphasis on humanities methodologies, or a focus on speech pathologies), with so many programs it was inevitable that I would find some that work.
-
A sort of in the meantime nightmare/fear -- answering the phone and finding its a POI who wants to interview me right then, and not remembering who the POI is. I wrote 9 applications. I read a LOT of potential POI profiles over the course of that process! I'm seriously thinking of not answering unknown numbers until I hear back from most or all of my programs. If I AM admitted to any programs at all, I'm afraid I'll get difficult choices. Like, for instance, a mediocre program/school with full funding and an excellent school with not-quite-enough funding. Such a choice is highly probable, actually. One of the schools I applied to can accommodate me, but they said themselves that I'd be helping them forge new ties with the CS department. In addition, the funding they can offer is ~ a $12K stipend, which is really small. But it's in a really cool little city, and my partner is probably transferring there and already lives only a two hour drive or so away. What if I have to choose between that and a bigger stipend at a better school/program that's a better match in a crappy, boring location a nine hour drive from my partner? It would be the war of career preferences vs. personal preferences, and I'm really not sure what I'd do. It's not clear that being a trailblazer at a good school would be such a bad thing, and I met at least one faculty member there who I really liked and who is into similar things. But egads. It would be rough.
-
2 acceptances 2 wait lists or acceptance without funding 4 rejections + 1 known rejection I feel like that's realistic. To expand a little more... I think I'll be surprised if everyone outright rejects me. I But I'll also be surprised if I get a lot of acceptances. I've come to expect disappointment.
-
Who will accept you? Who will wait list you? Who will reject you? Take a gamble, make a prediction! (Idea stolen from a thread from a few years ago)
-
The psychological joys of applying to grad school
milara replied to milara's topic in Waiting it Out
I had a dream the other night that my alma mater called me up and offered me a position as a masters student, which I accepted on the spot. I moved there and was homeless and looking for a place to live, and still had to give notice at my job (or maybe I was trying to do both at once), when I realized I'd never asked them if it was a funded offer. This led to much panicking before I woke up. Of course, the dream in question is impossible for several reasons. I didn't apply to my alma mater even though I'd LOVE to go there again, because they don't accept applicants to my appropriate program without computer programming experience. Also, I'm applying to doctoral programs, and I don't know that I'd accept a masters offer, even from there. And, I've told myself that I will not accept an unfunded offer. But it was still an unsettling dream.
