2017 Applications Thread

[heyDW]

46 minutes ago, ejpril88 said:

 

@heyDW is Iowa now the only school that you both applied to?

No, we also applied to Denver and Bowling Green State University!

[DBear]

>> MY COMM PEOPLE I MISSED YOU!!!! <<<

1) The following is what I wanted to post yesterday:

Sorry for having gotten so sappy, but as always @heyDW with such reassuring support!! Thank you so much! My brain knows that what I thought were setbacks could also be advantages but after months and months of always doubting myself, it's hard to stop now even with the admits  So will slowly work on thinking of the future and also looking forward to being "recreated" like @ejpril88 is. 

I'm not sure if everyone felt this way, but during the application process, it felt like I had a microscope to my entire life starting undergrad and I was closely analyzing everything I did like why there are so many Cs on my transcript... It was disconcerting to say the least! 

2) Now for today's rant:

@phdthoughts I never looked at it like that - thank you! Now that I think of it, I would want to see more people who did take a bit of a detour but still made it in academia - it would make me feel better. Also, I don't think they do interviews, but I didn't know if l should be a bit alarmed that my POI didn't reply back to me directly and had the dgs reply instead.

So! I got my rejection from U Penn today and so am down to waiting for U Mass Amherst - almost done with this cycle.. 

[feyfatale]

@hnm1231 Congratulations on the interview! Which program are you interviewing for? I have been waiting to hear from Screen Cultures for a while.

[DBear]

@hnm1231 So you're going to go there for  a physical interview? 6 people in 2 hours really isn't all that bad depending on how they do it. Most likely it'll probably be like 2, hour-long interviews with like 3 faculty members sitting together. They could potentially do 6 1:1 interviews in 2 hours, but that doesn't seem likely to be enough time for the faculty to get to know you. 

Just remember they liked you enough to have 6 people invest time in talking to you! Good luck!

[heyDW]

Two friends of mine were interviewed at Northwestern and one is now almost finished with the Comm program and they both told me the interviews were to basically cut through the BS in their statements, haha. I'd review what you wrote in your statement and sample and look over your most frequently cited scholars. Gah! Good luck!

[DBear]

 

 

@heyDW that's so scary sounding!! If someone cut out the bs in my statement, they'd be left with the title of the document lol oh, and maybe a few lines with facts about my past..

[phdthoughts]

Lol @DBear

[DBear]

10 hours ago, av2010 said:

It's so nice that we have built up a little mini support system on here of fellow communicators!  

Btw, anyone on here going to ECA in Boston in March?

 

1) LOVE "fellow communicators"

2)... Another thing I dunno - gonna go google ECA - but most likely will be back home in Korea then so the answer is probably no.

[DBear]

2 minutes ago, phdthoughts said:

Lol @DBear

that's the truth, I reserve b/s for SOPs, Cover Letters and interviews 

[The Shade King]

I am done. I got my rejection from Upenn today. So all of my comm programs are over. I am very happy with 2 for 2. Now I have to wait for my American Studies results which are not as great with 1 waitlist and 1 rejection lol. 

[DBear]

@The Shade King Dude, hope that doesn't mean you're going to ditch the Comm forum!!!

[The Shade King]

Just now, DBear said:

@The Shade King Dude, hope that doesn't mean you're going to ditch the Comm forum!!!

Nope, I am with yall to the bitter end.....

[DBear]

9 minutes ago, The Shade King said:

Nope, I am with yall to the bitter end.....

Let's hope the end is sweet...................

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@DBear You are awesome and clearly a good fit for these programs or else they wouldn't have picked you! Don't feel guilty for being accepted. <3 

^^What I was going to post when the forums were down.

Also, I only applied to one Comm program and was already rejected from it. Y'all are stuck with me.  

 

[heyDW]

CSCA it's also coming up if anyone is going (Central States Communication Association )...I'm gonna be hangin' out.

[The Shade King]

51 minutes ago, DBear said:

Let's hope the end is sweet...................

