mikazukipie

Hi, current French Ling student here with some information you might find useful. If you'd like to chat PM me!

I need Francophones to carry out a study (natives and non-natives welcome!). I'm a graduate student and I'm having trouble finding participants for a study I'm doing, so I've been advised to look to the internets for altruistic individuals, as I need to collect data ASAP. I need conversational data (audio or video) from dyads (pairs) of the following types: Native English + Native English Native English + Native French Native French + Native French The conversations *must be in French* and need be no longer than 5-7 minutes long. They can be about any topic, a final oral project you did for class, whatever. If you are at a loss for topics I can give you a few. Bonus karma points if you can do multiple combinations (Native English + Native French and a Native English + Native English conversation). I've been recruiting through my university and have gotten only one reply in an entire month for subjects to come in and do the experiment in person, so this is a fallback plan because I'm getting pretty desperate. If you're interested or know someone who might be, PLEASE PM me. For (linguistic) science! You will also need to fill out a short survey in your native language. In addition, I'm also searching YouTube/Veoh/DailyMotion for conversations like these. If you have any links to pairs that meet the above criteria, please let me know.

Hey, everyone. I don't know if anyone is even reading this forum anymore, but my roommate for the fall just backed out on me on a great apartment in North Campus, 2/2. We were supposed to sign the lease this week, but if I can't find someone before, say, Monday, I'm going to have to let it go and go back to square one. If you know anyone who needs a place for $560 a month, please PM me and we can talk more. I'm pretty desperate!

I'm so sorry. That's rotten.

People mostly gave vague answers like "you should live with roommates" or "don't live in West Campus" or "the cost of living is pretty low." I assume it's hard to generalize.

I'm not going to NU, but I'm from the area so I thought I'd chip in. I refer you to this fantastic Straight Dope column about Chicago neighborhood safety. The neighborhoods can change from block to block, so it's best to see for yourself. NU is right on the El and Metra lines (the Davis Street stops are closest), so you can pretty much live anywhere down the line (a good way to find apartments is to look at the el stops on google maps and look them up on craigslist, or there's always padmapper.com) and be able to get around. Chicago is a city where the North-South transportation is great, but East-West is more difficult to manage. If you need to get from, say, Wicker Park to the North Side, you have to ride into the city and then come back up on a different line.

I visited, and though I didn't see a GREAT deal of the campus (it's huge for someone who went to a small liberal arts undergrad like me), what I saw I liked. There's an old part with Spanish-influenced architecture that's very pretty, and your standard gray concrete buildings, giant stadium. There are also little carts everywhere selling tacos or muffins or coffee. I was able to find my way around much more easily than on other campus visits, too, despite the size. One thing I really liked is how close campus is to downtown, so the city and school really seem to have a real relationship, rather than UT just happening to be *next* to Austin. The area around is full of independent businesses (Austin fights very hard to keep its independent, non-corporate character), which makes you realize how globalized and bland most cities have become (I'm from Chicago, where everything is a Starbucks or a Burger King or a Walgreens because no one can afford the rent to keep up a small business). The grad students and newly-hired professors I talked to all spoke very highly of not only the graduate population, but the undergrads as well. Everyone was very polite and friendly everywhere I went. Even the security personnel at the AIRPORT were friendly! Must be all that sunshine.

French linguistics Ph.D, you?

Anyone going to UT this fall? Let us gather!

fuzzy: The strange thing about School A is it has a joking reputation that the young women marry at a very high rate. Even the first year students I met were married! But that could also be a plus in that it indicates that they're able to have a balanced life outside the classroom. . .? I was pleased to hear that some students have children and still manage to change exam times and keep working. Believe me, I was SO heartbroken about the comments by the professor, but since I don't know him, who knows, maybe he was just indulging in playful jabs but didn't come off well because of the language/cultural barrier. If he's close enough with the professor at School A that they talk on the phone and discuss the stealing of students, maybe they're actually quite close? I think School A has a comparable placement record, just judging by looking at the alma matters of faculty at other institutions. I'm going to ask the graduate adviser for more information on this. west: It felt like a Betty/Veronica kind of animosity, if that makes sense. Like, they maybe said some snotty things, but that shows their respect for the competition. The "traitor" comment seemed a little "kidding on the square," though, as Al Franken would put it.

