MediaMom
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Everything posted by MediaMom
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An update for anyone waiting on UConn info: I got a voice mail from the DGS tonight informing me of my acceptance (I'd already found out via the web site but had not gotten any formal correspondence from the university yet) and offering me a TAship. He didn't go into details in the voice mail--no dollar amount--but said the TAship would include health insurance and a stipend.
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I'll jump into this thread. I'm 36--I'll be 37 by the time the fall semester begins--and I'm married with two little girls, ages 1 and 3. I'm still waiting to hear back from one of my schools, but I have two acceptances, so I will definitely begin my Ph.D. in communication this year. I finished my master's degree in 2002, so it's going to be very strange getting back into student mode! I'm glad to see a thread dedicated to the often unique experience of older grad students, especially those of us who do have kids and other at-home family responsibilities.
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Call and ask if there is a deadline by which you need to notify them of your intent to enroll or not enroll. Explain that you are still waiting to hear from other schools and that you hope to make your decision soon, but that you can neither accept nor decline their offer just yet. They will (should!) be understanding. This is not at all uncommon. Congrats on your acceptance!
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I have to agree. The most important thing is to find a good fit, with people who will not only allow you to do the research you want to, but who have the background necessary to actually guide you through that research and help you to excel. Looking for a job on a faculty is a lot like looking for a place in a PhD program; it's all about fit. If you're a media studies expert, then a department looking for someone with an expertise in organizational communication is not going to want you, regardless of where you went to school or how many publications/presentations you have.
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I say, "Jinx!" When I was a kid my mom would say, "Jinx, you owe me a Coke!" Yeah, it doesn't make sense.
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Graduate recruiting weekends
MediaMom replied to mintless's topic in Communication and Public Relation Forum
My best guess is that they are paying for it; otherwise they would just extend an invitation to visit and expect you to make your own travel arrangements. Plus, they're only "able to invite three," which makes me believe there is a budget involved. It's possible that you've been accepted already and that someone dropped the ball in notifying you, but the "able to invite three" wording makes me lean toward this being an chance for them to interview you. I think your best bet is to ask for clarification. Call or send an email and say, essentially, that you're very grateful for the opportunity and interested, but that you'd like to clarify the purpose of the visit so that you can prepare effectively. Ask them if you'll be interviewing during this visit, and if they can give you a general timeline for how admission decisions will ultimately be made. They are obviously interested in you, and I can't imagine they'd have a problem answering these questions (if they give you a hard time about it, then you may have just found out all you need to know about them). Good luck -
Absolutely - if you haven't been rejected yet, then there is still hope! I can't imagine everyone extended an offer will accept. Good luck. I know the waiting process is rough.
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FYI - I just got my official rejection email from UMass and it said that they received over 160 applications and only accepted 12 people. So now I don't feel so bad! Judging by the number of acceptances I saw on the results page, I think a majority of those 12 are here at Grad Cafe. So congrats to you.
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"Other life decisions..." - exactly! I'm a planner by nature, and not knowing where I'll be going to school is stressing me out. Regardless of where I land, I'll need to take at least some evening courses, which means I need to drastically alter my childcare arrangement and perhaps even hire additional childcare for the evenings because my husband travels often for work. I would really like to get a jump on that, but until I know what school I'll be at, I can't really do much. Grr. I realize they're inundated with applications, and I've worked in higher ed long enough to know that nothing happens fast in our world. But it's still hard.
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Thanks - I'm sure you'll hear soon. I see from one of your previous posts that you and I also have UAlbany in common. It's the only school I haven't heard from, and because I want to stay here in the Albany area, I am becoming very impatient! I know their deadline isn't even until Feb. 20, so it might be March before we know anything. But patience is not my strongest quality.
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Just checked my application status on the website and saw I was accepted to UConn. No email was sent telling me to check on the status, so if anyone is waiting to hear from them, go to the site and check! My acceptance was dated Feb 10. No word on funding at this point. I'm about 99% sure I'll be turning down the offer, but it's still exciting! I do really like their program....if only moving to Storrs right now was a real option for me.
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This wasn't for Michigan, but I did the following: I knew I was accepted to a program but was only told "information about funding will follow from your admitting department" in my acceptance letter. After a couple of weeks I hadn't heard anything so I emailed the department secretary and said, "I've just been notified of my acceptance and am excited about the opportunity. I'd like to plan a visit to campus, but think it would be best to wait until financial aid decisions have been made. This way, if I am offered any funding, I can ask all of my questions at one time. Do you have a general idea of when those decisions will be made?" The secretary forwarded my email on to the professor who serves as the chair of the financial aid committee, and she was really nice about answering all my questions. (I found out funding will be decided at the end of Feb, so I made an appointment to visit campus in early March.) If you're not planning a campus visit, you can couch it another way; perhaps that you'd like to schedule a time for a phone conversation with the department chair or something, etc.... Congrats on your acceptance!
