2017 Applications Thread

[ejpril88]

January was over so quickly and I was happy about that thinking February will be the same, but nooo

I am waiting for two more decisions (UIC and UMN Twin Cities) and of course the funding email from Davis.

[DBear]

4 minutes ago, ejpril88 said:

January was over so quickly and I was happy about that thinking February will be the same, but nooo

I am waiting for two more decisions (UIC and UMN Twin Cities) and of course the funding email from Davis.

In December, I expected January to crawl by and Feb would be action-packed and fly by.. but.. seems February has just stopped moving. 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

I'm still waiting on 4 out of 5 decisions. :/ I've gotten one official rejection, expecting 1 to 2 others, have been asked to do an interview next week (school doesn't have funding though), and won't hear about the other until March (probably). 

[DBear]

@GreenEyedTrombonist is it a Master's program? no funding is a tough call, but you got an interview, which is great! Congratulations!! Is it for Anthro or for Comm?

[ejpril88]

@GreenEyedTrombonist ok I'm gonna stop whining right now Hang in there!

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@DBear it's an Anthro PhD, but in the Uk, thus the lack of funding. I'd love to work with the adviser I'd have there, but I'm really gonna need to think it through if I get an acceptance there. 

@ejpril88 no need to stop whining, we're all in this together.  

[DBear]

@GreenEyedTrombonist Ah, that makes sense.. that's the thing about the UK  with funding.. they have such excellent schools and professors ... but.... SO expensive... either way, since you got the interview, let's rock the interview! But I'm really impressed you got the interview too, I didn't even dream of applying to UK programs because you would need a very advanced research proposal, and I just couldn't swing it! SO MUCH respect!!

 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Thanks @DBear! It's with a really well-respected anthropologist, thus how tempted I am despite the lack of funding. Now if only I were rich...

[DBear]

5 minutes ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

Thanks @DBear! It's with a really well-respected anthropologist, thus how tempted I am despite the lack of funding. Now if only I were rich...

UGH - the UK is so expensive - but I bet you can find some sort of scholarship (like a fulbright kind of thing) to study abroad - you'd be done faster! I really do have so much respect for UK higher education - so cheers to getting this far!!! Best of luck!!!

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

UGH, so many emotions. So, my POI at UCL wanted to do an interview, but at that school you need a second potential supervisor to approve the applicant/do the interview. POI couldn't find a second supervisor for me so my app won't be moving forward.  

[sadsoul88]

18 hours ago, 2ManyTacos said:

Bolding mine.

This is me right now; glad to know I'm not the only one completely in the dark about what's happening vis-a-vis UW.  Judging from past years on the "Results" tab, it's conceivable that those of us who have not yet been contacted by UW have either (a) been admitted, (b) made it past the "initial screening" stage, or (c) been waitlisted. 

Hi everyone. I don't know about UW, but i finally uncovered Cornell's mystery. Apparently they had composed my rejection last week, and sent it to me .. but I never received it? They claim that maybe it went to spam? Anyway, my friend went to ask in the admission office yesterday and the officer there told my friend that all rejections were sent together last Friday. So if you haven't heard yet from Cornell, you are most likey waitlisted! 

[heyDW]

4 hours ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

UGH, so many emotions. So, my POI at UCL wanted to do an interview, but at that school you need a second potential supervisor to approve the applicant/do the interview. POI couldn't find a second supervisor for me so my app won't be moving forward.  

Wowwwwwww that SUCKS! I'm v sorry  

[ejpril88]

5 hours ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

UGH, so many emotions. So, my POI at UCL wanted to do an interview, but at that school you need a second potential supervisor to approve the applicant/do the interview. POI couldn't find a second supervisor for me so my app won't be moving forward.  

OMG I'm so sorry and I can't believe it's that complicated! Hope you will receive some positive news soon, you definitely deserve it!

2 hours ago, sadsoul88 said:

Hi everyone. I don't know about UW, but i finally uncovered Cornell's mystery. Apparently they had composed my rejection last week, and sent it to me .. but I never received it? They claim that maybe it went to spam? Anyway, my friend went to ask in the admission office yesterday and the officer there told my friend that all rejections were sent together last Friday. So if you haven't heard yet from Cornell, you are most likey waitlisted! 

I had the opposite situation - I was admitted to Purdue but didn't receive their acceptance email. Out of the blue they sent me details about the hotel for Welcome Weekend and when I asked is it a mistake, they told me they have sent the acceptance letter a day before, but I never got it and it wasn't in my spam mail. Weird...

[av2010]

On 2/8/2017 at 4:14 PM, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

@DBear I think I would still apply to both, but way more Comm programs than I did this round. I discovered that many Comm programs relate to my interests that I wasn't aware about before. I'm completely down to co-author a Buffy paper! I find that a lot of subjects can actually be studied across the disciplines, so whether I did an anthro or a comm program wouldn't make a huge difference for that.  

Count me in if you want a third!

[ejpril88]

I've sent emails to UIC and UMN Twin Cities this morning, asking about decision dates. Their application deadlines were long time ago. Also emailed UC Davis to ask about any updates regarding funding, since the professor I talked with on Tuesday told me I should be receiving a funding email by Wednesday evening, but that didn't happen.

Whatever the outcomes are, I think when this is all over we should throw a party together - at least a virtual one  

[av2010]

I had posted this to my Instagram once all my applications got sent out and it brought me luck.  Sending it to all of you hoping it will bring you the same luck.

[DBear]

@av2010 and @GreenEyedTrombonist, with the 3 of us, we might as well write a Buffy book!!! Though it won't be the first academic book on the series, it'll be the best!! 

