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Communication/Media Studies Ph.D Programs Fall 2012--Apps, Decisions, and Waiting...


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So out of curiosity, why did everyone on this forum choose Communication as their field of study? It's my undergrad and MA major, and some days I wonder, what exactly is this discipline? LOL I don't want to teach public speaking, but for some reason Comm keeps calling me back....and no one ever seems to know where to classify our discipline (are we a social science? humanities? interdisciplinary??????). What brought you to comm?

Before I decided what to study, I noticed that I spent a lot of my free time following politics and political coverage. That made me decide to study PoliSci, with communication as a minor. Then, I studied PoliSci for my MA, but ended up writing a thesis that could just as much have been written for a Communications program. After I had already applied to the PoliSci program, I got my grade on a Communications seminar paper about political satire on Israeli televison, and the professor wrote that it's a topic worthy of further exploration in a thesis - and I took his advice. Now that I want to continue research in the same area, the best fit for me would be Communications rather than PoliSci.

Edost, I wouldn't worry at all. I assume that you didn't get the e-mail because of your location. They pay for travel and I doubt they want to pay for you to come visit from Israel. BTW, I adore Israel! I'm thankful for Birthright, but a week and a half visit wasn't long enough to fulfill me.

Anyway, that's my guess as to why you didn't get the e-mail. I'm also an international student, but I live in Canada and it's probably a cheap flight. I've never actually looked into it.

I hope you're right that they just didn't send it out to applicants outside of North America.

Thanks for the compliments about Israel. I visited Toronto last April and had a great time there.

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@nullsymbol

I also completely agree with your point about gender/women's studies programs. A lot of the programs I applied to allow for (and encourage) interdisciplinary work. Those departments were definitely on my radar, too, but more as a secondary focus of my studies. How much I can step out of the communications/media department all depends on where I get in - if I get in anywhere. :)

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I was just able to find so many more professors to (possibly) work with in the US. There really aren't very many communication programs in Canada and it's kind of hard for me to align myself with people at the ones that do exist.

I'm sorry to hear that. I never looked into Canadian programs, because SSHRC only gives grants to students who have an A- or better average in each of the previous two years of study. My final GPA for my master of journalism was an A-, but my GPA in my first year was a B+. Since I promised myself that I wouldn't go anywhere that couldn't offer funding, I've assumed that eliminates Canadian schools. I suppose that some of the top schools might have other fellowships they might offer, but what are the odds? The Ontario Graduate Scholarships look at the average of the previous two years, but very few of those are given out, and I just didn't feel like I could count on those. Plus, iirc they are much smaller.

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Hi!

Good to hear that other people are waiting, too...

I am from Germany and applying to several PhD programs. I chose to apply to top schools although my GRE scores were bad but I figured if I don't get into a prestigious university I'll just go and get a good job first ;)

I will be getting my master's in September and I am currently interested in ICT's, their impact on communication in communities, offline and online communities, as well as human computer interaction, especially from an emotions perspective.

For my thesis I am planning to conduct a study on levels of emotional expression while using a computer game or virtual environment. It's still very vague though...

I come from an interdisciplinary program combining communication and media studies, strategic marketing as well as audiovisual and verbal design practice and I would like to continue working inter- and transdisciplinary because in my opinion communication is always interdisciplinary. It is kind of a meta discipline overlaying and intersecting many disciplines because we pretty much communicate in every context. In addition to communication being connected with almost any other discipline I like doing research and exploring new technologies/concepts whatever so applying research results to interaction design e.g. really excites me and of course therefore, again, an interdisciplinary approach is needed.

So much for my introduction and contribution to the discussion... back to waiting :/

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I'm sorry to hear that. I never looked into Canadian programs, because SSHRC only gives grants to students who have an A- or better average in each of the previous two years of study. My final GPA for my master of journalism was an A-, but my GPA in my first year was a B+. Since I promised myself that I wouldn't go anywhere that couldn't offer funding, I've assumed that eliminates Canadian schools. I suppose that some of the top schools might have other fellowships they might offer, but what are the odds? The Ontario Graduate Scholarships look at the average of the previous two years, but very few of those are given out, and I just didn't feel like I could count on those. Plus, iirc they are much smaller.

I think most schools provide funding here, don't they? I know that the Ryerson & York joint program in Comm & Culture does. As for SSHRC, you can still apply for one of the grants as a US-based student. So maybe in your second or third year of studies, it will work out for you.

