My trip to Boston

I described my trip to Boston in this post. Checkout my Soundslide project that shows Mercyhurst students presenting  communication research and having fun in Boston.

Alicia and I (left) visited the Cheers bar while in Boston.

Planning your application budget

I have already discussed the necessary steps and elements to applying to graduate school, but I think it's important to go over the money involved in this process. When I started thinking about graduate schools, I didn't realize how much money would be required just to apply.

GRE costs

One of the biggest factors I underestimated when thinking about cost was how expensive it is to take the GRE. It costs $160 to take the GRE. I spent $35 on a book that helped prepare me for the test. If you send your GRE scores to more than four schools or if you don't send them while at the test center, the cost is $23 per school. Taking the GRE and preparing it cost me $195, but if I had chosen to purchase more preparation materials or send more scores, it could have easily cost much more.

Application fees

The costs to apply to a grad school can quickly add up. When I applied to undergrad schools, all of the fees were waived if I applied online. This was not the same for grad schools. It cost me $30 to apply to Kent State University, $40 to apply to The Ohio State University and $50 to apply to Ohio University. All together, I spent $120 applying to grad schools.

Transcript expenses

When applying to grad schools, I never factored in the cost of sending transcripts. I thought transcripts were free because I already pay to go to school at Mercyhurst. I was wrong. It costs $5 to send each transcript. Even though I only applied to three schools, I had to send four transcripts because Ohio State required two. Now that I have accepted Ohio State's offer, I will need to send another transcript once the year is over showing that I graduated. Once I send this last transcript, I will have spent a total of $25 just for mailing in official transcripts. This fee would be more expensive if I had credits from another college or university.

Total costs

I spent $340 applying to graduate schools. While this is a lot of money, it could have easily been more expensive. By only applying to three schools, I was able to save on transcript fees, application fees and the cost of sending my GRE scores.

How to save

In order to make the best use of your money, I suggest you thoroughly research a school before applying to it; there's no point in applying to a school that doesn't offer your program. Also, limit the number of schools you apply to. Finally, fully prepare for the GRE before you take it. You're better off buying a $35 preparation book than paying another $160 to retake the test.

The many places research can take you

Last weekend I was able to travel to Boston with eight other Mercyhurst students to present research at the James C. McCroskey and Virginia P. Richmond Undergraduate Scholars Conference. My research group, which consists of Alicia Cagle, Lindsay Cox and me, traveled to Washington D.C. last year to present research at this conference.  I talked about my experience there in this previous blog post.

This year, Alicia, Lindsay and I presented our paper titled "Framing of Muslims and America: A content analysis of opinion and news articles within international media outlets." Our paper looked at how Muslims and America are framed in relation to each other in both opinion and news articles from CNN, Fox News, NPR, The New York Times, BBC and Al Jazeera.

Alicia, Lindsay and I presented our
research during a poster session.

I was really excited to go back to this conference because last year's conference is the reason I started considering graduate schools. Different graduate schools with communication master's programs attend this conference to recruit students. Even though I wasn't interested in any of the schools that were at the conference, it's cool to hear about the different programs and opportunities. Just learning about these programs last year at the conference sparked my interest in grad school.

Another reason I was so excited to attend this conference was because I greatly enjoyed conducting this research, and I wanted to share our results with communication students and faculty. 

The three of us explored Boston when
we weren't presenting research.

 Sometimes you might not be excited about a topic when you start researching it, but if you work hard enough, you will become immersed in what you are studying. I wasn't extremely eager to begin studying the framing of Muslims in news sources when I began researching this topic in the fall of 2010. Now I just presented research on this same topic in the spring of 2012.

It sounds like such a long time to be researching the same topic, but my partners and I have been able to accomplish so much with our study. We were chosen as the top four paper at last year's Undergraduate Scholars Conference, we placed in the top five at the University of Buffalo's Research Symposium, we have been published in a communication journal and now we have presented at this year's Undergraduate Scholars Conference.

I'm not sure if I am done researching the framing of Muslims in news sources, but I'm very happy with the opportunities my research has provided me. I am looking forward to having opportunities to conduct research with faculty members at Ohio State next year, and I'm excited to see where this research will lead me.