WalterBenjamin

TinaBelinda, I would not get upset about your application getting transferred to Ryerson. I know people who prefer the Ryerson side of the program over the York side. While York has a tone of money - that's true - RY PhD students have a lot more control over their TA/RA loads and the commute time to your TA duties (all administrative matters) is a lot shorter. Most ComCult PhD students registered at York have to be at York campus twice a week to teach in addition to the classes they are taking. And the teaching load is heavy. At RY, you can pick a gradership / a less demanding teaching position while you are still working through your coursework and get into teaching in your second year. This saves a tone of time. In addition to that, the director at RY is awesome. Very approachable and professional. Very in tune with the needs of his students. BTW, to all those who want to try applying next year: one of the ways to get to know the program is probably to attend the grad student conference. One could meet the directors in person, talk to students, some professors, and maybe even pitch your application file in a way. ) It's over for this year, but it's an annual event.

I am very sorry you have to deal with this. Here's what I think: 1. You are a brand new PhD student, right? People at conferences gossip about big shots, not about grad students. We are small fish. Don't sweat the conference talk. 2. If I were you, I would try to be in control of the gossip in academia by publishing a paper on the social/cultural bias involved in discourse surrounding rape. I am in cultural studies, so this would be my angle. As somebody in psy I am sure you can come up with an angle specific to the field.

Oh, I loved the poster above, so North Dakota-like. So true! And yes, if you grew up in Fargo, you have low sensitivity to cold. I remember days when I could not quite breath in, it was so cold. The air just sort of get stuck in your throat, and your eye lashes freeze. But if you have good coat, good shoes, and a friend with a fire place and a coffee pot, you are all set. And oh my God, I totally know the professor you are talking about. In fact, I think about her from time to time. The bike, the attitude - it was golden. Very true about the friendliness. My best friend's pipe exploded in the middle of the winter. She showed up in the morning to work and had no idea what she was going to do with her house and where she was going to sleep. Of course, I said she could move in with me. Still, by the end of the day, she had 7 (!!!) notes on her door from people offering her dinners, help, accomodations, and etc. I love North Dakota!

What kind of info do you need on Fargo? It is a very... straightforward kind of a city. MONEY: It is very cheap to live in, although you need a car, that's for sure. Check out graduate residences on campus and see how much they are. See if you can find a roommate. It gets COLD, so make sure you have really-really good "equipment" for the winter. Very good parka, good snow boots, very good hat and etc. Buy long jones, when they become available at Wall mart. Unfortunately, I am serious. That, and winter tires, is something you absolutely need to invest in. I would probably go to Marshall's or a place like that and look for winter coats with very high percentage of dawn (make sure you check on the label). These will be warmer and lighter. Just don't put the thing in the dryer, it might stink. HEALTH: Cook at home as much as you can. There aren't that many restaurants that are ... interesting, but that depends on what you like, of course. I used to work out every day, 30-45 minutes of swimming, cardio or weights. Especially in the winter to avoid winter blues. I was really afraid of getting unmotivated/depressed, but ended up feeling amazing. CULTURAL LIFE: there's an art museum, but it's not very interesting. The good thing is that in a small city like Fargo, you can easily take Art classes (cheap, esp. on campus), get out into the national parks, travel the state and go into heritage villages. Drive down to badlands, go to reservations. That's what I did anyway. I have two very happy years in North Dakota. Would definitely come back, but I am a type of person who tries to make my own happiness where ever I am. You sort of have to work on it, but it is true for wherever you are, isn't it?

I lived in Houston for 5 years. It is NOT a city that you can live in without a car. I've tried it for about a year, and it almost destroyed my social life. Getting anywhere was taking over an hour. Biking is out, because it gets really hot 9 months out of the year. I finally broke down and bought a small toyota for $3000. It lasted 4 years, up until the move. If I were to attend grad school there, I would definitely rent in the Montrose/museum district. I worked at the contemporary museum there and took classes at the Glasses school of Art. It was awesome. Good luck! I loved living there.

I had two advisers on the MA level. The first was a stereotypical "Professor Smith" from the PhD comics. It turned out that he was incredibly caring at the end of my program, but you could not tell it the two years that I TA-ed for the man. He was very... detached. In fact, he sort of avoided having an eye contact with you, but we did drink a lot of wine in front of his fire place while talking. His approach to mentoring was loading me up with books, loads so huge, that I once went tumbling down on the floor right outside his office. I transferred to a different adviser, and there were no hard feelings. It was over a difference in academic interests/methodology. In fact, my family still goes to his house for Thanksgiving 7 years later. Second adviser was a dream. I remember sending her my thesis at 11 at night, and having it back with her hand-written notes at 7 in the morning the next day. And the thing was HUGE. She was thorough, respectful, fast. We ended up having a great connection. I flew across the country 5 years after I graduated to have a heart to heart with her about my academic career and what I want to do with it. Come to think of it, we stayed at "Professor Smith's" house that time. So there you go

Thank you for starting this topic. I am starting my PhD program this September and am worried about work/life balance. I have a 2.5 year old too, so it is twice as important, really. I am going to try to set an athletic goal for the duration of the program. As in running a marathon around the time of my defense or something along these lines. I thought I could run to her daycare in the evenings, since I am doing the pick-up. Another thing I am doing right now is de-cluttering and organizing our home, so that when the semester starts, running the house is easier. I will probably spend August cooking/freezing ready to go meals that would last for about three months and will be doing the same over Christmas, when I don't have to teach. ))

hello there, I am in Comm studies too. Don't know exactly what you mean by pre-dissertation research, but I probably should. I am starting my PhD program this September. For now, I'm putting together a "pre-dissertation" reading list and building some on my dissertation proposal whenever ideas pop up/something in the readings provides some additional material that I could build on. I'm always reviewing materisl fundamental to the field.

