[Air-L] Reminder: It's time to encourage students to consider Ph.D. programs (and: consider ours!)

[Christian Sandvig]

Dear AoIR colleagues,

I sent this email out at about this time last year and I received some
positive feedback from it so I thought I would send it again this year. I
decided to go to grad school when one of my profs suggested it. At that
time I was not very clear about what a PhD was. That conversation changed
my life. If you are a professor I'm writing to ask you to consider having
this conversation with your promising students right now. If you are a
student, maybe there is no prof like that who can have this conversation
with you, so please feel free imagine that I'm having it with you.

We are recruiting in my PhD program (
https://lab.csandvig.people.si.umich.edu/join/). One of the challenges for
prospective Ph.D. students, especially those from groups that are
underrepresented in doctoral education, is simply that it is hard to figure
out how Ph.D. programs work in plain language. Here's how our Ph.D. program
works -- many US institutions work the same way:

   - The deadline is usually December 1 every year.
   - The GRE exam isn’t required.
   - If the application fee (US$70-90) is a barrier to your application, we
   will waive the fee. Write to the relevant graduate program’s email address
   for help with this.
   - The Ph.D. is full-time. Part-time degrees are not possible.
   - The Ph.D. takes about 4 years to complete. Usually the first 2 years
   involve mostly coursework, the last 2 years involve mostly research.
   - You do not have to pay tuition to get a Ph.D. Successful applicants
   are paid for 4 years as apprentice teachers and researchers. During this
   time you make about US$23,000 per year for about 8 months of work. Summer
   funding is also possible. You receive health, life, and dental insurance.
   - You do not need to be a US Citizen to be admitted. International
   students are common. You do not need to be a US Citizen to have your
   tuition paid and receive the money described just above.
   - You don’t need a master’s degree to apply, but it may help you stand
   out from other applicants.
   - You do need a bachelor’s degree to apply, but it does not have to be
   in a particular field. You can apply with any bachelor’s degree if you make
   the case that you have some relevant background or experience.
   - Ph.D. students are adults. It is completely OK to return to school for
   the Ph.D. after working.
   - There is additional funding for students whose admission will reduce
   disparities in graduate education. You do not need to apply separately for
   this funding, but you must mention the relevant circumstances in your
   application, for instance in your personal statement. As one example,
   additional resources may be available if you are a US citizen, green card
   holder, or DACA and you:
      - have an educational, cultural, or geographic background that is
      underrepresented
      - have demonstrated a commitment to diversity
      - have experienced financial hardship
      - are the first in your family to graduate from a four-year college
      - are the first in your family to be a US Citizen
   - It’s OK if you don’t e-mail your prospective advisor(s) in advance, or
   if you do e-mail them and they don’t respond. Your application will still
   be considered seriously. A lot of profs don’t answer these e-mails because
   they receive so many, or they only reach out only to admitted Ph.D.
   students not prospective ones.


Some additional details that only apply to our lab group: It's a little
personally embarrassing, but in order to improve our outreach to
prospective students I've been experimenting with video. My video is a
little bit like a late-night TV ad for a used-car lot, except I'm
advertising getting a PhD in Information OR Communication & Media with my
lab group: https://lab.csandvig.people.si.umich.edu/join/

Infra.Lab is a multi-disciplinary research group at the University of
Michigan dedicated to “just” technology (as in justice) at the ESC Center.
We investigate the intermingled social and technical aspects of computing
and digital media technologies and their implications for society. Our
approaches include human-computer interaction; science and technology
studies; policy research on politics, laws, and institutions; design;
software development; artistic practice; and more. Our recent work has
focused on racial and gender discrimination by algorithmic systems,
negative consequences of targeted advertising, inequality and social media
use, and the future of technology policy. We are recruiting prospective
Ph.D. students with interests in tech and human rights, civil rights,
social justice, racial justice, and inequality.

We are building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community. We
particularly want applications from people who are interested in addressing
the perspectives or needs of groups that have been historically underserved
by academic research, computing, and digital media.

Please feel free to forward this email or steal text from it for your own
purposes.

Sincerely,
Christian

--
Christian Sandvig
Director, Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC)
H. Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor
Information, Communication & Media
University of Michigan
http://esc.umich.edu/ -- http://umich.edu/~csandvig/