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safety schools and reaches
MediaMom replied to mintless's topic in Communication and Public Relation Forum
My own two cents: I don't think you'll have too much difficulty finding a program with faculty who are studying LGBT-related topics. It's a big area of research and I would say that in all of the schools I looked into when applying, at least one faculty member was currently doing research (or had done research recently) in the area. Additionally, a number of the academic conferences I research, either from the perspective of attending or submitting, have specific divisions dedicated to LGBT studies. As for the TA or RA position, you don't have to have any former experience. Some universities might want you to have had some research experience before appointing you as an RA, but the whole point of the assistantship is that you're learning. They'll train you, and you'll learn from the professor you work under. When I was in my master's program, I spent part of the time as a teaching assistant and the other part as a research assistant, and I had no prior experience in either. Best wishes -
Seriously - I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old. You'd THINK I could find ways to keep myself busy instead of obsessing. But the mind wanders when one is changing diapers and chopping up grilled cheese into tiny pieces. Congrats on your new baby.
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I'm guessing they must set up all of the responses in some kind of auto-mail program, because both my acceptance to RPI and my rejection from UMass came late at night or very early in the morning. I've seen a few comments on the results board that said things like, "Got an email at 4am." So I'm taking this a sign that I shouldn't expect any correspondence during the daylight hours. If there's no email in the morning, I'm trying to just forget about it and wait til the next day. So anyway, my point is that if you're still waiting to hear from UMass, your email may come in the middle of the night.
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I did not get into UMass....it's a bummer but I kind of expected it. I don't think it was a good fit for me. In my SOPs I really tried to identify multiple faculty members whose work interested me and aligned with my interests, and if I'm being honest, when I wrote the SOP for UMass I really had to stretch to find people. I'm good with it. Congratulations to everyone who was accepted there! I saw a couple of positive results on the survey page. And good luck to everyone still waiting to hear from them.
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@Brancan - My UMass status is still "applied" as well and I haven't heard anything else. I don't know if that's helpful to you or not, but you're not the only one in limbo there.
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Communication Introductions
MediaMom replied to CommPhD's topic in Communication and Public Relation Forum
@CommPhD - Ha, that's a good question. My M.S. program was more practice-oriented than academic, and because at the time I did not think I would want to continue with school, I chose not to follow the thesis track. So I don't have a lot of research experience beyond small-scale projects done for class, and a paper I wrote and presented this past fall on an activity I use when teaching interpersonal communication. What I do know about research methodology is mostly self-taught. I find that I am more drawn to qualitative methods - I'm interested in things like conversation analsys, rhetorical analysis, and ethnography - but the studies I read that cover the kind of content I'd like to be covering do have a strong quantitative component. I think my best bet is to focus on using mixed methodology, trying to study as broad a range of methods as possible. We shall see! It's been so long since I was a student that I'm eager to try out as many new things as I can. -
Communication Introductions
MediaMom replied to CommPhD's topic in Communication and Public Relation Forum
Hi there.. A little bit about me: My undergrad degree is in English and my M.S. is in organizational communication. I finished my M.S. in 2002, and over the last ten years I've worked in PR and magazine journalism and, most recently, teaching communication and English courses at two colleges. My family recently relocated for my husband's job, and I've been unable to line up a teaching job in our new city. So for now, I'm focused on being a mom (I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old) while also doing a little independent research and trying to get a jump start on some reading before beginning school in the fall. As a Ph.D. student I hope to study media effects, specifically how mass media messages influence disclosure and decision-making in healthcare contexts and within interpersonal relationships. I'm also interested in the role of communication technologies in building and maintaining relationships, and in the critical analysis of media, especially TV. I love the communcation field because, as gurlsaved mentioned, it is so broad, and there are so many avenues to explore within the discipline as a researcher and as a teacher. I adore teaching college students and as much as I want to develop my skills as a scholar, I know that I want to be in the classroom full time. I'm also a total TV addict/dorky fangirl at heart, and the thought of spending my career researching and writing about media is very attractive to me. I've enjoyed discovering this forum and reading about everyone's journey. -
@tvphd - I completely agree with you that the admission process is subjective; it's not enough to be "qualified" on paper. What you really need, in the end, is for at least one faculty member to step forward and say yes, I have the time to devote to another advisee and I am interested in this person right here. I worked really hard to research individual faculty members' work and to reference as many faculty members as I could in my SOP, linking their current research to my interest areas. I wanted to make it very clear that I was not only competent academically, but that I was capable of being a good fit for their departments. Let's hope it paid off. And no, getting in is not the same as getting funded! I'm very happy about my acceptance to RPI, but they have yet to announce their financial aid decisions. The university overall "guarantees" funding to PhD students for the first two years, so I'm expecting to get at least something, but I'm not sure what it will be.
