From One UMasser to Another: Part 2

Tackling the GRE:

Again, without knowing you (the reader) or how you operate as a student, I can only offer what worked in my experience and pose questions for you to consider. The GRE is good for 5 years after you take it. Although I was not sure about my post-undergrad plans I knew that it was best for me to take it as soon as I was done with school while my study habits were still intact. I also forced myself to study regularly for it (which I didn’t do for the SATs). I carried homemade vocabulary flash cards and used GRE study guides from the library to practice Math problems for a few hours a week. Many study guides offer practice tests, which are also very helpful. The exams don’t change very much from year to year so I suggest a minimal investment in study materials. Get everything you can from the library.

Admissions & Your Personal Statement:

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING THE SCHOOL
Please refer to the questions on the handout for finding out what you want to do and what schools you would be interested in attending. While you are working through which schools you would like to go to, visit them if possible. Don’t be afraid to open a dialogue with someone in admissions. That is their job security, make them do some work. Ask a million questions. Find out exactly what they are looking for and what the school/students are like. You are the one making the huge investment in school and you have the right and obligation to know everything about the school.

After you engage thoroughly in an honest and open dialogue with a few schools (as is important in every relationship) you are now ready to begin the personal statement. Each school asks different questions and it is important to address each individually. Don’t write one that you will send into all the schools. It is cheap and it weakens your argument for them to accept you.

Don’t complain about your life, no matter how shitty it actually is. Talk about your trials in an empowering way; i.e., some people would complain about x,y, or z, but I am better now for the experience and it allowed me to see the world in yadda yadda light, etc.

Personalize it by connecting your experience to your interests. There has to be a “BING!” moment when you realized what made sense for you. Try a short narrative within the body of the essay. See if it fits. If it doesn’t, toss it.

Experiment. Have some wine and write whatever comes to mind. Come back to it in a couple of days. It takes time and should take time. It is a process, and you may actually learn more about yourself because you are forced to be autobiographical.

Remain authentic. You are cool, and they need to know how cool actually are. Everyone can write a ‘smart’ essay, but can they write a smart and authentically cool essay? It is important to separate yourself from the boring essay writers.

Have people read it (only people you respect, it saves you trouble).

Good Luck, in all of your endeavors!

If you made it this far, you will be rewarded. Below is the handout from the alumni event and below that is my personal statement. Not only did I get in to the New School, they also gave me %25 off the cover price (a merit scholarship). Hopefully it will give you some ideas. Any questions, e-mail me: Medeiros.lindsey@gmail.com

From One UMasser to Another: Advice for Post-Undergrad Pursuits

Unfortunately, I can’t be there to give you personal advice tailored to your interests, background and personality quirks. Fortunately for you, I am familiar with the “Post-Undergrad Existential Crisis” and can pose questions that will help you navigate through this seemingly swampy abyss. These questions are based on the assumption that you intend on doing something at some point in time that will propel you to a higher (either enlightened, monetary or both) living standard.

1: Do you know what you want?
--If not, take the time to figure it out. As long as you continue pursuing your interests in whatever manner, it will lead you to a decision. Interested in advocacy? Join a non-profit and donate your time. Want to be an educator? Sign up to be a sub or do some after school tutoring. Do you want to be a chef? Work in a restaurant kitchen for a little while. You will realize if it is or isn’t your scene quickly. If it isn’t, you will know and can move on to something that is for you. It is a simple process of elimination without a financial commitment.

2: Would you like the culture of fraternities? Do you want your teacher to know you by name? Do you want to choose your own focus within a program?
--These are all important when choosing a university. Each program is different. Some schools with nice names have classes with 300 students in them and strict curricula. Make sure to check out campuses and TALK TO SOMEONE THERE before you sign the loan.

3: Are you afraid to travel?
--Mandarin Chinese speakers command high salaries across the board. If you aren’t afraid to travel to one of the many English schools in China (that want to pay you good money for your time) I say, DO IT. Learn Mandarin, make money and incite envy in everyone that knows you all at once. When you come back, learn more Mandarin and make more money.

4: Do you consider yourself an indignant liberal but would some day like to pay back your debt and not sustain on a diet of canned vegetables and ramen noodles?
--Rejoice! Many business/management schools (such as Milano @ The New School) are popping up and growing in popularity. Schools that will teach you to be a conscientious leader and which incorporate many liberal arts values (environmentalism, multiculturalism, lots of –isms) into their curriculum are out there and want people like you to be the next generation of leaders. Seriously, check it out! (Ashoka.org has a large presence in the Milano School.)

About Me:
I graduated from UMass Boston in December 2006 with a BA in Political Science. It took me over 2 years to answer question number one on this list. Currently, I am attending the Graduate Media Studies program at the New School where the focus is on the intersection of media practice and theory. We learn multi-media production and study the effects of media as well as it’s content. Please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at the above address with any questions you have.

