2017 Applications Thread

[heyDW]

I submitted mine November 28th! On paper I was not the strongest applicant (p weak GRE and below average undergrad GPA) but I have teaching experience and I think I fit with the direction the rhetoric folks want to move and I have a lot of passion/eagerness to study so I'm hoping it's not a "wtf you are not ready what were you thinking [rejection]" and more a "you seem cool, come on ova! [admit!]"

four of my friends have applied and their applications haven't changed either and so I have no idea gah

[ejpril88]

I am actually relieved that I got admitted by at least one school. Now I am waiting for 6 more responses. Purdue is a great university, however, I still can't imagine living in Lafayette IN after 10 months in Chicago... Maybe their Welcome Weekend one month from now will change my mind.

[av2010]

2 minutes ago, ejpril88 said:

I am actually relieved that I got admitted by at least one school. Now I am waiting for 6 more responses. Purdue is a great university, however, I still can't imagine living in Lafayette IN after 10 months in Chicago... Maybe their Welcome Weekend one month from now will change my mind.

I got accepted to West Virginia and I'm trying to picture myself living in Morgantown as well.  It definitely is relieving to know that I've been accepted somewhere, I'm just the kind of person who overthinks decisions!

[chiquitica]

I just got the acceptance from ICR. Huray! 

My acceptance was followed by a rejection from Stanford, but it was well expected. So no hard feelings ... 

I'm waiting for 2 more programs. Please please decisions come soon so I can function and actually do something .... 

[The Shade King]

1 minute ago, chiquitica said:

I just got the acceptance from ICR. Huray! 

My acceptance was followed by a rejection from Stanford, but it was well expected. So no hard feelings ... 

I'm waiting for 2 more programs. Please please decisions come soon so I can function and actually do something .... 

Congrats. I am happy for you. And it least you got that acceptance with the rejection to take the sting away. I hope they also send out rejections this week so I can put ICR to bed. 

[chiquitica]

I wonder if they already sent out all the acceptances. I think ICR also has a waiting list, so you can contact them to find out if that was the case for you. Which division did you apply to? I applied to Advertising.

[heyDW]

Congrats Chiquitica! That's great!

[The Shade King]

4 minutes ago, chiquitica said:

I wonder if they already sent out all the acceptances. I think ICR also has a waiting list, so you can contact them to find out if that was the case for you. Which division did you apply to? I applied to Advertising.

oh well I am not a communications person. So I applied to Media and Culture track. Thats my entry point to the communication which limited to me only applying to 4 programs. My other programs are American Studies. Oh thats interesting to hear about the wait list.

[ejpril88]

10 minutes ago, chiquitica said:

I just got the acceptance from ICR. Huray! 

My acceptance was followed by a rejection from Stanford, but it was well expected. So no hard feelings ... 

I'm waiting for 2 more programs. Please please decisions come soon so I can function and actually do something .... 

Yay That's awesome! ICR is a great school, I wanted to apply too, but decided to give up, thinking it was too good for me.

 

30 minutes ago, av2010 said:

I got accepted to West Virginia and I'm trying to picture myself living in Morgantown as well.  It definitely is relieving to know that I've been accepted somewhere, I'm just the kind of person who overthinks decisions!

I just googled Morgantown. As I can see, it's in the middle of nowhere, just like Lafayette, but it's much smaller. I was reading about Purdue in the last couple of days and people say it's a great school, surrounded by a diversity and tolerance "bubble" (that doesn't stretch out to the rest of the town). So I hope I will meet great people and have some kind of social life after all, if I end up going there.    

[ejpril88]

54 minutes ago, heyDW said:

I submitted mine November 28th! On paper I was not the strongest applicant (p weak GRE and below average undergrad GPA) but I have teaching experience and I think I fit with the direction the rhetoric folks want to move and I have a lot of passion/eagerness to study so I'm hoping it's not a "wtf you are not ready what were you thinking [rejection]" and more a "you seem cool, come on ova! [admit!]"

four of my friends have applied and their applications haven't changed either and so I have no idea gah

I just realized you're talking about Rhetoric and not Mass Communication. Have you seen this post on the results page?

[heyDW]

8 minutes ago, ejpril88 said:

I just realized you're talking about Rhetoric and not Mass Communication. Have you seen this post on the results page?

Yep-- RSTC is (weirdly) a different program with almost no overlap as far as I know!

 

[chiquitica]

Thank you, guys. It's great to have somebody to talk to about this  Hope we will all go through this with great news and options!

@ejpril88: The Comm program at Purdue is also very good. I almost applied there as well but backed out as they required TOEFL and I didn't want to take the test again (I'm an international student with US degree) 

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2017 by chiquitica

[ejpril88]

I am surprised they require TOEFL if you already have a US degree. Most schools don't require it if you had at least 4 years of education in US. Because of my permanent resident status, I am considered to be a domestic applicant, but I had to take TOEFL because I got my BA and MA in Serbia.

[DBear]

WOW! So happy to see so much activity here! The first night in forever that I went to bed before midnight and slept through the night - usually, I'm up all night checking the forum and have grown used to not seeing anything here but it was like CHRISTMAS this morning! All the Comm peeps are alive and well!!

Congratulations to all who were accepted to ICR - I'm new to Communication so I didn't even know about that program until someone told me that was their dream school when they applied for PhD programs like a decade ago. So missed the deadline. 

@heyDW The suspense is killing me, what happened with the application? (Please tell me it's good news) 

6 hours ago, ejpril88 said:

I am surprised they require TOEFL if you already have a US degree. Most schools don't require it if you had at least 4 years of education in US. Because of my permanent resident status, I am considered to be a domestic applicant, but I had to take TOEFL because I got my BA and MA in Serbia.

