seeking help - Communication Studies & Psychology major

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi! Before anything, thank you for looking at this post. It was pretty obvious from my thread title that I was asking for help, so thanks for bothering to drop by to begin with.</p>

<p>NOTE: This is a long and detailed post, but I did organize it to reduce eye strain and boredom. ^_^</p>

<p>ABOUT ME
My life has been dedicated to personal growth for as long as I can remember. I am hoping to attend a college where personal growth is a strong part of college life. I will be checking out the two following books if that gives a better image of what I am looking for in a college:
- Colleges That Change Lives by Loren Pope
- Colleges That Encourage Character Development by John Templeton Foundation.</p>

<p>STATS
3.84 unweighted GPA, will be 3.90 GPA by the time I’m done with my classes here (up from the 1.38 GPA I started with)
Practice New SAT scores taken with no prep work/studying. (The theory is that it is supposed to be the best way to assess what areas you need work on.) I will be taking the new SAT test in October:
560/800 math (if I was able to turn an F in math into an A with a summer's worth of dedicated studying, I'm sure I could add at least 100 to my SAT score.)
660/800 critical thinking
73/80 verbal
- Will be completing Honors Program: took honors Spanish 1 & 2, honors geography, will also take honors art history and two honors sociology classes
- President’s list three times, dean’s list once
- Member of: social & behavioral sciences honor society, psychology national honor society, and international honor society
- Received two student leader awards
- Will be completing a leadership studies certificate as of December
- Involved in student government extensively, served on many committees, and chaired a scholarship committee
- Member/webmaster of Amnesty International club and member of sociology club
- Proposition 98 and female genital mutilation activist: putting together information booklets and will be looking for sponsors to help distribute the booklets to intercultural and possibly human sexuality professors across CA, perhaps nationwide if networking proves successful enough</p>

<p>PLANS:
- Double major in communication (concentrations considering: interpersonal, organizational, rhetorical, speech - pretty much any concentration but media and public relations) and psychology (concentrations considering: social, business, organizational, development)
- Minors/certificates considering: peace/conflict studies, human rights studies, ethics studies, leadership studies – which (and how many) of these minors/certificates I will be able to go for will depend on which of these programs the college I fall in love with offers, of course!</p>

<p>DESIRED COLLEGE TRAITS
ACADEMICS
- Note: while the traits I desire strongly identify with LAC's, I'll consider large universities as well if they have the right atmosphere
- No/few TA-taught classes
- Professors accessible and friendly
- Class discussions encouraged
- Busy work non-existent or kept to a bare minimal
- Strong communication studies and psychology department
- Programs available in peace/conflict resolution studies, human rights studies, ethics studies, leadership studies</p>

<p>ATMOSPHERE
- Students love to learn and thrive on discussions
- Students not just there to "learn," but also to grow
- Collaborative and supportive, not cut-throat competitive
- Not clique-y
- Religious affiliations don't bother me - as long as no one tries to convert me to their religion and religion is not brought into the classroom - unless it's a religious studies or theology course
- Race and sexual orientations of every kind are accepted
- Politics either balanced or democrat - but not radically so
- Strong school spirit
- No visible substance & alcohol abuse</p>

<p>CAMPUS
- Substance-free/wellness/study/community service/quiet dorms available
- Campus located in safe area
- This is an odd one: The smell of eucalyptus makes me dizzy, so eucalyptus tree-lined colleges are out of the question for me</p>

<p>ADMIN & OTHER
- Generous financial aid, especially need-based aid
- Administration accessible (efficient would be nice, too)
- Strong alumni network</p>

<p>Again, I thank you immensely for having read this rather long shopping list and also for any bit of aid or advice I am given. ^_^</p>

2

<p>you've put some tough criteria together but as a Communication Studies M.A. I applaud your choice of major.</p>

<p>The broadest and deepest course offerings in ComStudies are found at large universities. Big 10 schools are excellent choices, and Northwestern is the smallest of those options. In the east Penn has a good reputation. In the west, look at USC.</p>