Now that I've visited the two schools that have offered me funding, I am in very serious need of advice from people who are in the know and are somewhat impartial. School A: +Really clicked with every professor I met +Strong encouragement for interdisciplinary studies +Fantastic location (weather included. I have mild seasonal affective disorder, so this is not just a petty consideration) +Four-year funding offer of $20K per, with an additional year of teaching available at "comparable rates." +Relationship with a famous European institute where I might be able to do a semester exchange -Students did not seem to have a bond with each other (perhaps because most of the ones I met were older, and all were married. All of them O_O!) -Lots of the professors in the dept. are new hires (although not necessarily new professors. This particular school is rumored to be poaching people from other places since they weren't as hard-hit by the financial crisis) School B: +Really loved all the students I met and felt an instant connection with them +Strong faculty in a variety of subdisciplines, really felt a bond with one prof in particular +School has a good reputation for placing graduates +Prof I bonded with emailed me right after I left to come home to say she had secured me some more funding for my first year only, bringing the stipend within shouting distance of School A's. -Some students said they had to take out loans to supplement the teaching stipend (~$13K before taxes) even though it's in a small town -Must teach three courses per year, with only a two-week intensive teaching training in the summer -Location is nice, but small -Weird stuff: -One professor I would like to work with was very intimidating and was negative about School A (although later I found out he's just a shy, brilliant person who overcompensates by being a little outspoken, something I totally understand). -A Ph.D. student said that students in the dept. at School A "didn't even go to their own conference a few years ago" and that "professors there never go to conferences." I would like to see if this is more than hearsay, but it made me worry. I was especially annoyed and nervous because everyone at School A only had positive things to say about School B. I don't know what this lopsided rivalry means. -A grad of School B teaches at School A, and a student called him a "traitor." Deep down, I know I can't go wrong either way, but the fear and guilt of having to let someone down, especially people that I really respect and would love to work with in the future, is crushing. I also worry that School A perhaps isn't as prestigious as School B (or is this just tribal sentiment?), but because I'm in a very small field that doesn't do rankings, I don't know how to weigh each place. I could have a great research fit at either institution, but I worry that the teaching load and stress of having to find funding for the Ph.D. (I got the impression that teaching positions were harder to come by for older students, and that external funding was not a common source of money for them either) will affect my work at School B. Then again, when if I go to School A, work my ass off, and get edged out on a job because it's slightly less esteemed? Please, PLEASE advise.

Don't feel like a loser. You got into 2 MA programs! Terminal MA funding is very hard to come by. Did you apply for any external funding? The job market is truly terrible in the U.S., so I would suggest trying to find another position in Japan if at all possible. Are you on JET? While non-JET ALT positions are certainly not as well-paid, I think it's a better option than moving back to the U.S. and trying to find something right now. If you've already bought your ticket and packed your belongings, I would suggest getting an ESL certification if you don't already have one, which will allow you to work in some schools over here, and actually use the experience you've gotten in Japan. Unless you hate teaching English or were a CIR, in which case you can just throw all that unhelpful advice in the trash can.

I'm coming from somewhere a little different, since I applied to French Linguistics programs (accepted at IU and UT Austin, STILL waiting to hear from UIUC, but as someone so aptly put it in the Linguistics forum, I no longer care). Most people outside the field I've talked to have never even HEARD of French linguistics programs, so it's even tougher to make a decision.

I got rejected, too. I have my fingers crossed for you, psycholinguist!!

Have you thought about WWOOFing? (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) You work/volunteer on an organic farm for whatever time specified, and though they don't pay you, they house and feed you, and they have them in a ton of different countries. I was pretty seriously considering this until I unexpectedly got a job. It's not for everybody, but it's definitely a good option!

Unfortunately, I didn't hear from School B until I'd already planned and paid for tickets for the visit to school A. I guess I'll just suck it up and say nothing.

