wuglife427

I'm a fully funded domestic student entering the linguistics program. The department manager sent my offer as a pdf with official letterhead, a breakdown of the award by quarter (2 quarters fellowship, 1 quarter TA), and the signatures of the grad director and manager. I got this about a month after my acceptance, in late March. However, my offer was recently increased, and this was sent to me in the body of an email (i.e., not on official letterhead) by the acting grad director for the department. Basically, it seems to me that financial aid notification is handled at the departmental level. I would email the graduate director and manager for your department, and explain that you need an official statement ASAP to get your visa squared away. Best of luck!

I'm an undergrad at the school you're talking about, and backpacks are quite common--including among the grad students I know. A lot of female undergrads just carry giant purses, but not everyone. The graduate students I know are in the ling department, which is more casual than others, but I don't think you'll look out of place with a backpack. Personally, I have a backpack for day-to-day and a nicer purse/tote-thing for anything dressy (interviews, conferences, etc.). I have bad shoulders, so I can't do a messenger/tote every day.

Just so you know, GradCafe houses Linguistics under Social Sciences. (It's a totally understandable mistake, though, since so many US universities house the ling departments in humanities.) If you're interested in psycholinguistics, some good places to look would be University of Maryland, MIT, a few of the University of California sites, University of Chicago, University of Connecticut...there are definitely more, but these are the first that come to mind based on my own grad school search. Also these are more syntax-geared, I think, so if you're interested in something like experimental semantics, you'll need to do more digging or ask someone who's more in that field. These are also all linguistics departments--I know that there are psychology and cognitive science departments with good psycholinguistic work, but I don't really know which ones. I would suggest you look at recent papers that interest you and that reflect the type of work you might want to do (in terms of the questions asked, the approach taken, etc.), and research the authors and their departments. That might at least give you a starting point.

I guess I messed up my ulnar nerve because my left pinky and ring finger have been sort of numb and tingly for the past few days. This needs to heal asap because I have an orchestra concert next week. (The fingers aren't totally numb and I can move them, but they feel weird and maybe a bit clumsier than usual, so it's a bit of a problem.) And this means I can't bike until it's better, which sucks since cycling's my main form of exercise, and I really can't afford to cut back on that.

My program starts in mid-September, but I don't know when my orientation is. And I'm guessing leases start on the first of the month, so at least I'll have a couple of weeks to get settled. I'm from/currently on the East Coast, so I'm doing everything long-distance. My plan was to look around on craigslist and whatever other sites and ask the current students I met at the open house to check places out or ask people they know if there are spaces available. I'm hoping that in future years I'll have a group of friends to rent a place with, but for this year I'm just going to hope for the best roommate-wise

Hi Alohomoraaa, as far as I know they notified waitlisted people a few weeks ago :/ I'm not sure why you haven't heard anything, as it looks like they have also rejected people. I would suggest you check the online portal you used to apply, and if there's nothing there, email the grad admissions chairs (Jon Sprouse and Susi Wurmbrand).

I'm going for linguistics, and I'm insanely excited!! I'm also dreading the housing situation...I will live with however many roommates as necessary to avoid going broke haha

I am, but for a different reason--I'm trying to decide between two schools. I'm leaning towards one option, but I really bonded with the people at the other school, and my POIs there were extraordinarily helpful and generous with their time. The other day I was thinking about how I should probably attend X university, and then my POI from Y university sent an email just to check in and I immediately burst into tears. Also I'm feeling a bit crazy from being sleep-deprived because of midterms and thesis stuff, all of which is taking way longer because I can only think about grad school things. I also feel bad complaining about this--I know it's a good problem to have, and that two good options is better than no good options, but it really really really sucks. I think my friends, most of whom are still looking for jobs, are getting a little sick of me freaking out about this decision.

Fuzzy--my would-be major advisor at UB has had successes, including someone ending up at an Ivy recently. I also might end up being co-advised by a new addition to the faculty; he doesn't have a placement track record, but he's a bit of a hotshot with some awards under his belt. I also just found out that if I attend UB, I will receive an NSF fellowship, which I guess will look nice on a CV. I visited UB a couple of weeks ago and really loved it--the students and faculty are all great, and I think both of my prospective advisors are an excellent fit in terms of research and personality. I'm actually headed to the UA open house right now...depending on how this visit goes and whether I still feel torn afterwards, I may take you up on the PM offer. Thanks. idiochromatic--I think it just has to do with how intense the program is...some people have said it's cutthroat, although others have contradicted that. I'm going to scope it out on my visit, because I do think I would do better work and be more successful at a place where I feel like I can go to my peers to discuss research and/or get moral support, as opposed to a place where I'm afraid of them. And that's a really good point about attrition having positive consequences--I know PhDs can make you less marketable outside of academia because you seem overqualified, so I guess it would be better to find out sooner rather than later that academia isn't in the cards. I'll keep that in mind as I make my decision.

I have been accepted to two schools, both very highly regarded in my field. University A has near-perfect job placement, with alumni holding tenured or TT positions at top research universities. University B has had some big successes in placement, including in my specific area of interest, but is not as consistent as UA. However, it is my impression that UA has a higher rate of attrition than UB--more people leave with Masters degrees, or just leave. I'm weighing a lot of factors in my decision, and I actually still need to visit UA, but I was wondering how others have weighed job prospects against attrition. My current thinking is that I can still get good training at UB and get a good job at the end, but I need to hold myself accountable, take advantage of as many supplementary resources as I can, and get my research published as much as possible while in school. Just getting through the program is not enough. UA, on the other hand, seems to have such standards built in, such that getting a PhD there entails accomplishing all of those things. I'd like to think that I have the personal motivation to get this all done regardless of the university's standards for students, but who knows, I guess. At UB I would also be participating in a relatively new, NSF-funded supplementary program that would give me additional certifications that might increase my job prospects (certificate in Neurobiology of Language, additional training in experimental methodologies, additional professionalization training, increased research funding opportunities). That said, I might just be kidding myself about the real odds of me getting a job after attending UB because I love everything else about it. Anyone have any thoughts on how the rate of attrition should affect my view of the job stats?

I fell in love with one of the schools I've been accepted to at the open house. Next week I'm going to visit the other one...and I almost hope I hate it, just because it would be easier. If I love this place as much as I loved the first one, I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. Probably something involving spreadsheets and Ben & Jerry's. (Note: I will of course go to the second open house with an open mind, not determined to have a bad time. I just worry about the looming decision sometimes.)

I got my NYU rejection while at another open house, shortly after talking with another prospie about how we hadn't heard anything from them and had probably been rejected. When I saw the email, I laughed and gave the other guy a high-five.

At the end of a pre-admission open house, my POI/co-chair of grad admissions actually said the words "I hope you come here." That seems promising, right?