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@nullsymbol, most of my interests fall around race, gender, sexuality and constructions of difference (but especially race), how those differences are constructed in media and rhetoric, and how they are negotiated on a more material (embodied) level. I have a small bone to pick with social constructionism and performativity. :rolleyes: Or at least, I want to address some of the gaps I think result from the assumptions within many of those frameworks. So the programs I chose have professors that are strong in those areas, or have produced strong scholars in those areas. My interdisciplinary-ness crosses between the social sciences and the humanities, and I spend time doing both qualitative ethnographic research and then writing theory (critical theory especially). It was hard to find programs since the US is all "postracial" now ;) , so I was pretty nervous writing my SOP because I was afraid I would scare people off. But, I was also glad to find that there are programs out there doing really good research in race and difference. I also picked programs that I wouldn't feel isolated in......I've had the experience of being "the" race scholar or one of a few in a program, and I don't like it.

I'm in Comm because more than any other discipline it seems to be able to handle my desire to move between humanities and social science comfortably. That, and there's the whole media aspect that I want/need, and then rhetoric and critical studies. So it's really the discipline that's most well rounded, and the one I think that is most well-established among my options (with the exception of AfAm, but many of those programs tend to be more history focused). American Studies is still a little young, and I don't know what the job prospects going to be like there long term, but Comm is usually part of a college's general ed. requirements so I think it is a good fit!

@Saviya, welcome to the forum and good luck with your applications!

And for everyone else, as for emails that give heart attacks, today I got an email from Emory that told me to check my recommendation status....but all of my LORs have been complete since December. But I still had to frantically check. AND THEN, I read the email closer, and it said, "It is not an indication that your application is incomplete." <_< Side eye. Don't send me the email then!!!!! LOL I dont want to see anymore emails from programs unless it's got answers about decisions. Is that too much to ask?

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Agreed 100 percent.

Agreed 200 percent. I received one e-mail today from my potential school saying that I should apply for my financial aid. So I was like "ohhh man, I got in?!" And then I looked at it closely to find that "This e-mail is separate from the admission committee". Sigh. Don't we get our results around April, I'm guessing?

This thread has gotten big! Yay for Communication scholars!

Edited by gracie915
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@fanon_fanatic: The US is post racial now? In what universe? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what that term means. Does it mean "No longer bound by racial divisions"? Or "Free of racism"? Or something else entirely? I know this is off-topic, but it's also very interesting, and so I had to ask...

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@fanon_fanatic: I chose comm because it seems like the best home base to do the research I'm interested in. I have a bachelor's in English and master's in poli sci, so hardly any academic experience with comm, but media communication fascinates me, particularly foreign correspondent-type reporting. I debated for a while poli sci vs comm PhD programs and just decided after looking through course offerings and professor backgrounds in both departments at a lot of schools that comm topics appeal to me more broadly than poli sci. There's a very narrow topic window in poli sci that I would be happy studying, but I know both in grad school and as a professor one generally doesn't get to just focus on that window of interest - and the rest of the field of comm interests me almost as much as the specific area I want to study. All that said, though, I have to admit it strikes me too that comm is a sort of interdisciplinary non-discipline. But I wonder if that's not one of its strengths.

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@fanon_fanatic: The US is post racial now? In what universe? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what that term means. Does it mean "No longer bound by racial divisions"? Or "Free of racism"? Or something else entirely? I know this is off-topic, but it's also very interesting, and so I had to ask...

@nullsymbol. I was being sarcastic. :) I meant the way some folks in the US media (and actually some scholars in my recent grad program) used the term postracial to suggest that "race doesn't matter" anymore in the US, or to suggest that our racial history no longer has any bearing on our present social relations. Which is totally silly, but the idea can affect those of us who want to do race studies because people don't take us seriously or feel anxious around us. :)

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@fanon_fanatic: All that said, though, I have to admit it strikes me too that comm is a sort of interdisciplinary non-discipline. But I wonder if that's not one of its strengths.

@clarisse, I totally agree with this! I think it's a similar reason I like comm. I don't like the rigidity of the social sciences, but sometimes I need to do ethnographic or even quantitative types of research. So comm moves easily within and between it all. Did you look at UT-Austin? I know they have a good PoliComm program.

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Hi all!

I'm from Korea and I've applied to about 15 programs *whew!*

To name a few, I've applied to Northwestern U, Purdue U, University of Penn, U of Michigan, Michigan State, UC Santa Barbara, Stanford and loads more!

I'm interested in the effects of television and ICT on relationships, health communication, and online communities.

After all that hectic applying business I'm coming down with a bad case of anxiety and regret.

You know, 'Ah..I should have written my sop better' and 'What if I get rejected from all the schools' type of worrying..

Still I'm waiting it out by preparing my master's thesis.

Also the good news is I got an email from one school I applied to asking for a translation of my thesis proposal.

So now I'm trying to translate this flawed piece of work smoothly. :(

Anyways, good luck everyone!