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Ironic - I was accepted at RPI as well. I'm going to PM you
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Preparing for a PhD
MediaMom replied to JonesTheNoob's topic in Communication and Public Relation Forum
I know that there are some sites that list conferences in various disciplines, but do not have any URLs off the top of my head. If you think you might write about a trend in your field or something on the practical side, you might want to look at organizations like PRSA or IABC to see if you can find any conferences aimed at private sector professionals rather than academics. I found the two conferences I submitted to via friends and co-workers. One was a small teaching conference created specifically for community colleges, and the comm. college I taught for was very involved in it and encouraging of its faculty's involvement. The other was the New York State Communication Association. Several of my friends who have faculty positions are active in NYSCA, and I knew it to be a conference that was welcoming to unpublished/inexperienced scholars and students. Often the regional chapters of national organizations are easier to get into when you're unknown in the field. I honestly can't say how heavily teaching experience will be weighed by various schools. I happen to have a significant amount, but I don't know how much that played into RPI's decision to admit me or how much it might affect my decision elsewhere. I definitely think it helps. As for research - again, I can't really say. Some PhD programs will admit students straight out of their BA program and many of them will have little or no research experience. I have a M.S. degree, but my master's program was more practical than academic and I did not do the thesis option, so any research experience I have is really self-taught. Anyway, best wishes to you! -
Preparing for a PhD
MediaMom replied to JonesTheNoob's topic in Communication and Public Relation Forum
Oh, and yes, you can submit as an "independent researcher" without a sponsoring organizatoin. Many smaller, regional conferences are very welcoming to new/unpublished scholars. As a staff member at a university, can you get access to their library? If not, contact the university where you got your master's degree. Most will give a user ID and password for the library's online resources to alumni. -
Preparing for a PhD
MediaMom replied to JonesTheNoob's topic in Communication and Public Relation Forum
Jones, we seem to have much in common. A bit of my background: I took the GRE in 2007 in anticipation of applying to a program I never applied to. I did very well on the verbal and writing sections, but tanked the math. Like, 430 (16th percentile). Yeah, that bad. When I decided that I wanted to apply to programs this year, I knew I would have to get that score up. I'm 36 years old and finished my master's degree 10 years ago, and hadn't really taken any math since high school! So I was freaking out. I used a combination of the tutorials on SparkNotes.com, a Barron's guide, and the website 800score.com, and studied my butt off for three months. I ended up with a 720 on the math. I nearly fainted. If you're worried that you're not "good" at math, trust me, you can learn. You can even teach yourself. I have spent the last several years teaching at a community college and at at a four-year state college. I had no experience before I started - you have to start somewhere! I had the best luck approaching department chairs directly. Don't even bother with HR. Send an introductory email to the department chair saying that you have professional experience in a particular area, that you have a master's degree, and ask if they are in need of any adjuncts to cover courses that might fall within your area of experience. If they say they have nothing now, try following up in a few months. Adjunct spots are often filled in the 11th hour, and a lot is right time, right place kind of timing. As an example - my background is in PR and magazine journalism. I was hired at the state college to teach media writing (a journalism-heavy course that introduces mass communication theory and covers writing for a variety of media) and to teach/develop a course in writing for public relations. They didn't care that I'd never taught before. They cared that I had worked in these fields and could bring practical experience to the classroom. Last year I decided that if I was going to apply to PhD programs, a presentation or two would be helpful. So I wrote a paper about an activity I use when teaching interpersonal communication, and tied it into communication theory and aspects of experiential learning. I submitted it to two conferences and was accepted at both, and presented variations on the paper at both. I used the paper as my writing sample for my applications. You don't have to be a student or a faculty member to get a presentation accepted. You just have to write something good that fits the conference theme. I have been accepted at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and am waiting to hear from UAlbany, UMass, and UConn. Hope that's helpful! -
I'm a bit late in adding my comments to this thread, but I'm so excited to actually find a forum dedicated to communication programs (everything I find is engineering or science!) that I thought I would still say hello. I have just gotten my acceptance to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and am thrilled. They have such an interesting program. I'm waiting to hear from Albany, UConn, and UMass. Since I currently live in the Albany, NY area and my husband is very happy in his job, we've decided to stay here. Now that I know I'm in at Rensselaer, UConn and UMass are out of the running, so I'm really just waiting to hear what Albany has to say. I want to study media effects, especially the ways in which mass media messages affect decision-making and disclosure in healthcare contexts. I'm also very interested in the influence of communication technologies on interpersonal relationships. In scanning the other comments, I saw at least one other applicant to UAlbany, so perhaps we'll be meeting in person at some point. Good luck to everyone!