highered_3

I went to undergrad there and I LOVED it. Pullman is such an awesome college town, it's so hard not to be drawn into the school spirit and community vibe of the place. I wrote out a massively long PM to kahlan_amnell about WSU and Pullman, and I can forward it to you if you'd like. Or feel free to ask me any questions you have!!

I'm wondering that, too. I got wait-listed today at Columbia (and want to jump off a tall building as a result) and I'm curious if I should even bother getting my hopes up. Like you said...there ain't no goddamn point if we're at, like, the very bottom of a long list. Meh.

Well that sucks. Wait-listed at Columbia. I might shed a couple tears later when I get home from work.

Ouch! That's not fun. Yeah having attended their rival university, I've always joked that I wouldn't be surprised if UW were the ones who ripped off Gonzaga's rejection letter.... But that's just friendly ribbing (don't want to offend any Huskies who might be lurking! Haha). But yeah I don't remember having a fabulous time with the application process there, either. That's a lame situation though especially since you're stuck wondering forever now if they dropped the ball and were like, "oops...oh well, guess we gotta reject this person now."

I'm in for journalism, too. I wish they offered fellowships/TA/GA positions.

Got into Newhouse Arts Journalism. I interview for fellowships next month so hopefully money comes my way! I'd love, love, love to go there.

Definitely.

I'm not necessarily feeling the pressure, but I totally know what you're talking about. But I mean...I really feel you have to take as much time as you need. And only you know how much time that is, based on your personal circumstances. If there's a school you for sure know you won't be going to, then yeah, totally inform them. But I understand if there are several schools on equal playing field and you need to gather more info about say, fellowships or funding or anything like that. I don't plan on making any decisions until I hear back from all my schools about fellowships and scholarships, and though I'll try to be considerate about turning down schools in a prompt manner as soon as I have all the facts, I'm not going to stress myself out over someone on the wait list. I can only imagine how awful it must be to be stuck in limbo like that (and soon I may not have to imagine! I still am waiting to hear back from 2 schools and there's a good chance I'll get rejected or wait-listed), but this is a huge decision and a huge investment, both with your time but also your money. You gotta do what you gotta do! Good luck!

I think I'm more confident and happy now that I've gone through grad apps than I was before. I know that sounds weird BUT, I was a really mediocre student in high school and a lot of people expected nothing from me. I just thought K-12 was kind of B.S. (or at least in the LAUSD), and I didn't have any patience for pretending I cared. Aside from that, I was picked on a LOT, so I had awful self-esteem. Well, I worked really hard in college, so I think going through grad apps has shown me, "whoa, I have grown up a lot and I am totally way more awesome than any of those jerks from when I was younger expected me to be! Screw them!" That being said, it's not like this entire process has been easy. I feel like I've definitely shortened my life expectancy by at least a year or two just because of the stress of schools losing portions of my application, deadlines, ridiculous people dicking me around with recommendations, etc. But in general, I hope everyone applying to grad programs knows that they're awesome! Even if they don't get in to their school of choice. You obviously care enough about your future and about education and yourself to do something about it, which puts you way ahead of lots of people in this world! Also, I find that I sleep way more now than I used to before, but that's not because I'm not stressed.... It's because if I force myself to sleep the day away, it means one less day until I hear back from schools! It's kind of pathetic....Hahaha.

Unrelated, but I just want to say I love your username! Gilmore Girls fan?

I remember when I was applying for undergrad, I got rejected from Gonzaga and University of Washington. Whatever. But both rejection letters were exactly the same, word-for-word, all three paragraphs or so. The only difference was that the university names had been swapped out. C'mon, seriously? I understand that rejection letters can be very generic. That's fine. Especially for undergrad, I don't need details for why I didn't get in. But REALLY you can't write your own letter or try to distinguish it from a competing university's at all?

Yeah the California schools tend to care zero percent. Even the crappier schools get to so many applicants because everyone wants to move to California (grrr) that they think they're hot stuff and feel like they can blow off students. Everyone I know who has applied to more than a couple CA schools (myself included) has horror stories of varying degrees.

Oh my god, that's awful and wonderful all rolled into one. I just laughed so hard. Not at your rejection, of course, which sucks, but that is one astonishingly rude letter. Wow.

I totally understand. I'm in agony over the wait. I'm sure I'll be rejected, but I still just want to get it over with and know for sure!!!