Bitter Sweet then..I hope by the time we are ready to go on the job market there is a separate board just for that so we can commiserate again.

[hnm1231]

@feyfatale It's the Media, Technology and Society program! I hope you hear from your program soon  
 

2 hours ago, DBear said:

They could potentially do 6 1:1 interviews in 2 hours, but that doesn't seem likely to be enough time for the faculty to get to know you. 

 

It is 6 one on one meetings  But hopefully it's like @heyDW said and they're just weeding out the BS in my statements... there is some but most of it is at least close to the truth lol. I'm going to try and memorize some information about all of them so we'll see how that goes. 

It is so weird knowing that we're halfway through February! I didn't think I would make it out of January alive with all this waiting but here we are!

[feyfatale]

@hnm1231 Thanks for letting me know, it is a relief! 6 one on one meetings actually sound better, none of them gets enough time to ask difficult questions. 

One very basic but useful interview advise I got from a professor is to be very specific on whose work you are responding to and your contribution to the field. Meaning that it is more important to focus on the stakes of your argument instead of the topics of your research.

 

[phdthoughts]

Amidst all our waiting angst, It occurs to me that I haven't seen many people here who've applied to interpersonal or social interaction and culture tracks? Or, maybe all us social interaction people are the ironically, the most elusive  

[hnm1231]

@feyfatale thank you for the advice! I don't think I've focused on that aspect enough in past interviews so I will try to make that point clearer

You all have successfully lessened my nervousness, thank you!

[DBear]

Ugh, I don't think the forum is completely fixed. It keeps logging me out GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

 

@GreenEyedTrombonist Thank you! hehehehe - I'm glad we're all here till the "bitter sweet end"

@hnm1231 ooh - I had an interview like that when I was applying for Fulbright. I think there were like 7 people in the room. What tripped me up the most was that everyone had such a different level of interest - one guy just kept looking at his computer and seemed bored. There was one person that seemed VERY unhappy that I was even being interviewed. Then there were the professors who seemed like they were cheering me on. So I think I paid way too much attention to trying to please that HUGELY diverse crowd and some of the stuff I said ended up being incoherent. So when there are that many people, just remember to stick to the question and don't worry about the "audience", just say what you genuinely mean - I think you'll be fine!

@phdthoughts Maybe the rest of your people are all out interacting socially? hehehe.. However, for U Mass Amherst, I did apply to Social Interaction and Culture - so, hey! I'm here! 

@heyDW I see what you did there! Thanks for the parenthesis! 

 

[ejpril88]

Hey guys, I really hope the end IS gonna be sweet for all of us and I hope we will continue talking here. That said, I was going through a major crisis while the forum was down

(Paranoid) question: Do you think members of the faculty spy on us here?

[DBear]

@ejpril88 lol, I've heard that faculty and current students do come here, but hopefully they won't be trying to figure out who we all really are - I'm hoping they have better things to do. That being said, I got paranoid and that's why I removed the school names from my signature.

Also, I was talking to a friend today and she actually nagged me about having declined a couple of admissions already. I don't think I was being hasty, but it seems like most students wait to make their decisions at the very last minute. I just thought it'd be better to decline schools that I was sure I wasn't going to go to (relatively not as good fit etc) as soon as possible because there are so many other qualified applicants waiting. I also wanted to be done with this too. Fortunately, students waiting to make their decisions in March means there's still a LOT of room for change in waitlists and such. Unfortunately, this also means that it will take a while for this to be truly over...

 

[heyDW]

I changed my profile picture and personal info for fear of being spied on. It'd be a good idea to take programs out, too...eek. And @DBear I think it was good to tell those schools-- if you're sure, you're sure, and I'm sure it meant a lot to another student who otherwise would have been in waitlist hell for months.

[av2010]

8 hours ago, phdthoughts said:

Amidst all our waiting angst, It occurs to me that I haven't seen many people here who've applied to interpersonal or social interaction and culture tracks? Or, maybe all us social interaction people are the ironically, the most elusive  

I'm an interpersonal!