Applying to completely different programs

[pinkerton]

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of applying to graduate programs. I have narrowed my choices down to the following:

Master of Media Studies - Concordia University

Master of Immigration and Settlement Studies - Ryerson University

Master of Communication and Culture - Ryerson and York Universities (joint program)

Master of Industrial Relations - Queen's University

Master of Industrial Relations and Human Resources - University of Toronto

My question is does it look bad to referees when you are applying to programs that are quite different from each other? I do have a genuine interest in all of these programs but I am not sure whether the variety would be perceived negatively. As long as I could explain my interest in each of the programs, do you think that that would suffice?

Thank you in advance for any tips/advice.

[juilletmercredi]

Is the variety because you can study what you want to study in any of those programs, or is it because you are unsure about what you want to do?

For example, I study health inequality from a socio-psychological perspective. I could've done that in a sociology program, a public health program, or a social psychology program, as well as a program in human development and family studies. My research interests and questions would've stayed the same, it would simply be a different degree with a different approach to doing the research.

But if you are applying to multiple disparate programs simply because you can't decide what to do, yes, that does look bad to your referees. That might require some explanation. For example, I can link three of those programs together - it looks like you may be interested in cultural influences on media made for or by immigrants, or something that has to do with media surrounding immigration, so I can understand the first three. But then the last two are just totally different.

[pinkerton]

Hi there,

I really appreciate your response. I am actually genuinely interested in all of those topics - media, immigration and industrial relations/human resources. Industrial relations can be linked to immigration say if I were to study the impact of immigration on labour dynamics/the workforce. However, I wouldn't say that I would necessarily have the same focus/research topic in all of the programs.

Thus, it's not really a matter that I'm not sure of what I want to do. It's more a matter of having multiple interests but yes, I'm not sure if that would be interpreted as fickle.

Thanks and feel free to provide more input.

Edited November 29, 2011 by pinkerton