2018 Applications Thread

[surprise_quiche]

@GreenEyedTrombonist That sounds awesome! See, that definitely fits NCA's theme.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@surprise_quicheyeah, the second I saw Huizinga I was like, "where do I submit and sign up and why do I have to wait until November????"  

[surprise_quiche]

@GreenEyedTrombonist  Right? Too long.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Seriously, I'm so excited for it! @surprise_quiche

[mintless]

Oh god. A Minnesota acceptance posted. My single top choice school. Freaking a bit...as usual.

[surprise_quiche]

Good luck @mintless !! At least it's just one.

[Cago UChi]

23 hours ago, surprise_quiche said:

@Dan_Xu @GreenEyedTrombonist  I know right?

I was thinking about submitting, but my research doesn't really fit with the theme this year since its about sexual education competency in early adulthood (not play-esque lol). But I was talking with my sponsor about it so who knows? The deadline is in March so there's still time.

Sounds good. I believe you can make it!

[Cago UChi]

On 1/19/2018 at 9:35 PM, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

@Dan_Xu I'm really excited for the NCA theme this year, but I've never submitted to a comm conference. Any tips?

That depends on what division you want to submit your paper to.There are dozens of divisions, such as Critical and Cultural studies, Political Communication, Public relations ( Check out the link: NCA interest groups). You may contact the division coordinators for more information.  Good luck! 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

There are seriously so many divisions @Dan_Xu x] I'm not sure if Performance or Game Studies would be a better fit...

[swazibound]

Hey folks, I saw some discussion of Madison interviews, so I thought I'd give my experience. I got an interview email on Monday from a faculty member that basically boiled down to this line: "As we work through the applications, we really like to talk to our top applicants to make sure that we offer what they need and to start the discussion about doing a recruiting visit." We had a Skype chat later that day, and they* opened up with a general description of the program and what their strong points were. The rest was basically them answering my questions, so I wouldn't say it felt like an interview. The faculty member did not explicitly say that I was accepted, though it felt strongly hinted at, and they gave me the dates for the student recruitment visit. At the end I was told that I would be contacted later for another conversation with a different faculty member in my specific subfield.

So the interview was a good sign in my case, though I'm not sure how much we can extrapolate. Madison was the only comms program I applied for, so I'm not sure what the protocols are for other schools in the field. The other programs I applied for were in Sociology.

I'm rather curious; what is Madison's reputation in Communications (specifically comm arts)? I assumed that the Annenberg schools had the best reputation, but I'm sure it depends on subfields. Comms is a crazy field to me - so broad! I don't even know where to begin to get a sense of it all. 

*Using they as gender-neutral; it was one individual.

[GG]

I can see someone got interview call from UPenn, in the results section. Does anyone have any idea whether they sent interview calls at the same time or spreading them out throughout the month?

[Tyler on The Road]

Congrats GET, I just saw your post.

Still waiting for some news... yet I’m not that optimistic! I feel like I’m gonna get rejected!

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Thanks @Tyler on The Road ! When do your programs typically start sending out decisions?

[pato]

hey folks. just wanted to pop in and say that based on my experience, minnesota sends out acceptances in a kind of staggered rate through the entire process. i received my acceptance around jan 21st last year, my partner received his rejection a week later, my other friend received her acceptance like a month after my partner was rejected. each track meets separately so that can really influence it, too. could not follow the rhyme or reason behind decision notices so i hope that helps alleviate some anxiety. rhetoric faculty have also had a crazy busy december/winter break with an intense faculty search.

due to a family emergency i'm taking a LOA from minnesota and applying to transfer to iowa, which is closer to my family. i received an email this morning from iowa's rhetoric & public culture faculty for an interview. my partner, who was interviewed (in media) and then waitlisted and is now attending the program, received an email about being interviewed in mid february if i remember correctly. either they do rounds of notices, or they're really on the ball this year. good luck y'all!

[Ishouldbewriting]

On 1/21/2018 at 1:05 AM, swazibound said:

I'm rather curious; what is Madison's reputation in Communications (specifically comm arts)? I assumed that the Annenberg schools had the best reputation, but I'm sure it depends on subfields. Comms is a crazy field to me - so broad! I don't even know where to begin to get a sense of it all. 

From my understanding, it really depends on the subfield you're interested in! Unfortunately comm doesn't have a universal ranking system that is updated yearly, such as US News, like other disciplines do. The closest thing I'm aware of is the NCA PhD program listing: 

https://www.natcom.org/nca-doctoral-program-guide 

According to it, Madison's reputation is very good. However, I would caution that the study that served to rank the various comm programs is 11-years old at this point so things could have changed since then (although pretty much every program I've seen lives and dies by the rankings on the NCA guide, haha)!

When I asked my advisor about department reputations and rankings, she told me to avoid looking for a formal list ranking and instead look for signs of good department standing/health (i.e., where faculty members are publishing, where alums have been placed, how many degrees have been conferred in the past couple of years, if the department is bringing in new faculty, etc.) as a means of indicating the program's overall quality. 

