Let’s take a deeper dive

What we’re going to do in this lesson is we’re going to dig deeper into those specific areas of study that you still have on your list.

Slide 1: On Your Mark

Lesson 4: Digging Deeper

So what we're going to do in this lesson is we're going to dig deeper into those specific areas of study that you still have on your list. 

Screenshare:

  • Do the required courses look interesting?
  • What sort of careers are related to this? Do they sound interesting?

Anthropology

Area and Cultural Studies

Arts and Entertainment Management

Arts Related Studies

Communications and Media Studies

Games and Interactive Media

Film/Video Arts

Journalism

Sales and Marketing X

And now we are going to start looking at do the required courses look interesting? What sorts of careers are related to this and do they sound interesting? So let's go through it. This was Ellie’s original list of related areas. Now with the last lesson, we were already able to cross it off just by going through the database. So we know we crossed off those Games and Interactive Media. You know, it had Interactive Media in it, and her concern was that it was too computery. As we read through the database descriptions, that was validated. Film and Video Arts, that was just too focused on — well, just too focused in general. Her related interests there is photography, and it's just developing. So for now, we're taking it off, unless photography takes off as an interest in the future. Journalism, the ones that appealed to her were also under media studies. So we're taking that one off. 

So we have these other areas of study to look at. There was one other one that was supposed to be on here and didn't make it, Sales and Marketing. Because of the Digital Marketing. So only those that focus on Digital Marketing. 

So now, what you're going to do is you have this shorter list, and it's much more manageable to dig deep into websites when you have more manageable lists like this, which is why we narrowed it down initially before going to this stage, even though this is the more fun stage. So what you're going to do, you're going to go into the database for each of these, and you're going to look at the websites for more than one program in each one of these areas. 

So again, you're going to want to do the same thing. We're going for comprehensive websites with good information. So again, I would suggest sticking with Northern Europe and the Netherlands just for the sake of this exercise. So we look at a couple of websites under the programs for Arts and Entertainment Management. And when she looked at the website for the first couple, she saw a lot of general business classes that didn't appeal to her. But then there are other programs, particularly in Arts and Entertainment Management, that incorporate the business-related knowledge into the curriculum, specific to media stuff. And those are the courses that were a lot more appealing to her, and the careers look more interesting there too. Some of the websites talked about future careers in working for a magazine or other publication, a media planner at a digital advertising agency or TV, starting your own company, developing cross-media format, YouTube, digital agencies, media buyers. She also sees that one of the schools has a campus in Thailand where they offer some of their minors. And you know, if you remember, when we talked about interests, Thailand is on her bucket list due to the elephant sanctuary. 

So there are sometimes really unexpected ways to get a secondary interest potentially into one of these areas of study. So it's confirmed that Arts and Entertainment Management will stay on her list. And now, she has a little bit more insight into the specific things about this area of study that appeal to her. 

Arts Related Studies, as she goes through, she sees this is more like art history type stuff. And that is not something that appeals to her. So she is able to cross that one off. Sales and Marketing, it's the same thing. The only part of it that appeals to her is that. And that's on the list, so we can cross that off. For she knows at this point by reading, that it's more the media aspects of Arts and Entertainment Management that really appeal to her. 

So interestingly, of course, we get to Communications and Media Studies. And as she goes through websites — and this is something you'll do and you should be looking for — she sees that Media Studies has a lot of overlap with what she liked about some of the other programs, both in content and interesting careers. Managers in communication, radio, television and cinema, publishing and new media, fashion entertainment and live performance companies, organizers of entertainments and festivals, experts on cultural tourism. These are all things that really interest her. And so, again, she's realizing that media, this media aspect of it, is really something she's looking for in a program. 

Now, given that she came into this exercise without any real academic interest, it's great to get to this point where you're able to see, “Hey, you know what? My interests really aligned with this area of study and with this area of careers, you know, potential careers.” 

