PhD Applications Communication Studies Fall 2025 Cycle

[DisplayName8]

On 2/3/2025 at 4:54 PM, Fostering_kittens said:

Hi! I’ve received an acceptance to UMass-Amherst PhD communication but I am an international student. Can someone help me with how respected/prestigious the program is considered in the field? Especially vis-a-vis Penn state (I am interviewing there also).

Depends on your area of study. For rhetoric PSU is pretty much #1 and I haven’t heard anything about UMass in terms of rhetoric scholars. I have no idea about the social sciences though. 

[cmnapplication]

1 hour ago, Omkar Poojari said:

So, it seems unlikely that they would roll out more offers

I wonder why they have not sent out the rejections yet. Also, has anyone applied for the joint Pol Sci  + Comm PhD?

i think it's too early to assume that there won't be any more admissions, considering that no rejections/waitlist decisions have been sent out at all. also, didn't someone here mention emailing the grad admissions director who said they were doing it in batches this year? i think we keep our fingers crossed still!

[Omkar Poojari]

On 1/31/2025 at 11:18 AM, Omkar Poojari said:

Had emailed the UPenn program coordinator asking if all acceptances have been released. Got a reply stating that they understand this is a stressful time for applicants and that have begun by sending some decisions and that they would continue releasing decisions over the next two weeks.

I don't know what this means. A tiny bit of hope, I guess.

 

55 minutes ago, cmnapplication said:

i think it's too early to assume that there won't be any more admissions, considering that no rejections/waitlist decisions have been sent out at all. also, didn't someone here mention emailing the grad admissions director who said they were doing it in batches this year? i think we keep our fingers crossed still!

I think you are referring to my earlier post which I am quoting here. To be honest, she did not say they are doing it in batches but her exact words were as I quoted here " we have made some decisions and we will continue to release decisions over the next two weeks".

She said this on Jan 31.  But no updates since then. I am beginning to think that the rest of the decisions they are referring are probably all rejections

But I really hope that I am wrong. Fingers crossed!

[Martyna]

4 hours ago, Omkar Poojari said:

So, it seems unlikely that they would roll out more offers

I wonder why they have not sent out the rejections yet. Also, has anyone applied for the joint Pol Sci  + Comm PhD?

It's because people have until 15th of April to accept or decline offers. If let's say 5 of them decline, that's 5 more spaces to fill, so they will send an acceptance letter to 5 more candidates who weren't their first choice but are qualified enough to be admitted. You will never receive an immediate rejection if there's even a slight chance that you might get in. 

[Omkar Poojari]

True. But I think two concerns right now are:

1. They do not seem to have released rejections for anyone as of now. So, not sure if they have purposely kept some of us waiting because they believe we might have a chance.

2. The email response stated that decisions would continue to be released through the first two weeks of Feb. So, I am not sure if they were referring to the April 15 deadline.

But again really want and hope my pessimism to be proven wrong. 

8 minutes ago, Martyna said:

It's because people have until 15th of April to accept or decline offers. If let's say 5 of them decline, that's 5 more spaces to fill, so they will send an acceptance letter to 5 more candidates who weren't their first choice but are qualified enough to be admitted. You will never receive an immediate rejection if there's even a slight chance that you might get in. 

 

[Martyna]

1 minute ago, Omkar Poojari said:

True. But I think two concerns right now are:

1. They do not seem to have released rejections for anyone as of now. So, not sure if they have purposely kept some of us waiting because they believe we might have a chance.

2. The email response stated that decisions would continue to be released through the first two weeks of Feb. So, I am not sure if they were referring to the April 15 deadline.

But again really want and hope my pessimism to be proven wrong. 

 

They're probably discussing who to admit, admission committee members don't always see eye to eye. They're about decide somebody's future, they need time and they need to be on the same page.

[Omkar Poojari]

4 minutes ago, Martyna said:

They're probably discussing who to admit, admission committee members don't always see eye to eye. They're about decide somebody's future, they need time and they need to be on the same page.