Lemasal, I have BA in Journalism and MA in Communication. If the program is in Journalism and not Communication, it means that it is likely to be professional vs. academic. Boost your portfolio. Go get yourself an internship and write, write, write. Nobody overlooks a good print journalism portfolio even if you are planning on working in TV/Radio. Your writing skills will translate, and newspapers help you boost your writing skills like nothing else in the field. Don't take "no" for an answer. What you are offering is free labor. If your top choice newspaper says "no" to you as an intern, write to a few reporters that you like best. Ask if you want to job shadow them. Make contacts. Then write and send things to them asking for advice. It's a tribal profession. People do end up helping each other. You might end getting more out of this year than you ever dreamed you could. Working in the field will help you better understand what sorts of knowledge/skills you want to come back to school for. Also, I've been advised to audit a class from one of the professors on the admissions committee, work your butt off, and then ask for a letter of reference. I've never used that, but it seemed to have worked for a lot of people. Good luck!

graduate students do date. After all, you often end up in very close quarters and extremely busy most of the time. There are bound to be romances. Do be careful though. The quarters ARE small, so things are bound to get ugly if you break up before your comps.

I will be starting a PhD program in Communication and Culture this September. My major will be in Comm and Cult, and my minor will be in Comm and technology. My dissertation will have to do with creation of memory sites and community narratives. Anybody has any ideas for the reading list to get up to speed? I've graduated from my MA in 2005. A lot of things happened in the field since then. Recent work as well as ideas on foundational texts I need to review once again will be much appreciated. Thank you!

oh, I never even thought about it that way. I was accepted into the PhD program at the university where I did my MA with generous funding. I had my fairy godmother for adviser, that's for sure. A lot of help, a lot of support, a lot of encouragement. Still left to move across the country to get married. Did not return years later even after visiting my adviser for some serious soul-searching. I felt I needed her help figuring things out academic career-wise and flew across the country once again to spend an evening with her. She basically said I could have my offer once again if I wanted to. I just sort of assumed they would want what was best for me. It is better to get degrees from different schools, and I did get into an incredible program. My MA program was good, but it prepared me for even better things. And I did have amazing letters of recommendation. Does all that sound selfish? I am not sure. I never burned any bridges, saw people at conferences, did joint research with other students, exchanged Christmas cards with my professors, and etc.

I have had a very important experience in my Master's program that I think I need to share. I started grad school with horrible vision to begin with: -6.50 in both eyes. I wore contacts for years, so I did not feel it was a biggie. After the first few months of studying, I've developed terrible head aches. I've mentioned them to the eye doctor at the next contact fitting, and he suggested I wore reading glasses (+1.25 with my vision). I just bought a pair from Wallmart, because I was incredibly broke at the time. My head aches went away almost immediately and my focus improved. The math makes sense though. The contacts are built to adjust your vision for when you are looking further ahead of yourself, but they are too strong for reading. My eyes were straining to adjust, so I started getting head aches. I've been using reading glasses for reading/working on the computer ever since. Cannot do anything without them. I buy funny/cool/nurdy/chic pairs whenever I see some that I neat looking.

1. I think it is too early. I like getting a head start on my reading too, but I just search online for sillabi for previous years. Core readings are the same. 2. You will be fine. I'm sure.

Hello there, Confused in Toronto! First of all, congrats of your offers! You should probably clarify what it is you would like to accomplish by the end of the program. Is it university teaching/research? Also, I can only speak about the comm cult side of things. Please take that into account. Technology (the we use it, the way it changes our ways of learning/seeing things, and etc.) is a big part of comm cult. There are so many things you can do with that, and so many areas of overlap with other fields of inquiry. Have you ever read the book "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology" by Neil Postman? It changed my world. And such an easy/enjoyable read. 1. I don't believe that it is possible to do any full time PhD program while having a full time job, but it depends on you/the job. 3. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ASKmnoCuPKIJ:www.yorku.ca/gradcmct/documents/BACKGROUNDREADINGS06-Revised.doc+&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjI0In6MZpNyGlLRTHYcIHHU3G5q0DQDz3LO0NcBtiB-1kXhKduCWcnJX8xn72vrN1fPUFEvP4X4Becig72onUatVaRVenmHNOhPShq0N4AcXiq4nTG8keItxxHu2kEydwveKi7&sig=AHIEtbRKUcZsVy9TRST3GggjmABrmtg6ew Sorry for a long link. It's to a list of background readings for incoming students to the program. Your requirements are to make sure that you work through this material. You need to have the tools in your arsenal which are specific to Comm and Cult. 4. Classes are both at Ryerson and York. Ryerson is right by U of T. This should probably also be taken into account.