Praise the FSM, I have been blessed with two funded offers to Ph.D programs. I'm still waiting to hear from three other schools. School A gave me a four-year scholarship and one year of teaching, including a year abroad if I want. School B's offer is the standard teaching funding plus a one time moving stipend. I'm trying to arrange visits with both schools, and since there's a week of Spring Break in March, I'm planning to visit School A in early March and School B at the end of March (I heard from School A first, and School B originally offered me acceptance without funding and upgraded me later). I recently got an email from School B saying that visiting at the end of March puts them in "a difficult position" if I were to turn them down. I don't really know what to say. I want to visit anywhere I'm accepted if possible, so I don't want to cancel the visit, obviously, but I feel bad that waiting means someone else might not get funding in time to make the best decision. What should I do??? And, hey, it's really poor planning when schools don't notify till late, have a week of break, and then make you decide by 4/15! When are you supposed to visit!?!? Some of us work for a living! How did you guys manage it? P.S. If you'd like to know the two schools and maybe on the off chance can help me make my decision, PM me!

This is what I'll be doing, for certain. Believe me, I've thought about several possible financial contingencies and how to avoid them because I'm in a position where there is no way my family could help me out with money (although the emotional support would certainly be there). I'm totally on my own moneywise, which is another reason why I'm reluctant to part with my savings.

I don't know what your medical insurance situation is, but this is actually a much bigger problem than you seem to think. Half of U.S. bankruptcies are due to medical bills. HALF. That's scary even to a relatively healthy person like me. Not to mention that student loan companies are more flexible and have more options than the collection agencies that health care conglomerates hire. I have a range of interest rates, from 2.48% to the standard 6.8% (I have six separate loans from the same lender, three are subsidized Stafford, two unsubsidized Stafford, and one small private loan. I also have one small Perkins loan). I'm not sure how to calculate interest because of the varying rates, though, and most online calculators only provide for one interest rate at a time. Should I use a median value or do them all separately? I don't even have a credit card now (because I think they're a scam, to be perfectly honest), and I definitely won't be getting one when I don't really have an income. I will probably pay off a chunk of the debt and keep the rest, at least until the end of my first year, see how much I needed to use, and adjust accordingly. Thanks for all the advice so far.

I had undergrad debt of about $20K, and after 2.5 years will have paid off around half of it (yay living at home and buying nothing. . .my youth!). I'm going to start grad school this fall (if I'm fully funded, if not, I can't afford to go, period), and I will probably have enough in my bank account to pay off the rest of my undergrad debt, with a little bit left over. Should I do that and enjoy being totally out of debt, hopefully forever, and saving a little on interest payments, or keep my savings around for worst-case scenarios while I'm in school, and defer the rest of my remaining loan payments until I'm done? Living on a grad student budget is certainly tough, but I feel like that extra money would just get wasted on frivolous things like food and rent. What do you think?

I've sent in all but one application now. I thought I would feel relieved, or at least only anxious about the waiting, but instead I'm checking the copies of things I've sent constantly, sure that I'll find a life-ending typo, or that I must have left page six off of whatnot, or that my LOR writer won't get the letter in on time even though she SAID she totally would. . . Not helping is that half of my schools don't have an "application status" page, because they use the same online app software that I used to apply to something else last year, and I never even received an email from them to say my payment had been received. How am I supposed to know if everything got lost in the mail!?!? Okay. Time to go reread my SOP for the bajillionth time for typos, ex post facto.

On the one hand, I feel terrible that adcomms have to read so many "I always wanted to be a..." essays, but they do lower the bar a little. Is that mean? I think it might be a little mean. I was actually very confident that my anecdote was relevant and not too personal in an unpleasant way before I got that email from my professor. I do have an alternate opening, but it's kind of "meh" because I have more potential than experience in my field. (Thanks, economy!)

Mine isn't humorous at all, and does explain something kind of strange about my academic path. I hesitate to post it in a public arena, but if anyone wouldn't mind reading it in a PM, I would be really grateful for any insight on my specific situation.

I've received very conflicting opinions on whether or not to use an anecdotal opening in the statement of purpose. I have one school that specifically says NO ANECDOTES PLEASE, but the rest say nothing on the matter. Sample essays seem to fall into both camps, and one of my LOR writers, whose opinion I take as gospel ordinarily, says that many schools may not say anything about it, but frown upon the practice anyhow. What do you think? Is an anecdotal opening, even when written well, unprofessional? Or can it be a way to get remembered? Or is it really up to chance, which means I should play it safe and skip the anecdote?

This thread is old, but I'm also applying to French linguistics programs. I'm really excited about it. Anyone else as excited/nervous as me? Bonne chance, tout le monde~