Advice & inspiration

II’s guide to grad school – the where, when and why (Part 1)

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Are you currently tossing around the idea of going back to get your master’s or PhD? Or, perhaps you never considered the idea before but the current economy is making school sound more appealing. Either way, we here at II have decided to publish a series of posts this week featuring first-hand accounts of graduate students at all sorts of programs across the U.S. so that you can get an more in-depth look at what these programs might be able to offer you.

I personally know how daunting it can be when confronted with the options of not only countless schools, but numerous programs within each school. Before making my decision, I considered pursing degrees in Computer Science at UNC, Human-Computer Interaction at Georgia Tech, and New Media Design at NC State. As you can see, I was all over the map!

Regardless what you decide, I highly encourage you to take time to get professional experience between undergrad and grad school. Even if you can only secure a year-long internship while you study for the GRE, GMAT, etc, you need this time to get a fresh perspective. If I hadn’t taken 18 months off, I would have continued with a journalism degree which would have been a BIG mistake for me personally.

Also make sure to do your research on application deadlines, admission requirements, and program dates. Some programs accept applicants in August and January, and other programs don’t even require the GRE.

Everyone has different wants and needs, so we hope you enjoy reading about the different perspectives below. Make sure to look for more program recaps Wednesday and Thursday as well!

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Virginia Commonwealth University | M.S. in Mass Communications with a concentration in Multimedia Journalism

Maureen Linke: “I’m currently enrolled in the Multimedia Masters program at VCU. I chose this program because classes met on the weekends so I could still work full time and support myself. Also the program is accelerated and 16 months long so that was a plus as well. I didn’t consider any other programs because they all required a move, and would have been a lot more expensive. It’s a new program and is currently in its second year with my class.

The “pros” of the program include the length but also resources available to students like equipment for check out (DV cams and SLRs). The only con I see is that all of the professors we’ve had so far are full time and I think it would be better if we had a mix of full time and adjunct since the field is constantly changing. I really like that is more practical/technical as oppose to journalistic theory. Ideally maybe you could teach yourself a lot of what we learn but being in the program helps me stay motivated and engaged. Also, I would like to teach at some point in my career at the college level so having a master’s will enable me to do that. The tuition is reasonable for a master’s program and being able to work has offset the cost for me and many other students.”

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Syracuse University – S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications | M.A. in Photography

AJ Maclean: “Three years ago I worked for a newspaper and like many photographers and visual journalists out there I realized that the industry was taking a hit and before I involuntarily lost my job I knew I needed to build my skill set so I could continue to do what I love. At the time I had almost no knowledge of multimedia or video storytelling. I think I had made one SoundSlides project. I decided I wanted to go back to graduate school to learn some more skills and also hopefully avoid the biggest brunt of the fallout.

I applied around the country to schools with excellent photojournalism programs including Syracuse, Ohio University, Texas and Mizzou. I was accepted into them all except Mizzou. Texas was too far away from me but I visited OU and Syracuse, knowing they were my top two choices anyway. After spending time at both schools I decided on Syracuse for a few reasons. At the time (and OU has changed a lot about their program recently) Syracuse seemed a bit more progressive in the multimedia realm.

As I mentioned, I came in with basic SoundSlides knowledge and now, about a year and a half later, I am about to go back into the “real world” with very strong knowledge of Final Cut Pro and all the parts of the studio (Compressor, Color, Sound Track Pro, etc.). I have become very comfortable with video and audio story to the point that I find myself shooting video more often than stills these days (though I will always love stills more). I have learned to integrate multimedia into the web and distribute my stories anywhere in the world.

As for the future of Newhouse, I know there are plans to redesign a majority of the building to make more collaborative group areas and have the latest technologies to make sure graduates of the school are ahead of the field. Newhouse is also home to the Alexia Foundation, a photography competition/grant every year that pushes the idea of social change through photojournalism. Exciting things are happening with the foundation at this very moment and it is definitely going to become a force in the photography world in the very near future.”

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NC State – College of Design | M.A. in Animation, New Media and Digital Imaging

Mike Schmidt: “This is now a 3 year program (I got in when it was still 2 years) and combines seminar classes (skills training and theory coursework) with an intense studio class where you do larger scale production work based on problems presented by the instructors.

There is a big focus on creating characters and animating them with 2D programs like Flash and After Effects or 3D in Maya, but also on general motion graphics. There is a lesser focus on new media or anything web specifically, this is really just some basic flash programming, but I wouldn’t call it web development. The Art and Design program is largely about process and ideas … so there is much discussion on research, art and experimental work.”

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication

Andrew Gaerig: “Carolina’s JOMC offers several post-secondary options for students looking to advance their multimedia education. Students in the two-year master’s program often take the visual communication/editing/multimedia path, where they are coached in video, audio and interactive storytelling techniques by professors who have worked for the New York Times, the Florida Sun Sentinel and MediaStorm, among other outlets. Students frequently collaborate on large-scale, investigative storytelling projects like Living Galapagos and Powering a Nation.

While the program focuses on teaching marketable skills, its length and versatility offers students the opportunity to undertake some academic research in fields like eyetracking and usability.

UNC is also home to the generous Roy H. Park Fellowship, which offers 14 incoming master’s students full tuition and a generous stipend. Chapel Hill doesn’t offer prospective journalists and multimedia developers as many local opportunities as schools in urban environments, but its experienced faculty and award-winning student projects ensure plenty of visibility for its graduates.

Applications are due on Jan 1. For more information on applying, visit the school’s admissions page.”

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Birmingham City University | M.A. in Online Journalism

Alex Gamela: “My experience at Birmingham City’s University has been quite valuable. The course is headed by Paul Bradshaw, one of the foremost thinkers in Online Journalism and the reason why I’m doing this MA. Our classes are not “traditional” in the sense that we go out of the university grounds and get in touch with people who are already working in journalism or related technologies, which is amazing, to learn from those in the barricades. Along with the Online Journalism module, we have two enterprise and project management modules, which might sound boring (they did to me) but they are becoming really useful to plan my activities as an entrepreneur and freelancer, and believe me, you’ll need it to face the world out there. It’s a course directed to shape the future of journalism, so you also have a certain amount of experimentation.

Since this is the first year and our group is a bit diverse there have been some minor issues, which i consider to be normal, but there’s room to improve. Most of the work and initiative belong to students, which can be hard for those who are used to being told what to do, but independence is promoted and teachers have always been available to help. The goal is to foster new ways of thinking Journalism as an activity and a business, and to be one step ahead of what is going on in the real world, which won’t happen if we are passive spectators.

Although Birmingham is not an amazing city (sorry guys) it has an amazing group of people who work with the digital technologies and culture that organize small informal events, but we also have big events now and then. There is a strong new media culture and i think it’s easy to work with those people if you have the skills and motivation. The tuition is a bit expensive for my standards … in accommodation and tuition i spent around $12,000 dollars which is a lot for a guy on a reduced-bank loan, and for overseas students tuition fees are more than doubled. But i believe this was a good bet, and it will be prestigious for me to be one of the first MA students in Online Journalism here. It’s not for newbies, but it’s hot for those who want to take the next step. We think in pixels, not paper.”

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Are you currently a grad student and interested in contributing to our series on graduate programs? Please send us an email at innovativeinteractivity@gmail.com with something similar to what you see above, including pros, cons, personal insights, and links to pertinent information. We look forward to hearing from you!

Other posts that might interest you:

• II’s guide to grad school – the where, when and why (Part 2)
• II’s guide to grad school – the where, when and why (Part 3)

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