andylee0427 Posted April 3, 2021 Posted April 3, 2021 11 hours ago, eml121 said: Hey! I just barely found this forum and am also in the boat of being waitlisted at Austin (I did post my results). I was starting to think they hadn't sent any offers yet and just waitlisted people to buy some time so I'm glad I'm not the only one with that suspicion. I have an offer at another program that was putting some pressure on me to give them my decision early, so I emailed Austin multiple times to see if they had an updated timeline for the waitlist decisions and got no response. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! Hang in there! Is another program in film and media studies field? I'm kinda curious...
fossati Posted April 3, 2021 Posted April 3, 2021 (edited) On 3/30/2021 at 7:11 AM, turanfly said: The professor said that the job market is so bad for PhDs that the labor you put into that degree isn't worth the grim prospective of not having a job after you finish. My friends are not in film studies but they are pursuing humanities degrees - English, Music Composition, etc. I'm looking to corroborate this information with folx who are currently in film studies doctoral programs to gauge how happy they are in their programs and with their decision, but I haven't had any luck in finding someone. I concur with pretty much everyone's responses that have commented on this. Deciding to pursue a PhD is not a light issue. And if you intend to get a job in academia, you should know that may not be necessarily possible. On that note, some people pursue PhD's in Film and Media studies and may have other career options in mind. A person from my Master's program is doing their PhD at a "top program," which also gives them the resources to work on their own films and publish their own film criticism. They are not necessarily in interested in becoming a tenured professor, but instead want to get paid to do research so they can also publish in non-academic journals. I also know people who have opted out of academia after getting tenure-track faculty jobs and decided to become an editor at a journal. All in all, I would really consider what you're doing. For me, I have also been in the working world and have worked a day job, and nothing has been as fulfilling for me as academic writing and research, so I enter my PhD program knowing full well about the difficult employment options. This has been a tough year for admissions, and we are also uncertain of academia's future. So this climate is particularly difficult. I know people who have found jobs during the pandemic, and I know others who are struggling. It is my hope that this pandemic situation is temporary and things will go back to normal, but of course, we don't know for sure how things will change since academic institutions have taken a hard hit. Anyway, those are just some thoughts that I have. I have a ton more! But I do agree with other people, it's not a light decision. Edited April 3, 2021 by fossati turanfly 1
fossati Posted April 3, 2021 Posted April 3, 2021 On 3/17/2021 at 8:32 AM, Kim2016 said: Got the same template rejection letter from UW today. Very disappointing as this concludes my PhD admissions cycle 6/7 rejection and 1 suspended (NYU) I hope the rest of the members in this forum will have at least one offer and will be able to start your academic journey. It's been good sharing intel with all of you throughout this cycle. *hugs*
jkv152 Posted April 5, 2021 Author Posted April 5, 2021 On 4/2/2021 at 10:48 PM, andylee0427 said: Exciting news, congrats! May I ask a few questions for my own reference to admission for next year? Such as how did you well package your application documents? (Was all three recommendations from university professors? How was your GRE score? etc.) Again, warmest congratulations, and you should find a perfect way to celebrate Thank you! I'm happy to share. Information like this is useful. To be quite frank I'm not sure how much weight my GRE scores held. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a requirement for UW, so for schools without that requirement, I submitted it anyway. Verbal Reasoning: 150 Quantitative Reasoning: 140 Analytical Writing: 4.5 I had four recommendations. Two were from college professors, one was from my graduate school professor and one was for a professor I worked with as an adjunct lecturer. I researched and wrote an entirely new writing sample and I worked closely with three of my recommenders to flesh out the topic. I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions
galosh Posted April 6, 2021 Posted April 6, 2021 Is there a thread in this forum where people can compare stipend offers from different programs? Or - if you're up to it - do you just comb through threads to get a sense of what they usually offer? The stipend versus living wages scale would be a major concern for me since I'm getting married soon, and will have to support a family. I've tried PHDStipends dot com but they don't always have information for film/media studies for every university and I also don't know how reliable the figures for previous years are now post-covid. Oh, also I haven't applied this cycle and will be applying for the Fall 2022 cycle. Thanks
andylee0427 Posted April 16, 2021 Posted April 16, 2021 On 1/27/2021 at 4:26 AM, Shirley He said: Hi! I also applied to UCSC's film and digital media program. Have you heard anything from them? I talked to their graduate coordinator yesterday and she said they will send out decisions in March... but it seems that from the results in the past, people got their decision around this week and early February. Hi! I was wondering if you have received any result from UCSC's film and digital media program. Would you mind sharing the experience of applying there? Thanks!
