02 Apr 2019

University Of Californa, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Cinema And Media Studies, PhD (F19)

Rejected via E-mail on 02 Apr 2019

Note

I re-read this application the other day to see how I felt about it now, and I came away feeling like it was so solid that the (expected) rejection letter is their loss. Seriously. Don't let some committee tell you your worth. As we all know by now, this system is rigged by money and power. Even if there isn't outright bribery, there are people within inside tracks that they get from their elite connections with donors or have connections to faculty through academic networks or are just students of graduates of the program. There is an uneven playing field - a reflection of our unequal society. Some applicants were educated in private high schools and elite colleges because their parents are wealthy (of course they got wealthy by making money off of working people). Finally, Republican-led cuts to state funding and the busting of several graduate employee unions in the midwest through changes in state laws is destroying access to higher education. Increasingly you have to be wealthy just to go to graduate school. That's why there are way fewer "spaces available than there are applicants." Money is going to six-figure administrator salaries and not to support education. Higher education should be free, paid for by the wealthy. Instead the wealthy monopolize our public institutions and get their children in at the head of the line. Best wishes to all applicants. Let's change this messed-up system. You can start by joining or organizing your graduate employee union. But, it's going to take a lot of work to kick out the entrenched powers that be.

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