heyDW

Dbear is right-- in fact, one of my friends went 0/7 and the next year 9/10. It sucks to do it all over again but if it's what you want, it will be worth it.

Lol just got rejected from Denver...THANKS FOLKS

My husband just got off the Iowa waitlist and immediately accepted the offer! Wahoooooo!!!

Yeah, it really bugs me-- my husband got rejected and a friend of mine got in, so I guess technically I'm on the waitlist but it'd be nice to hear something. Anything.

I still haven't heard ANYTHING from Denver. I even emailed one of the faculty members to be like "hey I think ur cool" and nothing. The DGS was nice to me but that was like, October.

Congrats!!!! That's awesome! Brandon says "woohoo!"

Oh yeah! Hi! ? He's still waiting to hear from Iowa, but if he doesn't make it off the waitlist then he'll move with me and reapply next year-- the umn rhetoric staff like him a lot.

Howdy folks, just popping in to say I officially committed to UMN yesterday. I'm super STOKED. Wahoo!

A friend of mine got into U Maryland for health comm in early Feb but that's all I've seen.

Communication studies PhD. I also applied, as did two other folks from our program. Of the four of us, 2 have been rejected and 2 haven't heard anything. Also: was accepted to Bowling a Green State for American Culture Studies but waitlisted for funding. Wahhhh!

Received an admittance without funding from BGSU.

Kinda depended on where we applied. Denver doesn't really do tracks anymore, Minnesota he did critical media while I did rhetoric, and Iowa/BGSU he did comm (rhetoric for Iowa) and I did American Studies.

Yep, our last hope is Bowling Green but the pattern has definitely been that one gets rejected where the other gets in hahaha

Denver sent a rejection to Husband today, but nothing to me yet...?

I NEED ANSWERS. THIS WILL BE THE WEEK, I HOPE. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I'm assuming others got this, but Bowling Green sent an email about a diversity scholarship students could apply for and said decisions would be out this week.

Husband got into Bowling Green but no word on funding yet......lol

I've only heard from one program. Luckily it was my top program, but damn.

Ableist language, i.e. "delusional", is completely unnecessary. Please be more careful with your word choice.