It was in September or October, I think. But I had a friend who lived in that area, walking distance from the stop, and she was happy enough with it. She found a total dive of an apartment but for super cheap, which was great for an unpaid internship. She never really encountered many problems. I just got unlucky and didn't much feel like returning to the area after getting jumped.

I lived in Rockville, MD and worked in D.C. this past fall for four months and loved it! Felt super safe and lived right by the Rockville Metro, so it made getting pretty much anywhere super easy. I'm an L.A. native, so not having a car with me was a brutal concept at first, but I quickly realized how everyone is right when they say you really don't need a car in the D.C. area -- especially if you live within walking distance of a Metro rail stop. I was an intern near the Chinatown stop in D.C. and the commute wasn't painful at all. I grew to appreciate the the half hour on the Metro every morning and evening to catch up on reading. I found a total steal of an apartment on Craigslist.... I rented a room in a 2-BR condo with a GWU student for $1000/month in Rockville that included cable, internet, heat, etc. I had such a blast...I miss the area so much! Although...I did get assaulted by the New York Ave red line Metro stop one night while going to visit my friend who lived near Gallaudet University, so I definitely have a bad impression of that area and never went back. OK well anyway that's just my two cents about the D.C. area.

I lived in Milwaukee from May to August last summer for an internship, and was totally pleasantly surprised. I'm a Los Angeles native, so a LOT of my friends were laughing over the idea of me living in the Midwest, and especially in Wisconsin. But wow, I loved it! I'm glad I wasn't around for the winter (I can handle snow and cold temperatures, but not as much snow as Wisconsin gets), but I had a blast in the summer. I noticed a few mentions of Summerfest on here, but I gotta say I think Summerfest is HIGHLY overrated, but I think that's because my music tastes don't quite match up with the artists they tend to bring in.... But I still had fun on the days I went. Really though, I wasn't bored ever in Milwaukee, which I think is saying a lot coming from an L.A. upbringing. Anyone who wants an outsider's perspectives, let me know. I was only there for three months, but it was as a reporter for the Journal Sentinel, so I got pretty immersed in the city in the short time I was there. I miss it, too, and can't wait to go back and visit soon!

Syracuse is my first choice for grad school.... But I'm terrified of the winter. How awful is it really? I'm from L.A. but I actually love a moderate amount of cold.... I went to undergrad at Washington State, where I dealt with a few sub-zero temperatures (but usually the coldest parts of winter would hover around the teens and 20s) and unpredictable winters with a a pretty decent amount of snow. But I know Syracuse's snowfall is like 3 times the amount of Washington's. And I'm sooo terrified of that. When it snows, is it, like...nonstop during the winter? What I mean is, at WSU, there would be a fair amount of snow on the ground for like a week or two, and then melt away for a few days, then snow again, then melt away for a few days. I canNOT drive in snow, so I never even risked it, but I still managed to drive around once every couple weeks at least, because there would be days when the ice/snow would melt enough away where I was OK to go out in my car. But how is it at Syracuse? Is there always snow on the ground? Does it get very icy? How good is the city about clearing off the roads, especially around campus? How long winter last, typically (from what month to what month)?

Hey all! I just joined this forum, although I obsessively check the results/admission status section of the site like...multiple times a day. Anyway glad to see there is a thread for us comm/journalism types! I applied to MS/MA journalism programs at Columbia, Northwestern, Syracuse, USC and Boston U. This past week was nuts for me, as I found out I got into Northwestern, Syracuse AND BU, so now I'm just waiting on Columbia and USC. I applied for the arts journalism programs at Syracuse and USC, and everything else was print journalism (I'll be concentrating in magazines). Anyone else apply to any of those programs in particular?

The truth is, you don't need a master's degree in journalism to become a journalist. I've applied to grad programs in journalism mostly because I want a master's degree very badly for personal reasons, and as an aspiring journalist, it's the most relevant thing for me to study right now (although I got my B.A. in English and one day in the future would like to teach English, also). So if I were you and really uncertain as to whether journalism is the career for me, I'd accept the offer for the education program. Because you can work towards a journalism career at the same time (maybe a part-time internship, or dabbling in journalism-related extracurriculars at your school, or gaining experience by writing for online publications) on the side, or try your hand at it after you graduate. If it falls through (either you find out journalism isn't for you, or you can't get work), then you have your education background to fall back on. Have you had any journalism experience in the past?