Yep - I remember a few years ago, TOEFL waivers were more common but I only encountered 2 programs this time around that offered waivers for those who held a degree from a U.S. institution. Even less common are waivers for those with U.S. MAs so I had to report scores to 6 out of 7 schools I applied to. I ended up reporting to the one school that offered me a waiver just because my TOEFL score was the only thing I was confident about.. TOEFL = biggest waste of time and money EVER

Also - I got an email today (around 12 hours prior to the time I post this) from a POI at Wisconsin Madison Comm Arts asking for a Skype conversation - he gave me really short notice, so I feel like they're at the tail end of their evaluations. He said that they are at the stage where they're interviewing top candidates. He was one of the three professors I mentioned in my SOP but he wasn't the one I had corresponded with via email prior to applying. I'm not sure how they do this, but it seems the review schedule is very specific to the different tracks (I'm applying to rhetoric and public culture). In his email, he introduced himself as being on the ad comm for the rhet phd - not comm arts. FYI - this may be why the interview schedule for that school seems a bit all over the place. 

Good luck everyone - it seems like the show's not just about to get started!

[chiquitica]

Congrats DBear for getting the interview! That's a really good sign!

I guess most schools require TOEFL scores now despite having US degrees because in US degrees don't necessarily ensure English fluency, and PhD students are usually required to TA or even teach. I understand the rationality, but I'm too lazy to take the test again (my old scores expired a while ago), because it takes a certain amount of practice to score high, and it costs, too   So I ended up applying to only 4 programs.  

The end of Jan and beginning of Feb is the peak time for admission results, so I hope we will all hear something good soon  

 

[heyDW]

I got in!!! My husband checked my status while I was asleep and had to wake me up!

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Congratulations @heyDW!

[DBear]

HAPPY DANCE FOR @heyDW OMG that's awesome! Hope he gets good news too!

@chiquitica Yay thank you! Really hoping it's a formality mostly. Totally understandable about TOEFL- if I were able to locate 4, 5 schools that didn't require TOEFL, I may have skipped it, too. I had to take it when I was super busy so the half day I spent on getting to the test center and sitting through the test felt like such a waste. Also, it was the first time I took the thing in like a decade, so was totally scrambling through it! Hopefully neither one of us will ever need to take the test again.

I really hope I can end Jan with some good news, that way Feb may be a bit easier. 

[av2010]

Yay for people getting in places!  I still feel like it's so early, but I'm very anxious waiting on other decisions.  I'm glad I go back to teaching today so I can have a little more distraction!

[kirbs005]

Congrats everyone! Such an excited time. Hopefully notifications either pick up or theirs a break. I'm not sure which I prefer at this point. 

[ejpril88]

6 hours ago, heyDW said:

I got in!!! My husband checked my status while I was asleep and had to wake me up!

That's so great!!! Congratulations  I can imagine your husband's excitement when he saw the answer.

I am glad people are posting here, too. I am checking the forum several times every day. So far I read 14 pages of "Officially Grads" thread and now I am even more confused. Some people are like "omg grad school is about to start, I should give my dog to someone and stop doing yoga, I won't have time" but others are saying that grad school is like a 9-5 job and one can relax during the weekends.

[av2010]

15 minutes ago, ejpril88 said:

That's so great!!! Congratulations  I can imagine your husband's excitement when he saw the answer.

I am glad people are posting here, too. I am checking the forum several times every day. So far I read 14 pages of "Officially Grads" thread and now I am even more confused. Some people are like "omg grad school is about to start, I should give my dog to someone and stop doing yoga, I won't have time" but others are saying that grad school is like a 9-5 job and one can relax during the weekends.

I've wondered that as well!  Probably best to just ask current students at your chosen program what their life is like.

[DBear]

27 minutes ago, ejpril88 said:

That's so great!!! Congratulations  I can imagine your husband's excitement when he saw the answer.

I am glad people are posting here, too. I am checking the forum several times every day. So far I read 14 pages of "Officially Grads" thread and now I am even more confused. Some people are like "omg grad school is about to start, I should give my dog to someone and stop doing yoga, I won't have time" but others are saying that grad school is like a 9-5 job and one can relax during the weekends.

I really think it depends on your personality - even during my MAs, there were people who were in the "OMG I have NO TIME TO BREATH" and then there were the ones who managed to have bbqs on the weekends and such. Obviously, the program's work load will be an important factor, but I think it's more your work style. I've come to this conclusion because in all the different jobs I've had and the different schools I've attended, I've basically been the same amount of busy throughout, regardless of work load. I've worked jobs that were really standard 9-5 jobs and some that literally had me working 18 hours a day or more at some times - still, I was always too busy for a really active social life regardless of work load so I think the problem is me  If you really enjoy doing things like watching movies or yoga-ing, I'm sure you'll be able to adjust yourself sooner or later! For those of you who already have admissions, it'll probably be easier to find more department specific info about student life - One of my POIs put me in touch with a couple of current students even before I applied, so if you have someone you've been in touch with, or even just the dgs, it may be useful to see if they'd put you in touch with a current student. I know there are some schools that do this even before you ask, but if it hasn't been offered yet, seems okay to go ahead and ask!

[ejpril88]

I agree. Also, many grad students are complaining about feeling lonely and isolated from the rest of the cohort. This is my main concern. I am an introvert, but so far I had many close friends and during my school and undergrad years I've never felt like an imposter. But now I'm in a foreign country and I wonder how that will turn out. I'm sure other international students share my concern.

[av2010]

Not just international students!  I'm an introverted person as well and one of my concerns with moving farther away from home is that feeling of isolation.