i'll start lol FIRST - You as an applicant 1. What did you study in undergrad? Master's (if applicable)? Undergrad: English BA with minors in Communication and Creative Writing. Master's: Communication. 2. What were your grades like in undergrad? Master's? Undergrad was not good...my GPA was a 3.3 and I was kind of all over the place. One semester I'd get really good grades and the next I'd fail a super easy health class. For my Master's, I did well but had a few issues-- a B+ in my Theories class and two A-'s my second semester. I ended with a 3.88. 3. What are your research interests? During my master's I started out being very interested in critical whiteness and critical race theory, but my mentors helped me to find something more personal (also because we don't need more white people studying race tbh), and my primary interests are critical study of how disability and mental illness are discussed politically, in advocacy, and in supposedly "critical" and inclusive spaces. I also think #MADPRIDE and #CRIPTHEVOTE is super cool, and how the internet has helped these communities mobilize and self-advocate for ourselves (with some drawbacks for cognitively disabled folks). 4. What teaching experience did you have before applying? One year as a teaching assistant-- basically taught two 2-credit lab classes for the large lecture COMM 100 class. Then taught Intercultural Communication my 2nd year as an MA student. The past year I taught a few sections of Public Speaking as an adjunct instructor. I also coach speech and have for the past 4 years. 5. What about research experience? Minimal. I was on a paper about anti-abortion rhetoric but found the lead author to be an abusive jackass so I took my name off of it. I have developed ancillary materials for an intercultural textbook, and I've presented on panels at a couple conferences including CTAM and NCA. I am 3rd author on a textbook chapter about Coates's take on "The Black Panther"; the abstract was accepted but the chapter is not done. 6. What about miscellaneous experience (unrelated to Comm/corporate/private/etc)? Not a lot-- most of what isn't here is related to speech & debate or creative writing awards. 7. How old are you (or, what is your age group)? 28 years old SECOND - Deciding to pursue a Ph.D. 1. What made you decide to pursue a Ph.D. in Communication? It was something I'd been considering on and off, but I'd mostly ruled it out until I took an Intercultural Communication course the last semester of my Master's. The readings and the professor were great, and I'd frequently look for readings outside of what was assigned because it was so interesting to me-- unfortunately, most of my classmates didn't agree and discussion was too surface level for me. My husband was also considering applying, so over the past summer we finally decided we'd go for it. 2. Did you contact faculty at the programs you were interested in? What did you say? How often did you communicate with these people (POIs)? I did. It was miserable. I have a lot of difficulty communicating professionally/politely/in-authentically, but I did my best to basically summarize as succinctly as possible my research interests and why I was interested in their work. Then I'd ask if they felt I would be a good fit for this program. A few of my friends were in one of the programs I was considering, so I luckily got to hang out with the chair of the dept (and faculty member of rhetoric!) and that helped me a lot-- I emailed him once after the deadline to say I was worried I hadn't gotten my name out there enough but that I was very interested in applying. His response was great and encouraging. I emailed five other potential faculty members-- 2 didn't respond, 2 did but the interactions were terrible and I ultimately decided not to apply, and 1 was great but I psyched myself out of applying. 3. Did you visit or contact graduate students? How did thaaaat go? Loved this. Talking to students helped me really figure out if I'd fit or not-- a grad student at UPenn warned me (based on my interests/identity) that the program would be more frustrating than productive (and that a faculty member I was really interested in had been denied tenure and would be leaving), while another gave me a lot of examples of her class projects and I was super interested in them. By far, though, the greatest resource was skyping friends of mine who were in/went through programs I was considering. This was how I ruled out a program-- but it was also how my top choice became the U of Minnesota. 4. How did you decide who to ask for letters of rec? Were they all professors or did you get letters from outside of academia? I chose 3 professors from the department I got my Master's from. One had extensive experience with me as a student and colleague, one had a lot of experience with me as a writer, and one had experience with my teaching. THIRD - Actually applying 1. How did you look for programs? This is something I wish I'd gone back and done better-- I really just looked at programs I knew existed and looked at faculty and grad students. I found some programs that fit well, but come December I had major regrets about not doing better research. There were several programs that I didn't look into until it was too late. 2. How did you decide where to apply? Skype interviews/emails with grad students, emails with POIs, grad parties at NCA (helped me to rule out a program), program websites 3. What was your biggest priority in a program? Honestly, how much I liked talking with the faculty/students and the location. I grew up in a big city and have spent the past 8 years in small towns and I really want to be back in a big city. Also, while program prestige matters to me, I know I would be very unhappy if I didn't enjoy the people I'm practically going to live with for the next four years. 4. How many schools did you initially set out to apply to, and how many did you actually apply to? At one point, my list was 8 or 9. Due to money/deciding not to apply at the last minute, this number went down to 4. 5. What were your GRE scores like (either specifics or vaguely)? How many times did you take it? Did you feel good about your scores? I took in once in 2012. My scores were not great at all-- Verbal: 159, Quant: 147, Writing: 5.0. I was worried my math score would drop dramatically if I retook, but I did not feel good about it and was convinced I wouldn't get in anywhere. 6. How did you frame your experience/interests/fit in your statement of purpose? Did you focus on something more heavily than other stuff (like faculty or experience)? I framed my statement like this (generally): 1. Opening statement - short narrative that brough me to why I was pursuing a PhD (mine was confusion regarding Trump's election and my generally liberal friends diagnosing Trump/Trump supporters with cognitive impairments). 2. Discussed for about a paragraph the work I'd done to this point to prepare for Ph.D. (research, teaching, coursework, locating myself methodologically/theoretically) 3. Discussed which faculty I felt I had stuff in common with; in one case, I happened to know who one of the incoming faculty members was going to be and had been assigned her work in class, so I was able to really push her as a fit. 4. Talked about the campus itself-- interdisciplinary and the location, opportunities for me to engage in advocacy beyond the classroom. 5. Discussed my future goals (wanting to be a tenure-track prof, where I wanted to publish, why I wanted to pursue these things) 6. Reiterated myself as a fit based on something I'd heard/experienced (e.g., this faculty member said they were looking for students who like to work and are trying to publish-- I reiterated that I had heard him and I was up to the task). I think my statement did a very good job of articulating fit for my top program because it was something I'd thought a lot about and it was a program I'd looked into a lot. I'd had several conversations with current graduate students and I had an idea of what the atmosphere of the program was like. Because the program encouraged interdisciplinary study, I argued the material the program was probably not very knowledgeable on (e.g. disability) could be supplemented through other departments. On the other hand, I don't know if I did this as well for the rest of the programs I applied to. 7. Did you feel good about your applications? Why or why not? I felt terrible. When I double checked something I'd turned in, I saw a glaring typo I'd missed on my 6 proof readings. I felt sloppy and unfocused. I felt desperate. 8. If you knew then what you knew now, what advice would you give yourself? To really listen to people when they say "more than anything, it's about fit" and not worry so much about GRE/GPA and spend more time looking at faculty profiles/published works. FOURTH - GETTING IN (OR NOT) - feel free to update/answer later 1. How many programs did you get into (and which, if you don't mind sharing)? So far I've gotten into 1 (University of Minnesota) and am waiting to hear about 3 more (as of Feb 17th) 2. How many were you waitlisted for? Did you make it off the waitlist? I have a sneaking suspicion I'm on one, but they haven't told me either way. 3. How many were you rejected from? None yet 4. Did you get into your top program? Did you expect to get in? Yes, I did, and no, I really did not. I didn't expect to get into any programs, but for some reason U of M felt like my biggest reach-- but it was also the one I spent the most time thinking about and asking questions about. And, honestly, it was where I felt I fit best. So I think my application demonstrated all of that. 5. Did you receive funding? Yep! Very generous offer. 6. Once you've made your decision...how did you decide which school to attend? I haven't yet, but assuming I get into more than the U of M, my decision will depend heavily on where both me and my husband get in (if it happens). 7. If you didn't get admitted to a program, will you apply again? N/A but I would. I think I know much better how to articulate my ideas now. 8. What do you want to do with your Ph.D.? Research & mentor graduate students! I love advising. Teaching is okay. FINALLY 1. In retrospect...what was the best part of the application process? Having to write about myself in such a strange way forced me to articulate my thoughts/interests and really hone in on what was important to me. 2. What was the worst? Other than the waiting period, the application process often felt like a lot of posturing and trying to flatter people. It feels weird to be like "I want to do critical research and present at conferences and kinda scratch each other's backs" while there's homeless people across the street from the NCA hotel. 3. What advice do you have for future applicants? Send thank you notes and really figure out what you want to spend 4+ years thinking about.

