The Cultural Reporting and Criticism concentration in the Journalism Institute accepts candidates with bachelor's degrees in any field and with a wide variety of experience. We prefer candidates with a strong liberal arts background and at least a year of work or travel experience after graduation. We look for evidence of writing talent, the intellectual ability and motivation to handle a demanding graduate program, and engagement with the cultural issues and phenomena on which this specific concentration is focused. We look carefully at the whole of each candidate's application, but place particular importance on the essay and writing samples.

Along with the completed application, the applicant must provide two copies of official transcripts from her/his undergraduate institution, three letters of recommendation, and three writing samples. Cultural Reporting and Criticism applicants must complete the CRC essay in lieu of the required statement of purpose.

The essay should be specific and detailed enough to give the admissions committee a concrete sense of who you are as a potential cultural reporter and critic. It should address the following questions: What do you expect to get from CRC? What do you think you can contribute to it? What aspects of your background and experience are most relevant to your interest in the field? What kind of writing have you done and what do you aspire to do? Which cultural issues and phenomena most engage you? What publications do you read regularly and why? Which cultural journalists do you admire, which do you dislike, and which have influenced you? Feel free to include any other details you consider relevant to your application.

CRC also requires that you append to your essay a brief statement of your plans for financing your graduate work. All CRC applicants must include this statement, whether or not you are applying for financial aid.

While we accept clips (published articles) as writing samples, and recommend that applicants submit any clips they have, samples need not be limited to published work. Overall, the writing samples should represent the best the applicant has to offer and the work most indicative of her/his aptitude for cultural reporting and criticism.

Letters of recommendation are most useful when they come from professors with whom you have studied who can speak to your intellectual and writing abilities. Letters from employers should be submitted only if they can address those abilities. Letters from personal or family friends should not be submitted.

Applicants should have an undergraduate grade point average of 3.0, and a score of 600 or better on the verbal portion of the general test of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). No specific subject test is necessary.

Non-native English speakers must also take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), including the Test of Written English (TWE), unless they completed their undergraduate education in the United States. A minimum TOEFL score of 250 on the computer-based test or 600 on the paper test is required, along with a score of 6.0 on the TWE. International applicants MUST have a fluent command of written English.

Applications are accepted for fall admission only and must be received by January 4. Candidates for admission to the Cultural Reporting and Criticism concentration must apply directly to CRC. No transfers into CRC from other areas of study in the Institute are permitted.

Please note the recommended deadline for all applications is December 18.

NEED AN APPLICATION?

Applications in various formats (online, downloadable, by mail) are available from the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS) Admissions website.

Note: If you are applying by mail, application materials should be sent to GSAS directly, not the Journalism Institute.