Admissions, GRE, and Essay advice will all be posted from April 20th-27th here:

Personal Statement Fall 2009

"Understanding several media simultaneously is the best way of approaching any one of them." - Marshall McLuhan

I have 162 text messages in my cell phone inbox. I am sitting on the couch with nine tabs open on my Firefox browser on the Mac laptop to my left. There is a Miriam Makeba vinyl playing on a turntable hooked up to a 3-CD changer, tape deck and radio combo receiver. In front of me are four bookshelves full of DVDs, VHSs, books, and magazines. On the coffee table by my feet are more magazines and old newspapers scattered around. The television is off, so I can concentrate long enough to write this. My life like many others is totally saturated with messages and forms of communication, which affect us more than we are conscious of, for better and for worse.

My intellectual development heavily coincided with the U.S.'s involvement in many national and internationally illegal undertakings. Early on in my undergraduate study my knowledge of the field of politics mortified and disgusted me. For this reason I decided to try Poli-Sci 101 and fell in love. In my studies I learned that there were many people fed up with the military industrial complex, the abuse of labor and land, the lack of transparency and accountability and the resulting pain around the globe. Dedicated members of the independent press and nonprofit organizations have devoted a large part of their lives towards progressive change. Early in my undergraduate studies I decided that I too, would work towards those same principles. At that point, I was not sure in exactly what capacity I would be working for that change.

At the University of Massachusetts at Boston I had earned a 3.8, interned at State Representative Louis Kafka's office, completed a Senior Honors Thesis, and studied abroad to Cuernavaca, Mexico. I also completed two minors, one in Spanish and the other in Economics and the Certificate Program in International Relations all while winning three academic awards (see Curriculum Vitae). In my International Relations Seminar the class had only four white Americans, and something like a dozen students from the African Diaspora, three or four students from the Middle East including a Muslim Arab and an Israeli Jew, and a handful of students from everywhere else but Antarctica. International Relations debates were never so gritty for me as they were in that seminar or on that campus.

Originally, I wanted to go to the New School's program in International Affairs. I was attracted to the school's fusing of intellectual elements and it's non-traditional approach to its subjects. The school and its program appeared excellent, I however, was unsure about pursuing an advanced degree in International Affairs.

In the two-year period after school I worked in bookstores, restaurants, and for temp agencies so I could figure out what I wanted to do with my life without too much professional pressure. With all the spare time I had being chronically underemployed and eventually unemployed, opportunities arose for me to develop my many outside interests. In 2007 I lived with students from Mass College of Art and Design, who through osmosis taught me that communication could also come in non-linear and creative mediums and not just “The Ten Page Essay”. I spent a lot of time with students from the Studio for Interrelated Media, as well as from the Photography and Glassblowing Departments. Their creative energy had rubbed off on me.

The following year, I moved to Somerville, the other side of the city, where I joined the Community Access TV station and learned how to communicate via digital media and learned to utilize software like FinalCut Express and PhotoShop. I helped many members and the station produce programs and began my own live weekly TV call-in show, “The Soap Box” (http://scatsoapboxtv.blip.tv). On the show, my co-host and I discuss topics that we feel are missing in mainstream TV discourse and periodically bring in knowledgeable guests to enhance our discussion. Our latest episode, Soap Box 17 featured human rights worker and author Nadejda Marques. She came onto the show to commemorate the 60th anniversary of International Human Rights Day.

My interest in media led me to a Research Assistant position with Dr. Bill Baker at the Hauser Center for Non Profit Research in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Together we are examining the size, scope and reach of nonprofit journalism throughout old media and new in hopes of finding the next viable formula for journalism. My amateur media activism is hopefully the beginning of a dynamic and growing media career. I look forward to learning what the Media Studies program has to teach me about production and media philosophy.

Media is in a deeply transitional phase. Print newspapers are losing readers and turning heavily to a web platform. Millions of Americans get their news from shows such as the Daily Show and Colbert Report, both of which first aim to entertain and then inform. Meanwhile, cable news programs that claim to inform appear to have entertainment as their first priority. Infotainment as well as the conglomeration of media outlets threatens the informed debate and diversity of voices needed in our democratic forum. At this critical point in media's evolution, I want to be a part of the next generation of creative communicators that bring critical information to the public in a scrupulous and engaging way.

I am very enthusiastic about the curriculum and class offerings at the New School. The integration of philosophy, art, media theory, and politics into a program that thoroughly teaches multi-media production is ideal for being a conscientious media producer. The unique and creative intellectual culture at the New School and the fact that it is located in New York City, the media capital of the world, is the perfect setting for me to contribute to and enhance the media community. After graduating with a Masters in Media Studies from the New School I hope to continue my media activism throughout many different media platforms. In the distant future I see myself working in community media and teaching media literacy and production.

Finally, I hope that you will consider me for admission to the New School Graduate program in Media Studies, as I will enthusiastically bring a fresh perspective and innovative ideas to the changing field of media.