Advice for Suitable Programs

[VioletAyame]

Hello everyone! First I just want to say thank you very much for all your help. It's my first time applying and I was able to find a lot of helpful information here as well as great answers to my questions from a very supportive community. Now I'm finalizing the list of all the programs I'm applying too, and I would really appreciate it if you can take a look and see if I should add or remove anything.

 

My areas of interest are Media Effects, Entertainment Studies and Emerging Media. My undergrad research project examined traditional and reversed gender stereotypes in TV sitcoms from 1950s to now, so I am a bit more familiar with stereotypes in the media, humor theories and gender issues. Recently I have become more and more interested in Emerging Media with topics such as identity or self-image cultivated through social networks and the education-entertainment values of educational channels on YouTube. 

 

So the programs currently in my list are:

 

The Annenberg schools (USC & U Penn)

Penn State

U of Michigan, Ann Arbor

UC Santa Barbara

U of Wisconsin, Madison

U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Ohio State

 

I'm thinking a total of 7-10 programs would be manageable, but please correct me if I'm wrong here. Thank you in advance for all your help!

 

 

[CommPhD20]

I think that list looks pretty good and fairly balanced, though I don't know that there is a 100% "safe" school in there; that isn't always a bad thing though, since sometimes a 100% safe school is safe because it's not good, lol.

[Duna]

Like JLRC, I don't really believe in so called "safe schools" because why would you want to go to a school you don't really want to go to for 4-6 years? 

 

I think your list makes sense. Your interests are usually represented among pretty much any faculty, I think but, of course, there are differences in the more refined nuances and also in the quality (or maybe rather in the reputation). 

 

I think 7-10 schools are the maximum for being manageable, sensible and cost-efficient. If you find more schools in your "reach" that are a great fit, you definitely did not narrow down your research interests and fit with faculty enough. However, "in your reach" is not something that can be clearly defined.

 

Just from looking at the schools, they look more quant heavy than qual heavy (I hate this distinction) but let's say they definitely look more empirical heavy than critical heavy to me. Does my amateur assessment reflect your methodological interests? BTW, I'm not saying that each of these schools does not have critical thinking, cultural studies, and qual researchers but each of these schools have a strong quant/empirical focus, too.

 

I don't know about your scores and everything but as JLCR said, these are all very good schools and chances are, that even with amazing credentials you just won't get in because you don't fit into what they are looking for this season or something. I would reach out to faculty you wanna work with and not only ask them whether it makes sense to apply (they would be dumb to tell you no to that question) but really try to figure out who will be accepting new advisees etc., how many of the people you wanna work with are really there and have capacities etc.

 

But yeah, getting into any of these schools would be great and I wish you all the "luck" you'll need

Edited September 21, 2013 by Duna

[VioletAyame]

Like JLRC, I don't really believe in so called "safe schools" because why would you want to go to a school you don't really want to go to for 4-6 years? 

 

I think your list makes sense. Your interests are usually represented among pretty much any faculty, I think but, of course, there are differences in the more refined nuances and also in the quality (or maybe rather in the reputation). 

 

I think 7-10 schools are the maximum for being manageable, sensible and cost-efficient. If you find more schools in your "reach" that are a great fit, you definitely did not narrow down your research interests and fit with faculty enough. However, "in your reach" is not something that can be clearly defined.

 

Just from looking at the schools, they look more quant heavy than qual heavy (I hate this distinction) but let's say they definitely look more empirical heavy than critical heavy to me. Does my amateur assessment reflect your methodological interests? BTW, I'm not saying that each of these schools does not have critical thinking, cultural studies, and qual researchers but each of these schools have a strong quant/empirical focus, too.

 

I don't know about your scores and everything but as JLCR said, these are all very good schools and chances are, that even with amazing credentials you just won't get in because you don't fit into what they are looking for this season or something. I would reach out to faculty you wanna work with and not only ask them whether it makes sense to apply (they would be dumb to tell you no to that question) but really try to figure out who will be accepting new advisees etc., how many of the people you wanna work with are really there and have capacities etc.

 

But yeah, getting into any of these schools would be great and I wish you all the "luck" you'll need

Thank you both so much. Duna, I'm so glad you pegged me right away as going for quant instead of qual. I have never been that good at Maths but empirical methods just make sense to me somehow. As both of you pointed out, these are some top notch schools, and I'm quite concerned about having no back-up plan. I'm making a list of potential advisors right now and will start contacting them after I'm done with my GRE next week. I mean it does make sense not to apply to schools you don't really want to go to, but I wonder if there's any strategy to minimize risk. Or just go with it and reapply next year should I don't get in anywhere?