andylee0427 Posted April 16, 2021 Posted April 16, 2021 On 4/5/2021 at 11:18 PM, jkv152 said: Thank you! I'm happy to share. Information like this is useful. To be quite frank I'm not sure how much weight my GRE scores held. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a requirement for UW, so for schools without that requirement, I submitted it anyway. Verbal Reasoning: 150 Quantitative Reasoning: 140 Analytical Writing: 4.5 I had four recommendations. Two were from college professors, one was from my graduate school professor and one was for a professor I worked with as an adjunct lecturer. I researched and wrote an entirely new writing sample and I worked closely with three of my recommenders to flesh out the topic. I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions Thank you! This is extremely helpful. I was also wondering how many professors you wrote you letters were in the film and media studies-related department? I also have a question about the structure of your SOP, but I know that'd too much...
Elusively Posted April 19, 2021 Posted April 19, 2021 Hi everyone, I was taken off the waitlist last week and accepted UT Austin's offer. I can't wait to join! Sometimes it can take until the very end, but the outcome can be positive. I'm so happy! fossati and phdinoverthinking 1 1
ACKru Posted April 20, 2021 Posted April 20, 2021 23 hours ago, Elusively said: Hi everyone, I was taken off the waitlist last week and accepted UT Austin's offer. I can't wait to join! Sometimes it can take until the very end, but the outcome can be positive. I'm so happy! Congratulations!! That is so exciting. All the best to you I was wondering if anyone international had been accepted? Can anyone comment/verify if they were international applicants that were accepted?
Elusively Posted April 20, 2021 Posted April 20, 2021 (edited) 30 minutes ago, ACKru said: Congratulations!! That is so exciting. All the best to you I was wondering if anyone international had been accepted? Can anyone comment/verify if they were international applicants that were accepted? Hi, thank you!!! Yes, I am an international student from Canada and I was told that two other international students were accepted this year out of the four students from this cohort. I studied for my bachelor's degree an my master's degree in Canada, but I don't know if that's the case for the other students. Edited April 20, 2021 by Elusively
jkv152 Posted April 22, 2021 Author Posted April 22, 2021 On 4/19/2021 at 11:17 AM, Elusively said: Hi everyone, I was taken off the waitlist last week and accepted UT Austin's offer. I can't wait to join! Sometimes it can take until the very end, but the outcome can be positive. I'm so happy! Congratulations! Amazing. Wishing you the best of luck and maybe we'll interact with one another in the future! Elusively 1
jkv152 Posted April 22, 2021 Author Posted April 22, 2021 On 4/15/2021 at 10:35 PM, andylee0427 said: Thank you! This is extremely helpful. I was also wondering how many professors you wrote you letters were in the film and media studies-related department? I also have a question about the structure of your SOP, but I know that'd too much... I'm happy to answer. It varied from school to school. Some schools were looking for personal essays AND a statement of purpose. Others were just looking for a statement. In that case, I truncated my personal essay and talked about why my (personal/life) experience sets me apart and how that will inform my research as well as my relationships with colleagues and students alike down the road. I'm a a queer POC and I think that academia is severely lacking in representation. I also talked about my speciality in cinema, past research and my graduate degree work in the media industry. I hope this helps!
Elusively Posted April 28, 2021 Posted April 28, 2021 On 4/22/2021 at 8:25 AM, jkv152 said: Congratulations! Amazing. Wishing you the best of luck and maybe we'll interact with one another in the future! Thank you, I really hope we will! Congratulations and good luck to you too.
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