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

Mark Chen markchen at u.washington.edu
Fri Nov 5 07:15:46 PDT 2021 

Hi Christian,

Thank you for writing and including that list faq. It's soooo useful
and does a great job of making the whole thing less opaque!

mark

On Fri, Nov 5, 2021 at 5:17 AM Christian Sandvig <csandvig at umich.edu> wrote:

> 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/
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-- 
You see before you *Mark Chen, PhD*.
Above his head appears a label that changes every time you look at it
between "*Hoodie-Wearing Games Scholar Thug*," "*PT Lecturer at UW
Bothell*," and
"*A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.*
"
Do you send him a tweet (*@mcdanger* <http://twitter.com/mcdanger>), check
out his website (*markdangerchen.net* <http://markdangerchen.net/>), or
respond to this email?
His desk and surroundings are on fire as he smiles and says, "*everything
is fine*."

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