2022 Applications: Cinema and Media Studies (Film Studies)

[ccbaxter]

It's a little early in the game, but I thought I'd start a thread for those of us applying to programs in cinema, film, and media studies later this year.

Personally, I'm just about to complete my master's here in the UK—but I'm still narrowing down which US PhD programs I'd most like to apply to. What programs are you most interested in?

[andylee0427]

4 hours ago, ccbaxter said:

It's a little early in the game, but I thought I'd start a thread for those of us applying to programs in cinema, film, and media studies later this year.

Personally, I'm just about to complete my master's here in the UK—but I'm still narrowing down which US PhD programs I'd most like to apply to. What programs are you most interested in?

Nice to meet you and good luck on upcoming admission process! I'm also applying for US programs as well. May I ask which programs you are thinking of applying?

[ccbaxter]

42 minutes ago, andylee0427 said:

Nice to meet you and good luck on upcoming admission process! I'm also applying for US programs as well. May I ask which programs you are thinking of applying?

Nice to meet you too!

At the moment, I have a very long list which needs refining. I’ve only ruled out a few programs and am still researching the rest. But, so far, the ones I like the look of most are Northwestern, USC, UT Austin, IU Bloomington, NYU, Rochester, and UC Irvine. No doubt the list will change a lot over the coming weeks and months.

What programs are you looking at?

[andylee0427]

3 hours ago, ccbaxter said:

Nice to meet you too!

At the moment, I have a very long list which needs refining. I’ve only ruled out a few programs and am still researching the rest. But, so far, the ones I like the look of most are Northwestern, USC, UT Austin, IU Bloomington, NYU, Rochester, and UC Irvine. No doubt the list will change a lot over the coming weeks and months.

What programs are you looking at?

Those are excellent programs! i'm planning on applying to schools that might be realistic for me to get in. I'm thinking UC Santa Cruz and Univ. of Pittsburgh (not sure becuase they closed the admissino cycle last year due to COVID). I'm also thinking of Univ. of Washington as well. If Univ. of Michigan (which was also closed its admission cycle last year) opens its cycle, I might consider applying to it.

Are you closing in on your choices based on your research interest or school merit? For me, it's both.

Edited July 30, 2021 by andylee0427

[ccbaxter]

1 hour ago, andylee0427 said:

Those are excellent programs! i'm planning on applying to schools that might be realistic for me to get in. I'm thinking UC Santa Cruz and Univ. of Pittsburgh (not sure becuase they closed the admissino cycle last year due to COVID). I'm also thinking of Univ. of Washington as well. If Univ. of Michigan (which was also closed its admission cycle last year) opens its cycle, I might consider applying to it.

Are you closing in on your choices based on your research interest or school merit? For me, it's both.

I'm perpetually worried that the programs I'm looking at are way out of my depth! Washington looks like such a good program; that's another one I’m interested in. For UCSC: Is your research practice-based? I really like the look of program, but I don’t do that kind of work and I don't know just how much they prioritize people who do?

Definitely both of those for me too.

[andylee0427]

10 hours ago, ccbaxter said:

I'm perpetually worried that the programs I'm looking at are way out of my depth! Washington looks like such a good program; that's another one I’m interested in. For UCSC: Is your research practice-based? I really like the look of program, but I don’t do that kind of work and I don't know just how much they prioritize people who do?

Definitely both of those for me too.

I definitely know the feeling! I'm so worried since this year many applicants will emerge to apply to schools that were closed last year, so I assume that there might be fierce competition. So I would strongly suggest applying to "safe" schools, if there are such schools.

If you want, I can share a list of schools with film program that my previous institution has given me. (By the way, did your school also give you a recommended program list or the like?)

Edited July 31, 2021 by andylee0427

[WomanOfLetters]

Hello everyone! It's likely that I'll be applying to a few film studies programs too - I haven't quite decided yet as I have a bit of background in both literatures and films, so I might apply to both. Is this not a good strategy?

[CarliTeio]

Hi everyone! Thanks for making this thread!

I'm an international student and I'm def applying for some phd programs this fall (the ones I'm 100% interested in are NYU, Toronto and UAL)!

Good luck to all of us, I guess ahaha

7 hours ago, Alyson said:

Hello everyone! It's likely that I'll be applying to a few film studies programs too - I haven't quite decided yet as I have a bit of background in both literatures and films, so I might apply to both. Is this not a good strategy?

What about Comparative Literature? From what I've gathered online, that's a sort of union of literature and cinema :) if English was my first language (or my country had better opportunities...) I'd def go for it!

[CarliTeio]

Just now, CarliTeio said:

What about Comparative Literature? From what I've gathered online, that's a sort of union of literature and cinema :) if English was my first language (or my country had better opportunities...) I'd def go for it!

Just to make it clearer: it's not simply literature and cinema, many Comparative Literature programs have a wider approach to the subject (so maybe tv, theatre, radio, even videogames)

[WomanOfLetters]

16 hours ago, CarliTeio said:

Hi everyone! Thanks for making this thread!

I'm an international student and I'm def applying for some phd programs this fall (the ones I'm 100% interested in are NYU, Toronto and UAL)!

Good luck to all of us, I guess ahaha

What about Comparative Literature? From what I've gathered online, that's a sort of union of literature and cinema if English was my first language (or my country had better opportunities...) I'd def go for it!

That's what I thought too! I'm definitely applying for comparative literature programs but I'm still a little tempted to apply for some film programs. Last year I applied to a few film programs (since most programs paused admission) but got rejected by all of them (and NYU decided to not to take in any students in the end...). I'm still undecided at this point but I do hope that more programs are accepting students this year!