[Cago UChi]

On 1/20/2018 at 10:53 PM, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

There are seriously so many divisions @Dan_Xu x] I'm not sure if Performance or Game Studies would be a better fit...

I might just give it a shot.  

[Cago UChi]

Any updates, guys? 

[swazibound]

Thanks @Ishouldbewriting! One resource I found is the Madison program profile for Comm Arts, which shows some impressive stats. Although, the PhD completion rate in this program is slightly lower than the national average for "peer programs," at 58% compared with 69%. Though not a game-changer for me, it's seems noteworthy.

https://tools.grad.wisc.edu/webextras/education/academicprograms/profiles/201PHD.pdf

Neuendorf, et al., 2007 ranks the program at #1, though it's a bit outdated. And doesn't account for the strength of the departments subfields, which I'm sure is more important than the general score.

 

Edited January 23, 2018 by swazibound

[Alina_D]

Hi Guys, I'm new here and it's so good to stumble into this place!

So I just got a Skype interview scheduled for tomorrow morning, and it will be with a committee of six people, which makes me really nervous now. Anyone has been thru such interviews before? I've never been interviewed by so many people together...

Any tips would be appreciated, and best of luck to all!

[surprise_quiche]

@Dan_Xu  Still waiting, I have an informal interview at Northwestern tomorrow with my POI. Hopefully it goes well; I'm optimistic. I am waiting for a TA decision from Milwaukee, and still debating if I should apply to the Fellowship programs, since their deadline for submissions outside of department is in a week... but I really want to get an assistantship.... so we will see. Waiting on IRB decision and DePauw Conference decision.

@Alina_D Hello! I've only had one interview like this, and they were not for graduate school. But I'd say if you know who is on the panel, look at what research their doing, and come up with a set of questions you want to ask them, like about the department, student life, assistantships/fellowships, other funding, student outcomes, etc.

[Alina_D]

9 minutes ago, surprise_quiche said:

@Dan_Xu  Still waiting, I have an informal interview at Northwestern tomorrow with my POI. Hopefully it goes well; I'm optimistic. I am waiting for a TA decision from Milwaukee, and still debating if I should apply to the Fellowship programs, since their deadline for submissions outside of department is in a week... but I really want to get an assistantship.... so we will see. Waiting on IRB decision and DePauw Conference decision.

@Alina_D Hello! I've only had one interview like this, and they were not for graduate school. But I'd say if you know who is on the panel, look at what research their doing, and come up with a set of questions you want to ask them, like about the department, student life, assistantships/fellowships, other funding, student outcomes, etc.

Thank you! I do have the list of the committee. Although they are all in the Ad+PR department, only one of them was mentioned in my academic statement. I think I need to research other professors.

[mintless]

Thank you very much @pato for the insight! I've applied to Minnesota, and they're my top choice (usually anyway! Sometimes Utah edges them out). The posted acceptance had me kind of spooked. If you have any insight as to what schedule the different areas are working on I'd of course love to hear it 

Sorry to hear about the circumstances of the transfer you're seeking  but I hope the interview goes well! Just finished an interview with Iowa's media studies area yesterday, so I'm going through all that with them as well.

Have you enjoyed the program at Minnesota while you have been in it?

 

[twin35]

Salutations!! I'm new to the forum and wanted to try and gain some insight into two programs - UW-Madison and Iowa. 

1) I had an interview with one of my listed POI at UW-Madison (I applied into the Rhetoric track) last week. It lasted about an hour, and we mainly talked about my research (felt more like an advising session than a formal interview), and then gave me the opportunity to ask questions about the program. I had previously (at NCA) had meetings with 2 other rhetoric faculty (both of which lasted over an hour), so he said "in my case," I wouldn't have a second interview - since the faculty who I wanted to work with felt like they already knew me. SO, my question...what is the likelihood of acceptance? Is getting the interview (for the rhetoric track) mean a likely acceptance? Does anyone generally know how that process works? 

2) Last question! I have an interview this week with on my POI (in the rhetoric track) at Iowa. The email was sent to multiple people since it started with "Dear Applicant." Does anyone know what the interview process for Iowa looks like? I was surprised to get an email since I thought typically the rhetoric track didn't do interviews. Any insight is appreciated!! 

 

 

[surprise_quiche]

@twin35 Welcome! I was told that about 60 people made the first cut at UW - Madison, and some were invited for interviews, and from that cut they are selecting around 4 to the MA program and 12 for the PhD program (for all of Comm Arts). Hope that helps

[twin35]

6 minutes ago, surprise_quiche said:

@twin35 Welcome! I was told that about 60 people made the first cut at UW - Madison, and some were invited for interviews, and from that cut they are selecting around 4 to the MA program and 12 for the PhD program (for all of Comm Arts). Hope that helps

@surprise_quicheFor ALL!? I didn't realize that is how they made admission decisions. When I talked to one of my POI's it sounded like the admission decisions were made for each sub-field (i.e. rhetoric faculty look at rhetoric applications and make the decision)...maybe I was mistaken? 

I'm going to assume no call at this point saying I was cut is good news...

Edited January 23, 2018 by twin35