<p>For smaller schools (and I did get my B.A. in English at an LAC) take a look at Allegheny, Hamilton, Denison and College of Wooster.</p>

<p>Selective mid-sized unis offering the major include George Washington U and Washington University in St. Louis.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for replying! What can I say? I know what I want - don't know if getting all that is possible, but I'll definitely try! ^_~</p>

<p>I have been looking at several of the colleges you mentioned. Allegheny's website really had me, because of their active stance on double-majoring and student-created majors. What bothered me about Allegheny is that their communication department seems to be focused on media communication. Did I miss a department program when I visited their website?</p>

4

<p>You remind me of a recent Northwestern grad that won Rhodes scholarship. She majored in theater in the school of communication while at NU. It doesn't necessarily mean Northwestern had helped her a lot. She could be thriving just on her own. But I'd say you should take a serious look at this school and find out if it's right for you.</p>

<p>District III - North Carolina and Wadham</p>

<p>Cristina Adriana Bejan</p>

<p>Degree: Northwestern University: B.A., Philosophy and Theatre, 2004
Proposed Oxford Subject: B.A., Philosophy, Politics, Economics
Career Aspirations: Professor of philosophy; playwright; actress; human rights educator</p>

<p>Cristina Bejan grew up in Durham, North Carolina, and is a Philosophy and Theatre major at Northwestern University, where she is a Weinberg College Scholar. Lara's honors thesis explores the applicability of Kant's moral theory of autonomy to newly free societies today, particularly Romania. Cristina has spent significant time in Eastern Europe, attending conferences in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and interning for Freedom House Bucharest in the Summer of 2002. While in Romania, Bejan drafted a project called “Building Tolerance in Central-East European Countries” in an effort to combat religious and ethnic prejudice in the region. She speaks German, Romanian and French, and is learning Slovak. She hopes to use theater “as an educational tool both to expose Romanian youth to ideas of human rights and to teach them the value of freedom of expression.” Cristina is an accomplished playwright, actress, director, producer and dramaturge. Two of Cristina's original plays were performed in Oxford last year, during her stay as a visiting student at St. Anne's College. Her play To Those Who Haven't Stopped Thinking was the most successful New Writing play ever performed at Oxford's Burton Taylor Theatre. She has received a number of research grants for both theater and philosophy and has published articles in The Northwestern Chronicle and in Oxford's The Crucible Magazine. Cristina loves dancing in discotheques and doing yoga. In addition to playing Northwestern club ice hockey and varsity women's ice hockey at Oxford, she is an avid basketball fan and still roots for Duke.</p>

5

<p>Lafayette college! It has a program called "Ethics and Leadership", in which you tailor your own major alongside a more traditional one.</p>

6

<p>Accendere - </p>

<p>It looks like you can get a "Communication Arts" degree at Allegheny with an emphasis on Rhetoric, but their catalog does illustrate the weaknesses of taking an uncommon major at a small liberal arts school. There are no regular offerings in what I would call the social science wing of comm studies. . .courses on interpersonal, small group, organizational communication etc. That's why larger unis are better bets for this discipline.</p>

<p>At a small liberal arts school, another approach would be to take a rhetoric-based Comm Studies degree, or a social science major like Psychology, Sociology or Anthropology and stuff your program full of the courses you want from a variety of disciplines. Then take a Comm Studies graduate program at a large selective university for more specialized coursework. That was the approach I ended up taking, but unfortunately I had no idea as an undergraduate that I would pursue this type of graduate program. My graduate studies would defintely have benefited from more Psychology and Anthropology courses (and one specific political science course) had I taken them as an undergraduate.</p>

<p>PS - A lot depends on what you want to do with your degree. If you are really focused in a research and/or teaching career in what academia generally identifies as Communication Studies, then you'd be wise to look for an ug program in that area. If in fact you are looking for a good academic base for a business, law, politics or media career, there are several ways to maximize your engagement with communication as a process, and several disciplines from which you can approach the subject. Communication Studies would be only one of those disciplines.</p>

