Pick Leee's next school, win a dollar

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Mills College

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:50 (twenty years ago) link

You should go to clown college.

― NA (Nick A.), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:57 (twenty years ago) link

I hear it's real party school. Lots of hot girls.

― NA (Nick A.), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:58 (twenty years ago) link

haha i know that feeling. about once a week i decide literature is a waste time. (of course, i decide just about everything is a waste of time at one point or another)

do you think you might rather do tv and comics from within a communications department? (no more novels that way at least)

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 22:15 (twenty years ago) link

History of Consciousness is the only graduate program I've ever seriously considered.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 22:16 (twenty years ago) link

i think you should maybe do what i decided to do. since i go back and forth about what i want to do, esp with a straight film studies degree versus english versus philosophy, i applied to different programs with different ideas of what i want to study. so i am applying to a film studies program, english programs, and even a dual english-philosophy phd program. if you dont have too many limitations on how many schools you can apply to i would do that. but if you KNOW for sure that comics is it, then dont listen to me.

a lot of good schools for pop culture are on the tip of my brain but they arent coming yet.

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 22:20 (twenty years ago) link

Berkeley Rhetoric?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 22:21 (twenty years ago) link

It's come to my attention that I never want to read another novel again

Hahaha, Leee! This was me exactly three years ago: my last two years as an undergraduate, I was dead-set on doing an English Ph.D., and then once I graduated and started looking into programs, I was all like "Read Milton? Fuck that noise!" And so I kept groping for places that I could do, like, general cultural-studies work but, like you, started to develop an aversion to theory (or at least academic bullshit), and so that ruled out dozens of places. And then I thought I'd maybe do a creative writing/criticism program at CalArts, but when I visited it seemed like such a sad and lonely place, and that's when I realized, "Wait, I don't actually need to go to graduate school, do I?"

That said, I know that Northwestern's Comparative Literary Studies Ph.D. program is fairly unique: You can choose one of three tracks -- Diaspora Studies, Film and Media Studies, and Literature and Critical Theory. Focusing on Film and Media Studies might be the way to go.

Also, the University of Chicago has a Master's Program in the Humanities (2-year program) that is one of the most flexible graduate programs I've come across: you have to take one or two intro classes on theory, but then after that you can choose classes from any humanities department pretty much a la carte.

What do you mean about Bowling Green's "theoretical foundations"? My impression of that school (my dad did graduate work there and befriended a couple of the pop-culture profs) is that it's actually fairly non-theoretical, i.e., pop culture approached more from a historical, American-studies angle. Perhaps it's changed, I don't know. But the work published in the Journal of Popular Culture (edited at BGSU), from what I remember reading of it in the late 90s, bore little resemblance to French-influenced (or even British-style) cultural studies.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 23:20 (twenty years ago) link

i don't know if there's a grad program, but uc santa cruz has a strong history of consciousness program.

― Dean Gulberry (deangulberry), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 23:24 (twenty years ago) link

CLEVER (i.e. thanks for the informative post JMC)

― L(E^24) (Leee), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 23:29 (twenty years ago) link

I'm pretty sure it's a Ph.D. program, too. But you know, that program, and maybe it's just the name, has always seemed pretty theory-crazy to me, like nothing is actually grounded in empirical reality, it's all just "consciousness." Like Judith Butler saying that not just gender is a construct but physical sexual difference, too. (Wha?) (That's a strike against Berkeley Rhetoric, too!) (Christ, I'm jaded about this stuff.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 23:30 (twenty years ago) link

my general attitude is to think of the phd as serving time until freedom. i dont think there is any perfect place that will give you (or me, for that matter) the freedom you want - so be prepared to make some concessions to whatever program you work in. if they want to shove theory down your throat, take it, then you can throw all that out the window if you want down the road.

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 23:44 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah good point, Ryan. What exactly do you want to do with the degree, Leee?

