I'm a senior at an unknown small liberal arts college, graduating in December. I majored in English lit, but my interests have shifted from literature to language (my school doesn't offer a linguistics major or even a minor, though we do have a few linguistics courses offered periodically). Although I'm primarily interested in applied linguistics and teaching ESL/EFL, I'm interested in programs which provide a solid grounding in theoretical linguistics in addition to more practical training in methodology and classroom management.
Stats
Major: English lit
Minors: Spanish, philosophy
GPA: 4.0
GRE: 710V, 690Q, 5.5AW
One regional conference presentation on writing center theory
Teaching experience: TA for a world lit class, TA for a composition theory class, and TA for an ESL grammar class. Also completed the Cambridge CELTA in Budapest.
The writing sample, unfortunately, will be a critical essay on Macbeth, since I haven't had the opportunity to do any real work in linguistics yet. My letters of recommendation should be strong (two are from faculty members I TA'd for).
I'm applying to Purdue (MA English, ESL concentration), UIUC (MA TESL), and possibly Pittsburgh (MA Linguistics, Applied Linguistics concentration) and Georgia (MA Linguistics, SLA concentration) as well. Just in case, I plan to find one or two rhet/comp programs as backups.