[alips]

I'm not applying until 2022, but I'm interested in NYU, Temple, LSE, and Mass Amherst as my top 4.

[andylee0427]

Is there anyone who's planning on applying to U. Pittsburgh's Film and Media Studies PhD program? I couldn't find an information in their website about the requirements for admission, but the website of the English department (where I will associate it as a joint program) says that a 20-page writing sample is required. I wonder if that's the same pages for F&M admission as well.

[WomanOfLetters]

On 8/19/2021 at 11:33 PM, andylee0427 said:

Is there anyone who's planning on applying to U. Pittsburgh's Film and Media Studies PhD program? I couldn't find an information in their website about the requirements for admission, but the website of the English department (where I will associate it as a joint program) says that a 20-page writing sample is required. I wonder if that's the same pages for F&M admission as well.

I have the same question for Yale's Film and Media Studies...

[CarliTeio]

Hi guys! Hope you're all doing alright how are the applications going for you?

Just popping by to know if anyone else is thinking of applying for the University of Toronto's PhD in Cinema Studies

Edited October 28, 2021 by CarliTeio
Typo

[vampireduck]

Hello. Has anyone applied to UT Austin? If so, which emphasis did you apply for, if you don't mind my asking?

[larama]

how are the applications going, guys?

[CarliTeio]

On 10/28/2021 at 7:21 PM, CarliTeio said:

Hi guys! Hope you're all doing alright how are the applications going for you?

Just popping by to know if anyone else is thinking of applying for the University of Toronto's PhD in Cinema Studies

Hi!

I was going to but a professor of mine who graduated from there told me it was a very theorical and competitive program so advised me to consider other options... anyway, best of luck!

[ccbaxter]

On 12/21/2021 at 9:32 PM, larama said:

how are the applications going, guys?

Mine have gone well, thanks. I have them all in now! I decided to just get everything done before the end of the year despite some programs having deadlines in January.

I ended up applying to these places in the end (all PhD):

Concordia
Washington
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
USC
NYU
Rochester
Northwestern

I am truly terrified that I'll end up empty-handed. But it's all out of my control now. I'm just so glad the applications are in and done with.

How are everyone else's apps going?

Edited December 28, 2021 by ccbaxter

[larama]

5 hours ago, ccbaxter said:

Mine have gone well, thanks. I have them all in now! I decided to just get everything done before the end of the year despite some programs having deadlines in January.

I ended up applying to these places in the end (all PhD):

Concordia
Washington
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
USC
NYU
Rochester
Northwestern

I am truly terrified that I'll end up empty-handed. But it's all out of my control now. I'm just so glad the applications are in and done with.

How are everyone else's apps going?

Best of luck to you! Out of these, I only applied to Berkeley. I'll apply to Washington in January and I'm still considering Rochester and Concordia. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by larama
typo

[ccbaxter]

8 hours ago, larama said:

Best of luck to you! Out of these, I only applied to Berkeley. I'll apply to Washington in January and I'm still considering Rochester and Concordia. 

Good luck to you too!!

[LLops]

On 12/21/2021 at 6:32 PM, larama said:

how are the applications going, guys?

Extremely stressful. Just finished all yesterday! Applying to comm or media programs

[LLops]

On 12/28/2021 at 5:04 PM, ccbaxter said:

Mine have gone well, thanks. I have them all in now! I decided to just get everything done before the end of the year despite some programs having deadlines in January.

I ended up applying to these places in the end (all PhD):

Concordia
Washington
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
USC
NYU
Rochester
Northwestern

I am truly terrified that I'll end up empty-handed. But it's all out of my control now. I'm just so glad the applications are in and done with.

How are everyone else's apps going?

I am terrified as well ?

[THenri]

On 12/28/2021 at 5:04 PM, ccbaxter said:

Mine have gone well, thanks. I have them all in now! I decided to just get everything done before the end of the year despite some programs having deadlines in January.

I ended up applying to these places in the end (all PhD):

Concordia
Washington
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
USC
NYU
Rochester
Northwestern

I am truly terrified that I'll end up empty-handed. But it's all out of my control now. I'm just so glad the applications are in and done with.

How are everyone else's apps going?

On 12/28/2021 at 5:04 PM, ccbaxter said:

Mine have gone well, thanks. I have them all in now! I decided to just get everything done before the end of the year despite some programs having deadlines in January.

I ended up applying to these places in the end (all PhD):

Concordia
Washington
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
USC
NYU
Rochester
Northwestern

I am truly terrified that I'll end up empty-handed. But it's all out of my control now. I'm just so glad the applications are in and done with.

How are everyone else's apps going?

I just finished all my applications yesterday. Soooooo stressful. I applied to comm and media programs.  I also applied to USC (comm) and Northwestern (tec and media)

[THenri]

Hey everyone. I have applied to 15 programs (I am really exhausted). I applied to PhD programs in comm or media studies (depending on the university). This waiting time is killing me! 

[ccbaxter]

2 hours ago, THenri said:

Hey everyone. I have applied to 15 programs (I am really exhausted). I applied to PhD programs in comm or media studies (depending on the university). This waiting time is killing me! 

Congrats on getting them all in! It takes so much out of you. And I feel you—the wait is awful. I don't think many things have rivalled my levels of anxiety over the past few days (now that everything is submitted and I don't have Christmas to distract me). I'm not looking forward to the weeks ahead with the slow drip of results. I just know I'm going to drive myself crazy with dread!

Best of luck to you! ?