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 23:49 (twenty years ago) link

Bowling Green has a good hockey team, and its own Curling Squad! Get Your Broom!

plus, you'll only be 45 mins away! Beer in Ann Arbor!

― Jay Dee Sah Mon (Kingfish), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 23:55 (twenty years ago) link

Old answer was I wanted to teach, but that was with an eye on lit. Now, w/ the tv/comics thing, teaching/being a hoity toity critic are still ok, but so is consuming it/reviewer (neither of which require an advanced degree I know, but in my perfect world I am professional student).

― L(E^24) (Leee), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 23:58 (twenty years ago) link

two months pass...

Leee, how is this going?

I have a few questions on this subject that you MIGHT be able to answer...I'll email you when I get a moment.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Sunday, 11 January 2004 22:37 (twenty years ago) link

Not a lot to report right now since I'm playing ~~the waiting game~~ Hungry Hungry Hippos, though there seems to have been a mix up of materials at Bowling Green that I'm waiting to have sorted.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Sunday, 11 January 2004 23:56 (twenty years ago) link

one month passes...

w00t, just got an email from Bowling Green telling me I'm in -- unequivocally this time, no wait list hoo hah for me! I'm also getting a tuition waiver plus a paltry TA stipend, but yo, free money. Only drawback is I have to commit by March 12, and I don't know if I'll hear from the other schools by then.

Also, a stack of my comics just fell over. Not a good omen.

― Leee the Whitey (Leee), Thursday, 26 February 2004 18:56 (twenty years ago) link

Congratulations, Leee!

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:00 (twenty years ago) link

rock on, dude. you'll be able to follow the Reds and the Indians without batting an eye!

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

Congrats -- and if you haven't heard from the other schools by a couple days before BG's date, call BG and ask for more time. I had to do that last year, it wasn't a big deal.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago) link

Take me with you!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:07 (twenty years ago) link

(errrr, well done!)

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:07 (twenty years ago) link

Welcome to Ohio! I think you're located pretty close to the Mudhens.

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:22 (twenty years ago) link

I used to live in Ohio. As a foreigner, I actually found it very exotic.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:23 (twenty years ago) link

Keeping with my newfound interest in pop culture, I posted to the America's Next Top Model thread before I posted here!

― Leee the Whitey (Leee), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:27 (twenty years ago) link

yay leee! what will that make, like five of us ilxors in the midwest? (chicago doesn't count)

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:44 (twenty years ago) link

welcome to snow land. you'll only be 45 minutes south of ann arbor.

― Kingfish Beatbox (Kingfish), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:52 (twenty years ago) link

(xp--Chicago *should* count) Yay Lee!
http://simplyspiffing.com/~nohands/index/yay.jpg

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:53 (twenty years ago) link

Congrats Leee.

what will that make, like five of us ilxors in the midwest? (chicago doesn't count)

Are there even that many?

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Thursday, 26 February 2004 19:55 (twenty years ago) link

there are lots of midwesties in the hizzy, Nicole, even if Chi ain't counted. AND NOW LEEE!

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:06 (twenty years ago) link

ok, you, me, Nicole, Tep, Kingfish, J0hn...

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:21 (twenty years ago) link

Leee, a warning, your rite of passage to becoming a Midwesterner will involve corn on the cob.

xpost I'm not an official Ilxor but I live in ohio

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:24 (twenty years ago) link

congrats lee!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:26 (twenty years ago) link

but how will you handle all those bengals fans who are still pissed off about the niners beating cincinnati in the super bowl all those years ago? :-)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:27 (twenty years ago) link

...Jordan C., KirstenMK when she's here, NatePatrin, PeteScholtes, DylanHicks, all the other TwinCities folks...

(oh and j0hn doesn't count anymore, he moved)

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:27 (twenty years ago) link

but how will you handle all those bengals fans who are still pissed off about the niners beating cincinnati in the super bowl all those years ago? :-)

ugh, which time? *sobbing in fetal position*

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:28 (twenty years ago) link

okay okay, I don't think the twin cities count either but that's totally unreasonable. If there are so many of us why no FAPs?

