Applying to Gallatin M.A. Program- Feedback

[JTar11]

My name is Justin and I am currently applying to NYU's Gallatin School for an M.A. I would love to get some feedback from any current students, prospective students, alumni, professors, admissions persons...just anyone really.

I'm the type of person who isn't really big on GPA and standardized testing. I don't necessarily have all the best scores and really consider myself to have more practical life experience. Some of the profiles of students I've been reading about have been somewhat intimidating on an admissions level. Students who have had things published or have their own their own company. Which isn't really intimidating on a personal level, because frankly, I think I write really well, I've just never bothered submitting anything for publication. Plus someone's "own company" could be anything. I do have a relatively strong academic background but am hoping Gallatin also cares about accepting real individuals who aren't just people who have done everything "right."

Having said that, my GPA from my Undergrad degree is a 3.5. I have a B.A. in Communications from King's College in PA. A small but very good school. I have interned at MTV as a production intern and a local TV station as a production intern as well.

I have worked as an Affiliate Manager at a hugely successful internet marketing company for a year, marketing such brands as Dereon, Apple Bottoms and DKNY. I Have done volunteer work at local non-profit organization called The Wyoming Valley AIDS Council working with people who are living with HIV/AIDS. I have also worked as a Job Developer at a non-profit agency called Esperanza working with people who are on welfare.

I was the secretary of a club in college called the Questions and Answers initiative, which was a club geared towards all minority's of the college. They were encouraged to come to this club's meetings to voice any concerns or hostilities happening towards any minority group of people or between groups of people.

I was also the Entertainment Editor of my college newspaper for one year.

My senior seminar project, which is basically a senior thesis, was to find out if television influences people's opinions of homosexuality.

That's my experience, now, what I want to focus on at Gallatin: Ultimately I really want to become a college professor of contemporary television, contemporary literature and contemporary film. My belief is that there is too much focus placed on historical classics and not nearly enough emphasis placed on our current forms of art and entertainment. There is so much emphasis placed on historical forms of art and entertainment that our contemporary art and entertainment is slipping through the cracks. There are not enough people preserving contemporary classics and eventually our modern forms will be forgotten about.

Which is why I need NYU's Gallatin to pursue an education in contemporary television, film and literature, because frankly there are no programs that combine all three. Plus I am not looking to work in the film or television industry, I am looking to teach contemporary art forms. I also think a major problem with many universities and that there isn't enough focus on these contemporary art forms, with too much focus placed on how to work in these industries, rather than learning about them.

So, after that. What does anyone think my chances are of acceptance? This is something I am greatly passionate about and honestly the only thing I want to do. Does attending information sessions or scheduling appointments to talk with somebody one-on-one help my chances?

Thanks.

[Dr._Robotnik's_Shadow]

I don't think anyone can really rate your chances. Admissions are a weird and confusing world and that's why we need forums like this, to try to make sense of it the best we can. It's anyone’s guess as to whether or not you'll be admitted. I’ve work in admissions and it’s really up in the air and kind of a luck thing a lot of times.

I think the important thing is to decide if Gallatin and NYU is right for you. I graduated with an MA in Individualized Study from Gallatin in 2008. As of right now, I've been unemployed for a year and now work as a receptionist at a metal company. My focus while at Gallatin: dance and film. It's a competitive field but my friends who did the straight film programs are working in jobs at least slightly related to their majors.

You mention something really important in your post. You want to teach. If you want to teach media, you pretty much need and MFA or in your case, since it sounds like you are doing theory, you will need a PhD. MA’s get hired but it’s rare now with all the competition and you can’t get tenure. I forgot to mention that despite my 4.0 GPA, high GRE and stellar SOP, getting into PhD programs has been challenging- no one likes someone with a degree in "Individualized Study", no one even knows what it is. The more you explain it to them the more they get confused.

Now, while so far I've talked Gallatin down, success in Gallatin depends on one thing: you. Gallatin is a program for highly motivated people who have a dire need for degree in which no school in the world offers. You MUST be highly self-motivated and most of all self-disciplined to be in this program. I don't know anything about you so I'm not sure why your GPA etc. wasn't where you wanted but was it because you weren't self motivated or disciplined enough to earn higher grades? I'm just asking because I don't know you. I'm not assuming. Actually, you appear to be motivated since you do a lot of outside work which I found really impressive. I think Gallatin likes people who still get good grades, but I think you recognized that they also like people from untraditional backgrounds. Both are highly important for this competitive program.

Anyways, what you wrote in your post about how no other schools offers you the opportunity to preserve new media was very convincing. I'd still check out Rochester and UC Irvine (Visual Studies). They are very interdisciplinary, slightly less competitive schools and focus a little more on new media. It's kind like Gallatin but actually, probably more better for you since the focus is on media. Gallatin is one big independent study for a hodge podge of majors and where you are all alone with no one to help or guide you. Anyways, back to what you were saying in your post. You clearly mentioned you felt there is no other program for you and you mentioned why your research idea is so important and helpful to society. Perfect! Put this in your SOP. I also really felt your passion for what you want to do.

