JonesTheNoob

Thanks---this has been really helpful. Good luck with choosing a school

Thanks for your advice. I'm sure I could beef up my quantitative and even my verbal too. If I had to take the GRE again I'm honestly not too worried about it, I just didn't focus on the Math section much because at the time it really didn't matter for the programs I was applying to. Glad to hear you made such an improvement. That's good advice for the community colleges. I don't know if I have enough "real-world" experience yet, but it never hurts to try. I may explore that option at some point. Do you think it's more critical to have experience in research/publications or teaching? If I am eligible for presenting at conferences without being officially tied to a university (the scope of what my office does is extremely different from what I would like to study) I will definitely give it a shot. You (or anyone else for that matter) wouldn't happen to be able to recommend some resources for finding those. I.e. sites or social networks/groups that have information about conferences? As a staff member I have access to to my schools library which is a huge perk, so I will definitely explore that. I wonder if there are any opportunities out there to participate in research in some capacity on like, ongoing projects. I would totally be willing to give free hours just to be a part of that. Have you done much research yourself? Also congrats on Rennselear Polytechnic---one of my professors from my master's program came from there, and he was one of the coolest instructors I've ever had. It's a great school.

thanks MediaMom..... I took the GRE in 2006 (long story---almost went to a different grad program but held off). I was in the 80% percentile for verbal but 59% for Quantitative, and 84% for writing. By the time I apply, I'll have to take the GRE again because the scores reset after 5 years I believe. I know I'll have to improve that quantitative. Unfortunately I don't know where to even begin to find an adjunct teaching position. I don't think it would be possible to teach at the university I work for (it's extremely selective, private, and has a small undergrad population---I think only in rare cases do non PhDs teach there). Community Colleges is something I considered and since I live in Chicago---there are TONS of options. But again, I have zero teaching experience and I'm not sure how to overcome that Catch-22 if I were to start looking for opportunities to teach. How do I get teaching experience when I need experience before I get a job teaching? The conferences and presentations route seems like it might be promising. Will conferences let me send in papers or work if no one is publishing them? I've participated in one before during my masters program, but I presented work on behalf of my school, and now I don't really have an umbrella organization sponsoring me. If I could submit just on behalf of myself, then I could definitely do this. One of the benefits of working at my university is that I have access to their massive library. Do you have any ideas for getting research experience if you aren't currently associated with an academic unit? Thanks so much for your help---this forum has been very enlightening. Which programs did you apply to (If you feel comfortable sharing)?

Hey Decaf, Sorry for not responding sooner. I thought I had changed my settings to get an email alert from a response. Thanks for responding to me though---this is really hard to get pointed in the right direction. That's a great point about what I specifically want to study and unfortunately I have a LOT of interests within the field of mass-comm. If I was choosing a disertation tomorrow, I think I would be looking at one of the following: studying how the lines between media and entertainment get blurred in U.S. political discourse, how the US is becoming increasingly hypercommercialized--particularly from like, more pervasive marketing practices that are enabled through new technology. Or how new media and technology change the way people interact with each other, but I'm afraid I might get pigeonholed into a "Phd in Facebook" or something. As far as where I go with the PhD I think I primarily want to teach,research, and write but I would be open to other non-academic opportunities like working for a policy research or think tank organization. Does that at all help? Thanks again

Hi All, I'm admittingly a noob on this forum, so if I ask questions that have been answered elsewhere please feel free to chew me out. (I looked...honest!) So I'm probably at the minimum a year away from even applying to school, but I want to make sure I do my best to plan out how I'm exactly going to do this. I obviously want to get into the best program that I can, so I'm wondering what kinds of opportunities and experiences should I be seeking out right now, to make my application stronger. Specifically I don't really have any research experience, publications, or presentations, and I'm completely at a loss on figuring out how to seek out those credentials since I am no longer in school. My background I have a BS in Advertising from Illinois, and just finished my Masters in New Media from DePaul University. My undergrad GPA was pretty mediocre (for a number of reasons, missing nearly my whole senior semester for medical reasons being one of them), but I finished my Masters (usually a 2-year program) in one year with a near perfect GPA so I'm hoping that will compensate a bit for undergrad, even though Illinois is a considerably more competitive school than DePaul. My Masters program unfortunately did not offer any opportunities for teaching or research and it was a non-thesis program. Perhaps not the best choice for school given my further career aspirations, but I have the degree and there's no point in looking back now. I'm hoping to get into a Mass-Comm program with an emphasis on new media/technology and society and I'm juggling a number of directions I would want to go with my dissertation topic, which I'm hoping to figure out as part of my preparation year(s) before I apply. I currently work in communications for a university (unfortunately they are an old-school private university with no Journalism or Comm program, so there aren't many opportunities there). Anyone have any tips to get me pointed in the right direction? I have no idea where to even begin.

Hey all---just thought I should respond to this. I feel like this thread did a pretty good job covering CU but if it helps feel free to ask me or DM some questions too. I lived in CU from birth until I graduated UIUC, so I probably know CU more than is reasonably healthy for anyone. I have since moved to Chicago, but go home quite often.