[WTB Advice] About Grad School

jjun212

Canada2208 Posts

May 18 2009 02:01 GMT

Hey!

I'm entering my 3rd year of my undergrad but am trying to seriously plan out what I can do for my graduate studies if I choose to pursue that path but I don't know a lot of people going into the liberal arts department. Most of the grad students I've met at the University of Toronto are all science and I am hoping that there's a group of other grad students on TL.net

I am looking towards Drama, East Asian Studies, Linguistics or Journalism for grad studies but mainly journalism at NYU or Harvard Extension School. I am not DEAD SERIOUS about getting into those schools or the journalism stream yet but my curiosity is as high as it can be. I read on the school sites saying they require at least a B average and a undergrad in the liberal arts.

So, can anyone tell me any experience they've had with grad studies? I was also reading and found out that I have to provide my own funding for my thesis topic? How do I choose these topics? Also, Harvard says that I have to maintain a B throughout my time in grad school and if I do not complete it in 5 years, they retire you from the program. Is this a common thing or it's just a precautionary measure by the university?

Also, since I want to attend an American school and I'm from Canada, are there extra fees I have to pay as an international student? How accessible are the loans/grants and scholarships at American universities?

Lastly, if anyone knows of a more reputable grad school for journalism or any other topic I mentioned before, could you help me? Thanks!

*I have e-mailed the universities but I have always found that student feedback was way more useful

Ingenol

United States1328 Posts

May 18 2009 02:53 GMT

Wait, Harvard Extension School? You can get a grad degree from them? I went to Harvard for science grad school and TA'd a course offered through the extension school. I was under the impression it was basically like night school for adults looking to change careers. We had all sorts of people taking organic chemistry to try to pursue sales careers in the pharma industries, get a college degree, etc., and the quality of the students was extremely underwhelming. As science graduate school is very different from graduate studies in the arts (mostly you get a stipend instead of paying for it), I unfortunately can't contribute much to the other points of discussion but I would highly suggest against the extension school as I don't think your degree would really have much pull, although perhaps I'm just biased. From my experiences there is a very, very distinct divide between the extension school and Harvard proper (extension school courses were not ever taught by Harvard profs, etc. etc.).

Disclaimer: I may be completely off base on this as my experience was only as a TA for an extension school "undergraduate" course. Hopefully someone has a more intimate knowledge and can correct me.

lilsusie

3861 Posts

May 18 2009 03:01 GMT

As a Canadian you'll be paying International prices.
Most Grad schools will not let you have anything lower than a B.
It'll be a lot more in depth of what you are studying.
If you are not 100% sure you want to pursue a certain field in grad studies, I suggest that you do before you start because it's a lot more work than undergrad.

nvnplatypus

Netherlands1300 Posts

May 18 2009 04:16 GMT

This is a tough time to be getting into journalism, frankly. By the time you graduate the skillset might be as relevant as a steam train machinist was in the 1960s. The fact that almost all media properties (web, TV, mags & rags) are laying off news room staff isn't just because of macroeconomic conditions in advertising. Even the NY Times is probably going to be bankrupt within 24 months. Like Warren Buffett put it:

If Mr Gutenberg had come up with the internet instead of movable type back in the late 15th century, and for 400 years we had used the internet for news and all types of entertainment and all kinds of everything else, and I came along one day and said, "I have got this wonderful idea we are going to chop down some trees up in Canada and ship them to a paper mill which will cost us a fortune to run through and deliver newsprint and then we'll ship that down to some newspaper and we'll have a whole bunch of people staying up all night writing up things and then we'll send a bunch of kids out the next day all over town delivering this thing and we are going to really wipe out the internet with this." It ain't going to happen

Does it really make sense for 50 newspapers to have a Washington bureau covering the same White House press briefing? This isn't even a question of aggregating or syndicating that White House content (even AP, which does does just that, is in deep shit with no obvious way out), as we're already two steps past that.

While there will always be room for the professional, investigative journalist writing in a forum with editorial standards to maintain and a news brand's reputation to uphold, I don't believe that in four years we'll have more than 50% of the people employed as full-time journalists as we do today.

This is a bit off-topic, but if you're planning this far ahead, you may want to put some thought into what it will mean to be a paid journalist in four years, what skills will be relevant to you then, and what the economy of mass media might look like then. Or maybe you have already, in which case just ignore me

jjun212

Canada2208 Posts

May 18 2009 04:59 GMT

Thanks for the feedback ! Really insightful

GTR

51489 Posts

May 18 2009 06:13 GMT

I was talking to Day and I'm kind of in a similar situation as you. I'm still doing my 'junior' year in high school and I was planning to do my undergrad studies in Australia at a private college in Games Design/Multimedia, but after talking to him, I'm looking towards East Asian Languages/Studies then do a grad course in the US/somewhere that offers Game Design.

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