Nice thread!

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@fanon_fanatic, I did look at UT-Austin. For some reason I decided they weren't a great fit - maybe they do mainly American stuff? I don't really remember, they all run together in my head. But I remember wishing it was a good fit because I hear Austin is a great place to live.

Oh, and I along with you like comm partly because it seems to be pretty open to quant and qual research (though I assume it depends on the school and program, like all things). I'm drawn to qualitative type work because of my background in journalism - I love talking to people and hearing their stories and doing that type of ethnographic work. But I also know the value of using numbers to back up the faces and make the story more generally applicable and useful, and find survey research and other quantitative stats work fascinating.

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Hello fellow applicants,

I just stumbled across this sub-forum and was excited to find a community dedicated to Communication/Media Studies Graduate Programs. I became less and less excited as I read that many of you wish to pursue I-C-T related research. . . but that of course makes sense. Only technologically savvy people would find themselves posting on a web forum. :D I can rest easier knowing that not every person applying to Communications Research programs wishes to study my preferred field, computer mediated communication.

I am also playing the waiting game for eight schools: UPenn, UCSD, UNC-Chapel Hill, Univ. of Washington, Univ. of Illinois- UC, UT Austin, Wisconsin- Madison, and RPI.

It is exciting to see such a large degree of interdisciplinary research. I have a B.A. in Anthropology and Statistics from The George Washington University and assumed my non-communication research background would be a problem for admissions.

Best of luck to everyone! I hope you all find the perfect spot for next year.

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@fanon_fanatic, I went to Niger a few summers ago for a reporting trip where I studied the food shortage and left really interested in returning and studying. So potentially Niger and surrounding West African countries. With the recent famine in the Horn of Africa, Somalia also really interests me, but I imagine is nearly impossible to study for logistical reasons.

@Iamhere I really admire you and anyone else who applied to more than 10 programs. My five were more than enough for my wallet and creative powers to handle.

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@IronicStatement I'm interested in Computer mediated Communication also, although my first impression of CMC is that you must be more knowledgable in pyschology and statistics. Good luck with admissions! I see you've got a great choice of schools.

@clarisse09 Yes, it actually did cost a lot of money :(. From admission fees to postal mail fees and score reporting fees...I guess I am a bit desperate about admissions. Anyways, I hope my hard work and money pays off!

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Those of you who have received emails from Penn... you are talking about Annenberg, right?

yes! they sent out this save the date mail a few days ago.

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Finally! I am getting answers!

Two schools unofficially sent their admission letters via email to me.

I'm thrilled!

However, the professor of one school wishes to revise my statement with me in order to submit it for a fellowship candidacy.

If I accept this offer, does this mean I am officially accepting the admission?

As I don't know the results of other schools I'm not sure how I should proceed with this offer.

Any suggestions?

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Finally! I am getting answers!

Two schools unofficially sent their admission letters via email to me.

I'm thrilled!

However, the professor of one school wishes to revise my statement with me in order to submit it for a fellowship candidacy.

If I accept this offer, does this mean I am officially accepting the admission?

As I don't know the results of other schools I'm not sure how I should proceed with this offer.

Any suggestions?

@lamhere, that's actually a good question to ask the professor upfront if you're comfortable, (saying something along the lines of "I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with you on my statement and submit it for a fellowship candidacy. I still have some schools to hear back from before I make my decision, but I am very excited about your program. Please let me know what guidelines I should follow to revise my statement.")

generally departments have to nominate individuals for fellowships very early in the process. And there's no guarantee you'll get it. So as long as you don't send an email stating that you accept the offer of admission, you should be just fine to revise your statement and resubmit for candidacy. That being said, if you are 100% positive that you do not want to go to this school, then I would carefully consider whether you want the professor to take the time to help you with the statement.

You generally don't have to accept any offers until April 15th (ideally before that if you know where you want to go, they accept you, and you get the funding you want/need). So don't feel pressured. Any correspondence between you and the department that isn't in an official capacity (usually you'll have to agree to go to the school in writing, or sign some sort of agreement online) doesn't bind you to agreeing to go there.

Congrats on your acceptances! :)

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Finally! I am getting answers!

Two schools unofficially sent their admission letters via email to me.

I'm thrilled!

However, the professor of one school wishes to revise my statement with me in order to submit it for a fellowship candidacy.

If I accept this offer, does this mean I am officially accepting the admission?

As I don't know the results of other schools I'm not sure how I should proceed with this offer.

Any suggestions?

WOW, that is indeed fantastic news!!! Congratulations Iamhere!

Do you mind sharing with us which programs have already sent you offers? I am still waiting for the seven programs I have applied to :( A million thanks!

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