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:29 (twenty years ago) link

and congratulations LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:29 (twenty years ago) link

Ummm, so who won the dollar?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:32 (twenty years ago) link

Does this also mean that you are going to become a gentleman industrialist/farmer, cultivate an applachian accent, and never return to the Yay Area again?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:33 (twenty years ago) link

Rah for Leee! Oddly enough one of my student workers here in the library is probably going to attend grad school there too in fall, so if you see a Niki Libarios around say hi...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:36 (twenty years ago) link

x-p: Teeny:
1. Minnesota is usually considered MUCH more midwestern than your state!
2. We don't FAP because we're all Midwestern: passive-aggressive, repressed, kinda scared of each other.*

*This is a lie. It's because we suck.

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:41 (twenty years ago) link

yeah, c'mon. lets fap. midwest styleee

― todd swiss (eliti), Thursday, 26 February 2004 20:45 (twenty years ago) link

Tep, how do you want your dollar?

Actually thinking about the terms they've given me -- how good can BGSU be if they're willing to waive tuition for me?

― Leee the Whitey (Leee), Friday, 27 February 2004 00:17 (twenty years ago) link

Leee, a warning, your rite of passage to becoming a Midwesterner will involve corn on the cob.

My teeth are strong. I like corn!

Also, thanks to all you kind folk for putting up with my grad school melodrama.

~*kisses*~

― Tweee the Wily (Leee), Friday, 27 February 2004 00:21 (twenty years ago) link

Did I suggest Bowling Green?!

(That isn't a "oh crap, he took me seriously" tone, don't get me wrong, I just don't remember it. Also, if you hate the Midwest, please don't blame me. Jungle Jim's is very nice, and there is a fine selection of native cheeses and pork products.)

Don't sell yourself short re: the tuition waiver. Schools can smell promise! Or something.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 27 February 2004 00:30 (twenty years ago) link

two weeks pass...

An update:

Cornell sez no (just as well given the anti-Ivy sentiments here!)

Chicago just said yes, and more interestingly, their email (which I almost mistook for spam!) actually makes specific mention of my application!

― Leee the Lee (Leee), Friday, 12 March 2004 17:34 (twenty years ago) link

Leee, are you coming tonight? Or is too much of a schlep?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 12 March 2004 18:22 (twenty years ago) link

I should be able to make it, if yall will still be around at about 8.

― O.Leee.B. (Leee), Friday, 12 March 2004 18:30 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 40 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Whoa, shortening the word "psychoanalysis" that way...it's a bit open to misinterpretation when tired.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Thursday, 8 April 2004 22:15 (twenty years ago) link

Then my job is complete.

― Leee O'Gaddy (Leee), Thursday, 8 April 2004 22:32 (twenty years ago) link

Garn, I was just about set on Chicago yesterday and even was drafting an apology email to BG, but today I feel pained about the classes I'd miss there! I hate my indecisiveness.

― Leee O'Gaddy (Leee), Sunday, 11 April 2004 22:56 (twenty years ago) link

There's no denying that they're both good schools -- there's no ravenous snake-dog hiding behind either of these doors, I don't think. So much of grad school can depend on what you bring in, how you decide to approach it, that really I don't think there's a wrong decision here. And if worse came to absolute worst, you could always transfer, and be out nothing but the price of moving.

― Tep (ktepi), Sunday, 11 April 2004 23:06 (twenty years ago) link

That's very true. Go where you feel you'll grow most, where what you hold to be important is held as important, too. If you feel like you're going to be frustrated by the catching-up students at BG have to do, go to UC. If the theory-heavy-ness of UC is going to frustrate you, go to BG. I agree with Tep that neither of these choices is really bad. The question at this point might be whether or not you'd regret not going to one rather than the other.
(But that graphic novel workshop does sound really cool... If that's part of the curriculum, then maybe it's not so single-minded as you might fear.)

