One Year Ago: Where Were You In Your Grad School Search?

Last year, I took a gap year after graduating from Ithaca College to be home with family and friends. As an international student, being away from my parents, my family, and my friends for four years was tough, and before diving into my masters I wanted to make up for all the time I had lost.

I majored in Journalism at Ithaca College and knew I wanted to pursue that further for my masters. I researched good graduate programs for master’s students and quickly found a variety of ‘Top 10’ style lists. Among the few that kept popping up in almost every list were UC Berkeley, Syracuse University, and Boston University; just to name a few.

Personally, I knew I was not ready to take the GRE exam, a requirement for many master’s programs, and I knew I wanted my degree to take no more than a year. This reduced my options heavily, having to exclude great universities such as USC, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern; due to my specific requirements.

After finalizing on a few schools that piqued my interest, I began my application process for Syracuse University. I was very drawn to the Magazine, Newspaper, & Online Journalism (MNO) program on offer, as it allowed me to continue my education as a writer and finish my degree through a one-year program. Along with the Sports Media Communications (SMC) opportunity, I could take another step towards my dream of becoming of a sports writer.

The application began with the basic bio information, resume, and letters of recommendations. After that, I received a link to which I had to answer certain questions that would be given to me on the spot with my answers recorded via video. This was by far the most stressful part of the application process. Preparing yourself for something like that can be very tricky, but as long as you are honest and speak well in regard to the questions, it sounds much worse than it actually is.

The final step was to write a short essay based upon a prompt once again provided on the spot after the initial video-based questions. My question was to describe the most beautiful place I had ever been before, and I wrote about my vacation to Switzerland.

After my application was completed (and the application fee paid) the worst part about applying to anything began… waiting. Trust me – the more you overthink about your application, or how you answered that one particular question, or how your shirt may not have been perfectly ironed during the video questions, or basically anything else at all… YOU WILL MAKE YOURSELF WAY MORE NERVOUS THAN NECESSARY!! Just don’t do that, I know it’s easier said than done but like I said trust me, worrying over a submitted application won’t help you at all. The best thing you can do is to actually pass your time any other way. Enjoy the limited time off that you have before your program begins. Applying can be stressful but it doesn’t have to be. It is only as stressful as you allow it to be.

Be confident in your application and just wait it out. Sooner or later, that acceptance letter from Newhouse will be in your inbox.