«The Olympiad is a good chance to understand what you need». The winner of the last year competition shares his experience and gives some useful tips
Dmitry Muraviev is a student of the Critical Media Studies Master’s Programme. One year ago he achieved the highest score in the HSE Olympiad «Highest League». Now Dmitry is ready to share a couple of lifehacks considering the preparation for those who would like to participate in the 2021 competition.
Why did you decide to participate in the CMS Olympiad?
It was interesting for me to try my hand at the Olympiad for a new Master's program. I decided that I wanted to go to that program, so the Olympiad was a good chance to understand how I would succeed in advance. I have a bachelor degree in Political Science, so the transition to another field was a challenge to me.
The first task was to write an essay. Do you have any feedback on this?
I really enjoyed writing this essay. I chose the topic about celebrity activism. I hadn't really thought about it before, but I was really interested to what extent the statements of famous people can become a source of significant social change. Personally, I was quite comfortable with the time allocated for this stage.
The structure of the work, from my point of view, should correspond to the classical academic genre of written work. The topic of the essay is a general framework for reflection, within which it is necessary to formulate the central argument that you are defending, and, along the essay, provide a consistent logical and theoretical basis for your own position. This main argument can be stated at the beginning, and at the end of the essay it can be repeated, but already by showing how the supporting arguments put forward by you strengthen and clarify your position.
In terms of sources, it seems to me that the field of media and communications research is developing very dynamically, and at the same time it is also very interdisciplinary. And therefore, from my point of view, you can refer to works both from other disciplines (sociology, political science, anthropology), and to more modern articles on the topic. When I started writing my essay, having no previous knowledge of celebrity activism, I looked in Google Scholar for the most cited texts on this phenomenon and took their central theses as a starting point.
The second stage is the interview. How do you advise future Olympiad participants to prepare and how to behave during the interview?
During the interview, we simply discussed the motivation and reasons for admission to the master's program, research interests and courses. It seems to me that the best lifehack here is, before the interview, to clarify and clearly formulate for yourself why you need this program most for admission.
How did you like your first semester? Are you satisfied with your decision?
Personally, I really liked my studies in the first semester. At this point, it seems important to me to note that since the program is research oriented, it may be less suitable for people interested in working in the industry and expecting to acquire business oriented skills. Our courses were theoretically rich, and I deepened my understanding of many things that I had a more superficial understanding of before. It was especially helpful to write a small piece of writing every week for the entire semester. I think this constant practice has helped to develop my academic writing skills in English.