Refreshing My E-Mail Again: Understanding New Technology’s Effects on Social Support in the Graduate School Admissions Process

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar VII
  In Paper Session: Grad Times, They Are A-Changin’: Narratives of Identity and (In)stability in Graduate School

Abstract

The graduate school application process is understandably associated with a great deal of uncertainty. However, aspiring graduate students of today have several new forums for social support online – from message boards dedicated to the anonymous submission of admissions results to the examination of other applicants' Facebook statuses. This autoethnographic account of the author's application and acceptance/rejection process examines the role of new technology in balancing the pressures inherent in the face-threatening world of academic admissions.

Author

• Nicholas Brody, University of Texas, Austin