Now if you're struggling to identify what you want to study, it might mean that you don't have one singular passion that you want to focus on, which is fine. A way around this is to find interdisciplinary programs. It's like having a double or triple major, but it's all presented in a cohesive way. So you don't have to know that you want to study Media Studies. It could be that you want to have a broad humanities focus. Or that you want to make sure that business and culture are both emphasized in your area of study. That's totally fine to have more than one category that you have narrowed this down to. And we're going to get to that in the next exercise. 

Screenshare: Beyond the States Database

So I realized after recording the first part of the lesson, that it took me quite some time to be able to successfully navigate through the websites and find the information that I just asked you to look for. So I wanted to just kind of show you how we can go through that. Now, when you go to the area of study that you are looking for, I suggest you sort by country, because like I talked about, there are some countries that are just better for information than others. So we're going to go down to the Netherlands, because like I mentioned, they have better websites. And we are going to — let's go to Media Studies at Groningen. We will go to the Groningen website from there. 

Screenshare: University of Groningen Website Walkthrough

Okay, so we want to find their list of English-taught bachelor's degree programs. So we want to see bachelor's degrees in English. And then we have it right here. And I think it was Media Studies we were looking at there. So we just want to find — there it is, Media Studies. And now we're at the Media Studies program website. So all of this is going to be the specific information about the Media Studies program. So this starts with a general introduction to what the program means. Sorry about that. I accepted cookies, and it paused. 

So this is a good place to start, but we don't want to stop here. Because we want to see what sorts of courses there are. So when we go down here, it's going to tell us all the courses that you'll take the first year, the second year, and the third year. Now remember, we're not looking at like, “Oh, am I going to take this Media Studies program at Groningen?” We're looking, we're saying, “Okay, this is a Media Studies program. And these courses do or don't look interesting.” And then, we're going to look at another Media Studies program at a different school and see if it's, you know, somewhat the same in terms of content. 

So this is also going to give you some more information here. “After your studies,” this is where we look for job prospects stuff. You know, the interesting careers. As we can see, this keeps a number of career options open. So this is how you navigate, you want to go to the specific English-taught bachelor's degree program. 

Screenshare: Bocconi University Website Walkthrough

Let me show you a different one, just so you can see. We'll go to Bocconi. Because if you remember, we were looking at Arts and Entertainment Management programs, and Boccoi had one. 

So again, we go to Programs, Bachelor's. And there we go, Economics and Management for Arts Culture. So this sort of description is what's in our database. So we want to dig a little deeper, program structure. And this is where we see the courses that would be involved. Accounting. So this is the one we thought from the database description, that it was too sort of businessy, but probably not indicative of the category as a whole. So this one does have economics. It has economic history, math, law, computer science, accounting, statistics. That's really much more businessy than “media-y,” if you will. 

Screenshare: NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences Website Walkthrough

But then if we go to NHL Stenden, which had another one of the Creative Business programs which is under Arts and Entertainment Management — let's see, we want the English version of this site. And we want bachelor's degrees. Okay, so it was Creative Business Media Management. 

So as you read through this, this description is much different than the Bocconi one. They had the same category, much different. So if we had only looked at Bocconi and crossed this category off the list, it wouldn't have been good. Actually, I think this is the one that didn't have a very comprehensive description in the database. So we look at Careers, they have that here. And again, it talks about a number of careers that are interesting to Ellie. We can go to Study Overview. And let's see. And it's going to tell you a number of the courses. I don't see anything about accounting, or economics. I mean, just the business related side of this is a lot more just directly related to the media stuff. So again, that is stuff that is still of interest to Ellie, which we wouldn't have really been able to see until we dug deeper into it like this. 

So I hope this gives you an idea of sort of how to navigate and dig deeper into these websites. You can get lost in some of them, they have so much information. But again, all we're looking at now is, you know, what is it about this specific area of study that appeals to you? What do they have in common? And we will go from there.