Hope so. I think all this chaos is a result of Annenberg breaking the norm by not releasing all decisions on the same day.

[Fostering_kittens]

17 hours ago, DisplayName8 said:

Depends on your area of study. For rhetoric PSU is pretty much #1 and I haven’t heard anything about UMass in terms of rhetoric scholars. I have no idea about the social sciences though. 

I’m not going for rhetoric, tho, but social sciences

[c202]

Hi, I saw someone got accepted at Rutgers. Do we know which concentration? 

[commscholar101]

Hey! I hope everyone is doing well! I was wondering did anyone else apply to the University of Pittsburgh? If so, have you received a response? 

[cmnapplication]

y'all, the wait to hear Anything is killing me 😭

[Omkar Poojari]

5 minutes ago, cmnapplication said:

y'all, the wait to hear Anything is killing me 😭

Strongly second that. Especially Annenberg UPenn is killing me with the radio silence

[AppleSpice]

1 hour ago, cmnapplication said:

y'all, the wait to hear Anything is killing me 😭

Me too 😭 For some reason, many comms programs take FOREVER to get back. I’m two rejections in and radio silence from the other seven. But keeping my fingers crossed for all of us. We got this!! I truly believe it.

[Martyna]

20 hours ago, commscholar101 said:

Hey! I hope everyone is doing well! I was wondering did anyone else apply to the University of Pittsburgh? If so, have you received a response? 

I applied there and haven't heard back anything. I'm at 4 rejections and 7 waiting 🥺

[theadoragradstudent]

I see someone posted acceptance from Northwestern Communication Sciences and Disorder, but I haven't heard anything from the other program 😭 so stressful right now.

[Martyna]

7 hours ago, theadoragradstudent said:

I see someone posted acceptance from Northwestern Communication Sciences and Disorder, but I haven't heard anything from the other program 😭 so stressful right now.

I'm waiting for the other one too! Fingers crossed 🤞 

[patolinno]

On 2/3/2025 at 5:54 PM, Fostering_kittens said:

Hi! I’ve received an acceptance to UMass-Amherst PhD communication but I am an international student. Can someone help me with how respected/prestigious the program is considered in the field? Especially vis-a-vis Penn state (I am interviewing there also).

As someone has said, it pretty much depends on your research interests. If you're into rhetoric, Penn State is DEFINITELY the choice for you! They are very strong in that field.

I have friends who studied at UMass (undergrads in other fields), they did like the university. They had contrasting opinions about the city, though (one thought it was calm and beautiful, two thought it was a big bore, and very cold!)

Edited Tuesday at 07:38 PM by patolinno
typos

[CLudmila]

Hello, I hope you're doing well. I saw that someone posted the result of the University of Iowa, PhD in Communication Studies. Does anyone have more information about the status of the process? Thank you! 

[CLudmila]

Update from UPenn now 

[cmnapplication]

this might seem rude, but i genuinely can't stand people who apply to programs that they *know* aren't a good fit. if you there aren't 2-3 people who you'd like to research with/whose research interests align with yours, why waste your time and the committee's time? i know it's because of the prestige of certain schools and that some programs have more resources than others, but i find it so frustrating that people are unnecessarily raising rejection rates by applying to programs that they know probably won't accept them because they don't see a place/person for them to work with 😕

[Martyna]

4 hours ago, cmnapplication said:

this might seem rude, but i genuinely can't stand people who apply to programs that they *know* aren't a good fit. if you there aren't 2-3 people who you'd like to research with/whose research interests align with yours, why waste your time and the committee's time? i know it's because of the prestige of certain schools and that some programs have more resources than others, but i find it so frustrating that people are unnecessarily raising rejection rates by applying to programs that they know probably won't accept them because they don't see a place/person for them to work with 😕

I think some first-time applicants are genuinely confused because often universities state on their website that you do not need to have a secured advisor to apply and that the review is holistic, which may be confusing to those first-timers.