I have been under great stress few days. I have had to make a decision wether to choose MIT medialab or European more art focused institution, possibly Aalto University. Emotions have raged from feeling of inadequate to enthusiasm. My ultimate goal is to become one day the professor of fine arts and humanities, pursue the artistic practice and publish the original research at the same time. Not to forget, I'd like to transfer the knowledge to preferably small number of students taught intensively in small research group. (can be artistic research group, too)
I have consulted dozens of people and I think I'll skip the MIT, even though none of the people I talked with suggested me that (quite opposite). MIT would be an excellent choice academic career-wise. In economic sense it wouldn't be bad either. But I yearn for space to pursuit intellectual thinking and space to develop original research instead of jumping into a ready made research paradigm. Good things are cooking in my head and interesting things can be expected to come out in year or year and half, so stay tuned :)
I'll be still evaluating MIT studies for few days, though. The deadline for MIT applications is 15th of December. So if you are interested in medialab check this out: http://admissions.media.mit.edu/admissions/research
One thing that bothers me is how heavily MIT medialab uses academic marketing. The names are fancy but if you dig deep enough, it's not exactly what it seems like. I totally love the names, but when I checked out the projects and publications it wasn't as original contents as the name would imply.
MIT medialab would be excellent for any engineer who has completed their BSc or and TaiK industrial designers or those TaiK medialab students who are into electronics. For those fields it's a great opportunity to receive better education. But it does not seem to offer a lot for critical culture research.
In contradictory to the general belief, it's not expensive to attend MIT medialab and neither impossible to get accepted to MIT. In fact, MIT accepts 30% of its applicants as students, while TaiK accepts much smaller percentage. MIT medialab accepts annually some 40 new graduate students for 2 years S.M. (master of science) program.
I totally encourage you to apply, even though it's not for me. I think. I guess...
Summary of academic paths:
MIT medialab
+ does not collect tuition fee (would be 55 000$ a year)*
+ strong academic career path: research/teaching job as student> funded phd>tenure track
+ grad. students get paid ~2000$ a month for part time research work*
+ strong brand (not entirely based on quality, see minuses below)
+ research community physically tight
- lack of significant academic freedom
- importance of academic publications is low
- publications lack originality
- too much emphasis on projects (question of personal preference)
- too few critical theory, lack of radical thinking
- weak artistic profile and opportunities
- acceptance rate is rather low (one third of applicants is accepted)
*) these qualify for medialab graduate students only. waiver does not apply other programs.
Aalto University TaiK
+ does not have a tuition fee
+ research community has great opportunities to become one of the most important on field
+ atmosphere is very good overall
+ academic freedom outstanding
- complete lack of mental and academic support
- funding inexistent : university sucks the research from researchers without compensation
- academic career prospects very confused and weak
- tenure track still under construction, very small slotting of individual places in small fields causes political conflicts and ends up to unfair treatment and unfair opportunity for tenure track position
- success is not based on research merits but rather who you have as your friend
- research community is scattered
- possibilities for full time research as PhD student are random
FAFA
+ does not have a tuition fee
+ strong artistic profile
+ strong quality of publications
+ dissertation freedom: possibility to come out what you want to be, not what you are expected to be
- no academic career path at all
- funding is huge issue: expected to work full time without any compensation
- community is very small, might not reach critical mass
I have lost my sleep for few days for this but the puzzle will solve very soon..