Anyways, I know I’m jumping around here but I’m really passionate about my time at Gallatin. I can’t decide myself whether I liked it or not, or if it was worth it or what. It’s hard to tell with this horrible economy. It’s hard to think about what if I went to another program...

I guess the main things about Gallatin are this:

- Most people don’t like it. Strangely enough they say there is not enough structure in Gallatin. Of course there isn’t...you got to design your own degree! If you know EXACTLY what you want and how to get it then I encourage you to apply to this program.

- I found Gallatin to be awkward in ways because you are in a program with other people who are studying stuff not related to you. All the teachers at Gallatin say this is good because you can see different points of view. I left bored and feeling unprepared and like I didn’t have enough exposure to what I really wanted to study. For example, a class we all have to take is this thing called Proseminar. There are 16 people in the class and 16 weeks of school. Each week we read literature related to someone’s topic who is in the class and discuss it. So for weeks I had to listen to stuff about queer theory, Evangelicalism, children’s book theories etc. Again, my concentration was on how to film dance. I was bored and did not find the other topics helpful to my research.

- You might not think this next part is important but it is. Not having really a major or home base makes Gallatin feel like you don’t belong anywhere and it’s a weird horrible feeling. If you go to a regular master’s program you will be with the same students for 2 or three years. You’ll make great connections. At Gallatin, you see everyone once and are lucky to see them again since everyone is doing their own separate thing. They try to create classes like Proseminar to make the program more cohesive but it doesn’t work. At Gallatin, other than those core course you must take (Proseminar etc.) you have to get permission to take courses in other schools and not only is it a big hassle but I felt a lot of people hated Gallatin students since we were “visitors” in their program and were “intruding” kind of. Tisch folks never made me feel welcome.

- Remember that at Gallatin, there are no real classes for grad students (other than Proseminar, and Master’s Thesis (Review of the Lit you do alone as does the actual Thesis “class”). This means you have to take classes outside Gallatin. If you are doing media, more than likely that means Tisch classes. Tisch classes are practically all off limits—despite what Gallatin says. Here’s an example. I wanted to take a film production class. They said I could take a Tisch class—just not a graduate level one. That meant I could take an upper division undergrad class but have it count towards grad credit. I was mad but thought, “whatever”. My mistake. They told me I could take an undergraduate level class “as long as you’ve taken this class before when you were an undergraduate” . By the way, they told me after I had accepted admission. So, half of my work at Gallatin was a repeat of what I did as an undergrad myself and to top it off, the undergrads at NYU Tisch were a little snotty. ..Just my experience. There is this thing Gallatin talks up called Tisch Open Arts. Again, before I enrolled in the school they said “there are many opportunities to take Tisch grad level classes in film and screenwriting with Tisch faculty if you are a grad student...you just got to do it through Tisch Open Arts” I looked at the Tisch Open Arts thing. Apparently this is a set of classes anyone in the University can take. I saw a graduate level course I liked, signed up for it, showed up and realized it was cross listed with and undergrad course. I was the only grad in the course, everyone else in the class was a sophomore or junior just taking the class as a “fun” elective, the teacher-who was an adjunct with no experience in the subject treated like that: not a serious grad level class.

- Gallatin is what you make of it and if you carefully design your degree, know what you want to do, are motivated and focused and willing to work hard then maybe it’s the program for you. Just remember that you still have to do a full out Master’s Thesis and oral defense and its hard!

- Make sure you get an experienced advisor who is passionate about your work, has experience advising grad students and believes in you all the way until you graduate and beyond when it’s time for that PhD which you will need to tech like you said.

I chose Gallatin because like you I had a very specific goal. I wanted to study dance and film. I wanted to combine both theory and production too. No other school would let me do this. A dance program would focus on dance and neglect the technology and a film program would not support my desire to combine film with dance. Gallatin did. I think I accomplished this very specific thing I had in mind but it was specific now it’s hard to find a job...and we have a crappy economy.

Keep researching programs. Gallatin is not the only choice. Apply to a lot of schools. Win them over with your SOP and be confident. In your SOP mention actually classes you want to take (include the course number) so they can help you decide if your proposed course of study is even feasible (if you get rejected maybe it was only because what you wanted to study there was not feasible—not because of you).

I wish you the very best of luck. Anything is possible. Go for your goals.

Feel free to message me if you want more info on NYU in general or even NYC, living in NYC or whatever.

I’ve got lots more to say about NYU, Gallatin and the big apple but I’ll leave with this post for now to ruminate on.

Have a very happy applications period!

[nonidentity]

I was wondering if anyone can speak more specifically to people's experiences applying to Phd. programs with a Gallatin MA. I know it's not a common trajectory for Gallatin grads to take, but were those who wanted to go this route generally able to get admitted to competitive programs? The official Gallatin literature is rather ambiguous on this point.

Also, I was wondering if the structure of Gallatin makes it difficult to secure quality recommendations? I can see it being a problem if one is constantly bouncing around between departments to take classes, but if you're relatively focused, taking classes within only one or two programs, is this still an issue?

Thanks