Hypothetical profile eval

[janez]

Hello all!

So, this is going to be kind of a silly post, but I have a plan for the next 2 years and I am going to write down what my profile would look like if EVERYTHING on my list worked out perfectly (which is, of course, impossible):

-BA (from an unknown uni in Europe -biggest in my country-) in Media Studies, not so great GPA (didn't care much about the uni until my last year, it was too unchallenging, so I started a BSc in computer science as well) but all my professors loved me and have taken me to conferences..etc.

-I decide I am interested in internet research

-MA in internet research from a very well known and demanding university in Europe

-finish BSc in computer science with very good GPA

-work part time as software developer

-Google Summer of Code participant

-intern at a very well-known internet research center

-fellowships, scholarships...etc.

-one publication in internet research

-2 conference papers

-stanford graduate certificate in data mining

-hopefully great LORs

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My problem is that I'd like to do very data-driven media studies research, which I can't really do in media departments, because it involves too much computer science, but all my research experience will be along these lines. What do you think, can I find a place for myself in a CS department? I'd like to do something similar to what Jure Leskovec does at Stanford: http://cs.stanford.edu/people/jure/

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Thank you in advance!

[janez]

Oh: I also have a lot of data-driven internet research experience under well-known professors. But that is just us using and developing simple research tools, not CS research at all.

[habanero]

You should look at Information Schools. There are many of them in the United States. You will have a very good chance of getting in if you've studied Comp Sci. The research done there seems to be very similar to the professor that you've linked!

[OH YEAH]

What exactly do you mean by "internet research"? Are you interested in networking? Social research related to the internet?

[weninger]

You'll have no problem getting into a decent grad program. Maybe Stanford, maybe not. But I would certainly apply for top 5 with your credentials.

If you like Jure's stuff, we'd be interested to have you at UIUC. Why don't you email me and we can talk about it.

Google can find me. :-)

[janez]

What exactly do you mean by "internet research"? Are you interested in networking? Social research related to the internet?

It is social science research using data mined from the web. We try to look at how search engines and recommendation engines behave, how people and pages link to each other and derive from that an understanding of how societies work (this is an extreme over-simplification)

I have done research on political mobilization online, the effect of the technicalities of comment spaces on the conversation, link analysis and the flow of information on various online platforms. I am basically interested in mapping the ecology of the web, how it works and why it works that way: what is the role of the people (I need social science and communication theory for this) and what is the role of the platform itself (this is where computer science comes in) -it is two-fold: I need to have access to data that I can analyze (hence my interest in big data and mining massive data) and I need to be able to analyze that data quantitatively, so I can stay objective. I need social sciences and media theories in order to be able to ask questions from the database and I need computer science to produce the database and turn the data into information.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but these are my -probably currently pretty vague- interests as an aspiring internet researcher!