Cinema/Media Studies for 2012

[elbow2332]

@apk0021, there's unfortunately scant admissions information available in our field.

Leaving aside a few figures for Ph.D.s, with respect to MAs I'm only aware of http://cinema.tisch.nyu.edu/object/cinemaFAQ.html#q3717. Even that 1/3 figure must be averaging all levels, though, so I'm not sure how helpful it is.

If there's a program or two you'd want to learn more about you could always email a department secretary at the schools.

[MrBrooklyn]

Has anyone made a decision yet? If so, where are you going? If not, where are you leaning?

Edited March 11, 2012 by MrBrooklyn

[Aubergine]

Has anyone received an actual rejection from Harvard yet? I'm assuming that mine is on the way... but want to be certain before I officially accept another offer.

[elbow2332]

No, I haven't yet. Perhaps they're sending it Pony Express? They've summarily ignored all requests for status checks, so that won't be of any help to you, either.

Has anyone made a decision yet? If so, where are you going? If not, where are you leaning?

I at least have not. I don't want to count any NYU chickens before they hatch.

[Swagato]

I received Harvard's postal letter today, and Yale Comp Lit/FS's email notification earlier in the morning.

P.S. Aubergine, you have a PM from me which requests a response! (: 'Grats on Brown, again.

Edited March 12, 2012 by Swagato

[ci1717]

Received notification from UCLA today.

MrBrooklyn- I have not made my decision yet, but I am leaning toward one of the two PhD programs that I was admitted to.

[Swagato]

Odd silence lately. Who are we waiting on? NYU? Northwestern recently sent out their rejects, but what about the post-interview admits? Any other places left? I'm waiting on Iowa, who I was told ought to release some news either this week or the next.

[kcc]

Northwestern has contacted admits - I got the call yesterday. They took 9 of the 14 that interviewed. No idea about other schools.

[Swagato]

Hrm, 9 is some serious admitted cohort. A far cry from Brown's 4 or Chicago's (presumed) 3-4. So far, USC and Northwestern seem to have the largest admitted cohort out of the top-tier private university programs in our field. The more usual number seems to hover around 3-5.

[CU2011]

Anyone else NOT hear from Madison yet? I applied to the MA program (though as someone wrote before it doesn't really work that way), and the website still says pending, though I know they've admitted people already. Just trying to figure out what is going on.

[MrBrooklyn]

I'm guessing you're on an unofficial wait list?

[ress]

Has anyone received anything from the FS PhD program of York University (Toronto)?

[CU2011]

@MrBrooklyn Possibly, and I'd like to think that, but you would think they'd be nice enough to inform me of that.

[MrBrooklyn]

Fun times visiting my parents:

Mother: I could understand analyzing films before, but now directors give interviews and they say what their films mean, so what's left for you to do?

Father: Who cares about that? How are you going to make any money?

Mr. Brooklyn: Um... I have to go stand over there now.

Edited March 15, 2012 by MrBrooklyn

[Swagato]

Either throw them something like Rodowick's Reading the Figural or Mulvey's Death 24X a Second and let them see how 'easy' it is, or have them explain why quantum physicists don't have to justify themselves but we, apparently, do.

Sorry for the bluntness, but that brand of ignorance just rubs me the wrong way.

[Spaceman]

Has anyone received anything from the FS PhD program of York University (Toronto)?

I heard from a friend in Canada that he knew about someone who got in a few weeks ago. I've also applied but haven't heard a thing. It's not my first choice at all but let me know if you know something - I'll do the same. Anyway, I'll probably try again next year. What about you, any special interest in York, do you have more choices? good luck man.

[elbow2332]

New admissions details: I've spent some time talking to NYU people after my interview. Four students were admitted to fill four Ph.D. spots. NYU has an unranked waitlist from which to draw assuming they have less than 100% yield. Everyone's who was accepted or waitlisted has been notified.

Also, http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-Programs-in/131123/ is pertinent to the cohort size discussion and our long-term career prospects. I'm not sure what it might spell for CMS/RTF/CallUsWhatYouWill, an expanding discipline in a contracting market.