When I decided to apply to Ph.D. programs, I had very little guidance and absolutely no idea what I was doing. I checked past threads here to get better ideas of what programs are out there/how to figure out where I stood as an applicant. I thought it might be useful for future applicants to answer some questions we know to ask when starting out the applicant process. Forgive my grammatical issues...having an anxiety-day. it's a lot of questions but that's because like, i am wordy and also i had alllll of these questions and more when i decided to apply. FIRST - You as an applicant 1. What did you study in undergrad? Master's (if applicable)? 2. What were your grades like in undergrad? Master's? 3. What are your research interests? 4. What teaching experience did you have before applying? 5. What about research experience? 6. What about miscellaneous experience (unrelated to Comm/corporate/private/etc)? 7. How old are you (or, what is your age group)? SECOND - Deciding to pursue a Ph.D. 1. What made you decide to pursue a Ph.D. in Communication? 2. Did you contact faculty at the programs you were interested in? What did you say? How often did you communicate with these people (POIs)? 3. Did you visit or contact graduate students? How did thaaaat go? 4. How did you decide who to ask for letters of rec? Were they all professors or did you get letters from outside of academia? THIRD - Actually applying 1. How did you look for programs? 2. How did you decide where to apply? 3. What was your biggest priority in a program? 4. How many schools did you initially set out to apply to, and how many did you actually apply to? 5. What were your GRE scores like (either specifics or vaguely)? How many times did you take it? Did you feel good about your scores? 6. How did you frame your experience/interests/fit in your statement of purpose? Did you focus on something more heavily than other stuff (like faculty or experience)? 7. Did you feel good about your applications? Why or why not? 8. If you knew then what you knew now, what advice would you give yourself? FOURTH - GETTING IN (OR NOT) - feel free to update/answer later 1. How many programs did you get into (and which, if you don't mind sharing)? 2. How many were you waitlisted for? Did you make it off the waitlist? 3. How many were you rejected from? 4. Did you get into your top program? Did you expect to get in? 5. Did you receive funding? 6. Once you've made your decision...how did you decide which school to attend? 7. If you didn't get admitted to a program, will you apply again? 8. What do you want to do with your Ph.D.? FINALLY 1. In retrospect...what was the best part of the application process? 2. What was the worst? 3. What advice do you have for future applicants?

Same here! @DBear and I are already fb friends! ☺️

ohhhh man that's some interpersonal research i can get behind. very cool.

I changed my profile picture and personal info for fear of being spied on. It'd be a good idea to take programs out, too...eek. And @DBear I think it was good to tell those schools-- if you're sure, you're sure, and I'm sure it meant a lot to another student who otherwise would have been in waitlist hell for months.

I applied. Haven't heard a peep.