― Prude (Prude), Monday, 12 April 2004 02:49 (twenty years ago) link

<LI>I get to head my own section w/in a year, then get my own class

That sounds key to me if your goal is still to teach.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 12 April 2004 02:59 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

I turned my thesis in today.

I still have two papers left, but I don't know when one of them is due. I'm ready to sleep for 20 hours.

― L (Leee), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:37 (eighteen years ago) link

wow. congrats. go sleep now.

― mouse (mouse), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Yay sleep! Yay thesis and yay Leee! :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 04:13 (eighteen years ago) link

woo!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:24 (eighteen years ago) link

oh hell yeah

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 05:26 (eighteen years ago) link

five months pass...

So it's time for my semi-annual applying to higher education travails, this time for a PhD in funology (i.e. pop culture/tv). My prospective schools, in relative order of preference, descending: Duke, UCLA, Northwestern, Berkeley, Wisconsin-Madison.

But, getting an idea of the very finite financial resources for which I'd be competing with other students who, I'd assume, are smarter/more driven than I am, and perhaps for the first time, I'm very very scared. Then again, I've already committed $45 to the letter of recommendation service, so there's no point in throwing that money away! Still, if you can offer assurances, that'd be appreciated; I do think that grad school/academia is something that's right for me, despite the Fears I have.

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Monday, 7 November 2005 05:31 (eighteen years ago) link

did you ever pay the winner of this thread?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 7 November 2005 05:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Or should I forget about my obsession with narrative theory for more professional degrees, like public policy or Nutrition(!)?

xpost - shhh!

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Monday, 7 November 2005 05:37 (eighteen years ago) link

here's where i'm applying (master's in urban planning/land use): cal poly san luis obispo, nyu, rutgers, u of wisconsin (milwaukee), u of michigan, ucla. cal poly slo is in the lead -- i've heard great things about their program, mostly that it's very hands-on (not just hippie-dippie theory) and their grads GET JOBS. the others are in no particular order.

― bird-person-person (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 November 2005 05:40 (eighteen years ago) link

what's a letter of recommendation service?

― bird-person-person (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 November 2005 05:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I.e. a service that stores and sends out letters of rec. and sundry supplemental material for you so that everything looks official, which I was told looks quite a lot better than sending them out yourself.

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Monday, 7 November 2005 05:46 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought you went to Chicago?

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 7 November 2005 07:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Please tell me they really call it "funology" and not something boring like "media culture sociology".

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 7 November 2005 07:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Chicago was a 1 year program.

Alas, "funology" is my neologism.

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Monday, 7 November 2005 18:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Do you feel like the MAPH was useful for you, Lee? I know someone who just started that program this fall.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 7 November 2005 18:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Absolutely! It was like eating my vegebobbles -- I complained and whined and pulled faces for 8 months, but in the end, I wrote a smooth and shiny thesis, and I also think genuinely that it made me smarter/better read.

I highly recommended taking the Academic/Professional Writing course. Improved my writing tenfold, and possibly it taught me finally how to read non-fiction prose.

Not that you'd suspect any improvement from that last sentence.

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Monday, 7 November 2005 20:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Should I forget it all, go back to undergrad to do something more analytic like math?

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 03:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Get a real job, hippie.

― Are You Nomar? (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 03:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Math = analytic = REAL JOB.

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 04:16 (eighteen years ago) link

you could join one of the big math firms!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 04:25 (eighteen years ago) link

you could grade tests for ETS!

― bird-person-person (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 04:29 (eighteen years ago) link

You mean like Google?

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 04:30 (eighteen years ago) link

two months pass...

Duke: no
UCLA: no

I have the phear that I will have the dreaded giant-sized sombrero and go 0 for 7.

― c(''c) (Leee), Friday, 3 February 2006 20:20 (eighteen years ago) link

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