GreenEyed, so sorry it didn't work out - but this is really constructive - you know there was nothing wrong with your application, just maybe it's a niche within the department since your POI was happy enough with it to try and advocate for you. So should you need to apply again to that program, you can be confident + you know more about how they do things. 

There's just so many things we don't know about how ad comms work - I know some of us here do have some insider information for at least a couple of programs, but still, for the most part, it's really a black hole.. we don't know what happens inside. 

[Conky3000]

On 2/8/2017 at 4:14 PM, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

@DBear I think I would still apply to both, but way more Comm programs than I did this round. I discovered that many Comm programs relate to my interests that I wasn't aware about before. I'm completely down to co-author a Buffy paper! I find that a lot of subjects can actually be studied across the disciplines, so whether I did an anthro or a comm program wouldn't make a huge difference for that.  

This ^

Makes me wonder if you should do this:

On 2/6/2017 at 9:59 PM, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

@sammyo Would you consider a M.A. or M.S. program? They often have later deadlines than PhD programs.

Some of the acceptances issues you've mentioned might come down to getting focused. From reading through this board a few times (and granted I'm not going to read all 20 threads over, but bear with me), my hunch is your rejections are not because you aren't a bright and qualified candidate, but because you're still in the exciting stages of learning what you want to do, which isn't a bad thing, it's just PhD programs tends to want people with laser sights on what they already want.

You might find, as I did, that getting your MA/MS before applying to PhD programs will not only strengthen you as an admissible candidate, but also help you determine exactly exactly what you want to do, be that Comm/Anthro/whatever. It's good to have a focus area, but I myself was quite surprised by how specific some places want you to be. Some schools want you to pitch them ideas for research in their interviews! So not just subareas of communication scholarship, but tangible specific problems you see that you want to investigate. 

Personally, I am glad I got my MA before I started applying to PhD schools. I was able to sandbox several ideas and interests of mine at a respectable, regional MA-only program at an R2, got tons of one-on-one help from professors, and developed a much sharper sense of what specifically in the communication field I wanted to explore. Now that I'm applying for PhD, I feel I've got enough under my belt that I can 'come in hot" at a R1 level program. Only time will tell, of course! 

Just a bit of unsolicited advice from someone who was in your exact same spot two years ago. I hope your search goes well!  

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Hey @Conky3000, thanks for the advice!

I know you weren't able to read through everything, so I feel like I should clear some things up.

I'm actually finishing my anthro MA right now. When I say there is overlap between Comm and Anthro, it's not about a generality of interests. Many programs study the same things, but approach them with different theoretical frameworks and this is what I was trying to convey. Comm just happens to be ahead of anthro in the amount it focuses on digital media and interaction.  

It's true, I have many interests, but when I wrote my SoP's I spoke of conducting research on the interaction of online and offline communications in geek communities by possibly utilizing the community I worked with for my MA, observing interactions on Twitch and other areas where geeks congregate online, and attending conventions and conferences attended by geeks in person. 

If I could pinpoint why my apps have not been successful, I think it would be that I need to do a better job on my SoP's, build stronger relationships with my POI's, and maybe have a bit more luck, as @DBear brought up.  

[DBear]

At some point, I'm thinking of doing a postmortem of this entire process, but I think thus far, the schools that did accept me were okay with the fact that I didn't come from a Comm background and may not be able to use terminology specific to the field of Comm. Coming from a mixed-non Comm background, I was very self-conscious of this and always mentioned it when cold-emailing POIs - and from how they responded to this and the suggestions they made were really insightful in determining whether they wanted students that were already very Comm-tailored and specific like @Conky3000 suggested, or whether they were a bit more open to mixed approaches and backgrounds. There were some really interesting programs that I would have loved to apply to, but the way their website or even the faculty profiles were worded made me feel I wouldn't be Comm enough. I also think I was lucky - the POI that contacted me from one school, who showed great interest in working with me said that a big chunk of their advisees graduated recently - so they just happened to be looking for a new batch of students to advise. I mean, the likelihood that @GreenEyedTrombonist just happened to apply to schools where faculty who'd most likely be interested in your research just happened to have a full load in terms of advisees, or maybe just happened to be on sabbatical this year and didn't get any input into the process is real. I'm sure every one of us can do something that would make their SOP a bit more convincing or well-worded.. we could have gotten a few more points on the GRE.. but then there are so many things that are out of hands.. all we can do is hope that our research into the programs was thorough and then keep our fingers crossed - I think that's what made me so anxious all of last year is just thinking that most of this is out of my hands... 

Edited February 10, 2017 by DBear
bad grammar BOO!

[heyDW]

Iowaaaaaaaa what the heck ?

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

uh oh what's up with Iowa @heyDW?

[The Shade King]

3 hours ago, DBear said:

@av2010 and @GreenEyedTrombonist, with the 3 of us, we might as well write a Buffy book!!! Though it won't be the first academic book on the series, it'll be the best!! 

GreenEyed, so sorry it didn't work out - but this is really constructive - you know there was nothing wrong with your application, just maybe it's a niche within the department since your POI was happy enough with it to try and advocate for you. So should you need to apply again to that program, you can be confident + you know more about how they do things. 

There's just so many things we don't know about how ad comms work - I know some of us here do have some insider information for at least a couple of programs, but still, for the most part, it's really a black hole.. we don't know what happens inside. 

 

Lets do a vampire (anthology). I want to write about The Vampire Diaries and examine blackness and magic through that popular cultural optic. You can add Teen Wolf, the Originals, Supernatural, Lucifer, True Blood, etc.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@The Shade King Only if we get to talk about the various origin myths as well.  

[The Shade King]

3 minutes ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

@The Shade King Only if we get to talk about the various origin myths as well.  

Of course, we have to situate all of this in the introduction lol .. This is cross-disciplinary and we gotta cover all the bases lol