7

<p>Accendere--</p>

<p>Have you looked at Clark University in Worcester? I don't know about eucalyptus, but although a university, it's fairly small, has an excellent psychology program and it offers a communications and culture major (although the course offerings seems fairly sparse). However, I believe that the school has a number of cross-disciplinary offerings that you might be interested in and it has a somewhat low-key, supportive environment.</p>

8

<p>Sam Lee: I am honored, shocked, and extremely flattered that I would remind you of a Rhodes Scholar. Northwestern is indeed on my list of considerations.</p>

<p>thethoughtprocess: Lafayette sounds interesting! I shall have to read up on the college, thank you! Lafayette was actually part of my list until I visited its website and found that it did not offer a communication studies major.</p>

<p>reidm: I definitely agree that bigger universities have a strong edge over most LACs in my area of interest. Thankfully, my number one concern is to grow as a person. While I will continue to actively grow and learn even in my golden years, I am aiming to make my college experience the right combination of sunlight, water, air, and lush soil for a nice growth spurt in confidence, focus... well, in any manner mentally and emotionally possible. That being the case, playing a bit of Tetris with course offerings to essentially create my own major like a fun challenge - as long as it is done within reason.
My goals are:
1/ to come back to OCC to be a speech communication professor, which will always be my most beloved alma mater (What can I say? This was not just my first college. One could very well say that I was born here.)
2/ to always be involved with organizations such as Amnesty International, World Health Organization, and PeaceCorps.
3/ to go into business. What business? Well, I have no idea. :) I just know I love the game of money - stocks, money lending, etc.</p>

<p>midatlmom: I just read the entry on Clark University in Colleges that Change Lives earlier today, and it sounds like a wonderful place!</p>

<p>It looks like I have done my homework well, as many colleges named here are on the list I have compiled over the past two weeks for myself.</p>

<p>hmm... perhaps posting my list of prospective colleges would serve this thread well. I am including my list of prospectives broken up by required/desired programs offered. I'm trying to weed out any of the ones that don't meet my criteria, but it's rather difficult when not all the criteria are based on numbers and letters, and I have no idea which religious colleges are "pushy," etc.</p>

<p>communication, psychology, peace studies, & leadership studies:
Villanova University
Whitworth College
Fairfield University
Chapman University</p>

<p>communication, psychology, & peace studies:
University of California, Berkeley
Columbia University - Columbia College
DePauw University
University of San Diego
California State University, Long Beach</p>

<p>communication, psychology, & leadership studies:
Northwestern University
University of Southern California
Syracuse University
University of West Florida
University of Richmond</p>

<p>communication & psychology:
Cornell University
University of California-Los Angeles
University of California-San Diego
University of Pennsylvania
University of Miami
University of Central Florida
Wheaton College (IL)
SUNY College at Geneseo
Butler University
The University of Tulsa
University of Washington
Denison University
The College of Wooster
Gonzaga University
Stonehill College
Austin College
University of Delaware
Westmont
Pepperdine University
Southwestern University
Hamilton College
The College of New Jersey</p>

<p>If anyone can spot anything that clashes with my criteria, please feel free to let me know!</p>

<p>NOTE: The list is only in phase 1. Much of this list is comprised of colleges that came up on PrincetonReview.com when I did a personalized college search, and I think my 3.84 GPA might have ruled out some great hidden gems - which is why I am reading Colleges that Change Lives and Colleges that Encourage Character Development. </p>

<p>My friends think I'm taking "this college search thing too seriously" but, hey, every little bit pf research and aid helps when you're looking for that perfect growth spurt combination! Thank you so much, everyone, for replying to my post and offering suggestions and advice. I must say I am slightly nervous since I am pressed for time, and I do not think I will be able to visit many, if any, colleges outside of CA. </p>

<p>Oh, and any college hunting strategies would be appreciated, too! :)</p>

<p>Wish me luck, and thanks again!</p>