[Swagato]

That's a useful article, elbow, but it is only available to subscribers. Would you mind creating an image/PDF of it if you're able to access the full material? I don't think all of us here are subscribers, but I'm sure we'd all like to know the content.

Also, thanks for the NYU update. It seems U. Iowa is perhaps the only major program in our field that has yet to make any noise whatsoever. April 15th is looming close, so I've just decided to stop thinking about it and wait for them to do what they will.

[Ganja]

Heard from Iowa today. I got accepted! The delay is because they haven't yet figured out funding packages for graduate students.

[Swagato]

Do you have more news? How many are being admitted, whether they've all been contacted, anything else?

[alr234]

Hi,

I'm new on this topic, I'd been following the "Waiting it out: theatre, performance, cinema PhD want-to-be 2012" thread and hadn't realized there was one just for film !

New admissions details: I've spent some time talking to NYU people after my interview. Four students were admitted to fill four Ph.D. spots. NYU has an unranked waitlist from which to draw assuming they have less than 100% yield. Everyone's who was accepted or waitlisted has been notified.

What does "unranked waitlist" mean ? Will the people on the waitlist be chosen randomly if any spots clear ?

Also, thanks for the NYU update. It seems U. Iowa is perhaps the only major program in our field that has yet to make any noise whatsoever. April 15th is looming close, so I've just decided to stop thinking about it and wait for them to do what they will.

I'm an international student so I'm not well aware of program rankings : could any one tell me what the major programs are ?

Thank you

[ci1717]

Unranked waitlist simply means the admissions committee does not have an order of preference. Now, the real question (i.e., how do they pick from the waitlist) is one to which I don't have the answer, so if anyone else does, feel free to help out.

Our field--largely, I suspect, because of its institutional porosity and general miscibility--does not have a reliable "ranked" list of programs that I know of. Personally, I group them into tiers for convenience. So here's my breakdown:

• Tier 1: Universities of Iowa, Chicago, Michigan, Rochester, Southern California, Cal-Berkeley, Cal-LA, and Yale, Harvard, Brown, NYU, Northwestern.
  
• Tier 2: Universities of Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana-Bloomington, Pittsburgh, Concordia, Cal-Irvine, Cal-SD, Cal-SB, Stanford (found within the Art History dept.) Cornell (not too sure about this one, but it is within the Art/Architecture place), MIT-Media Lab/Comparative Media.
  
• Tier 3: Everything else.
  

Caveats: I may have missed some. Please don't hesitate to point them out as this was entirely off the top of my head in terms of names that I could remember. Also, this breakdown reflects my own interests in addition to objective criteria such as program history, program placement, faculty (past/present), and time to completion for average PhD students. There are undoubtedly some places (SUNY Binghamton, for example, where J Hoberman and Ken Jacobs were both present at one time, or SUNY Purchase where Tom Gunning taught early on, which I have not listed for the simple reason that I don't know about their current status.)

Hope this helps.

I don't know.... I don't see much use in creating tiers because it all depends on what you want to study. As it happens, your tiers are pretty inaccurate for my subfield, and in terms of placement, some of the older programs have not placed as well in the past year or two as some of the newer ones that you placed lower. In general I would look at where people apply on these boards or look at where people are being hired from. The absolute best bet would be to ask someone in the field. If you are not in a film program I see no reason why you couldn't email a POI (preferably a younger professor) or gradaute student who is successful doing something similar to what you want to do and get their general input.

[Swagato]

Yes, as I said, my grouping is very much dependent on my sub-field interests. Although I'd say that most of the departments in my Tier 1 show continued strong placement and are just generally robust enough to merit serious attention. However, your suggestion about contacting faculty or current students is absolutely essential too.

[softparade]

Wisconsin def. belongs in top tier rather than Michigan or Rochester, though as everyone has noted, it depends on subfields. The Michigan program is just too new to know much.

[alr234]

Thank you for these answers.

The NYU waitlist system just seems so strange. If they don't have ranks, it must be like a lottery system...? Some things are probably better kept unknown.

And thank you for the school "ranking" information, this explains why I read a lot about the University of Iowa or Rochester, which I had never heard about in Europe.

It feels so hard to pick a school that feels right !