jfromnillicus

I know this is an old thread, but in case anyone comes to it looking for any information, I can give you the lowdown on funding at Middlebury, and details on the language schools in general. I have an M.A. from Midd, earned in 2011. I highly recommend the undergrad programs for anyone who wants to get a strong foundation in a new language quickly. But everyone (at the undergrad and grad levels) learns a tremendous amount in these programs, both linguistically and in the "subject" classes (which are all in language). I also think that the M.A. programs are a great way for prospective Ph.D. students to test the waters and build their CV if they are not quite ready for a Ph.D. program immediately after undergrad. There are actually two (well, three) ways to go about getting a graduate degree from Middlebury. Both require 12 classes. The first is a more "traditional" route: spend one semester in Vermont (3 classes), then immediately go to one of Middlebury's schools abroad (in Madrid, Paris, Florence, etc. depending on your language) for a full year (6 classes), and come back for a final summer in Vermont (3 more classes). (Technically you can also take 9 classes abroad and finish in the spring semester, but most people prefer to take their time and enjoy their year abroad, and as you will see below, in most cases finishing early wouldn't actually save them any money.) The second main way to go about it, which is very popular with high school language teachers and some others, is to get your degree by coming to the language school in Vermont for four summers (usually consecutive, but not always). Obviously you need to have at least 6-7 weeks free each summer, which is why it's good for people who already work in education. For people with full-time jobs in other fields, it would be hard. If you are looking for a "fast track" to a Ph.D. program, this would probably not be the option for you, either. But there is one big advantage to doing it this way: ALL graduate students (right now) get financial aid in the form of scholarships or grants for 100% (!!!) of demonstrated need for the summer sessions. This includes the students who go abroad—basically, all of the graduate students get their summer sessions paid for (if they need it). I don't think most students realize this, but the school has started to publicize it more. I don't know what "demonstrated need" translates to in this context, but all the grad students I knew, including people who were employed full time as teachers, got this free money. Basically this means that the students who come back for four summers get an M.A. for free, without any teaching responsibilities and without relocating. This includes room and board for the session. You just pay for transportation and incidentals. The total value is in the $32k range, as tuition with room and board for a summer is somewhere between $7k-8k, and rising. The other side of the coin is that most students do have to pay for the year abroad. There are some who are lucky enough to get grants or scholarships to fund their year abroad, but if you ask the majority of them, they are taking loans, and the total cost is around 40-50k for the nine months. That's about 20-25k for tuition, and the rest for living expenses, so your mileage may vary. That's what I ended up doing, because one of my major goals was to study abroad again. Whether this was the wisest financial choice in the long run remains to be seen, but I can't imagine having done it any other way. Fortunately, I qualified for all federal loans (no banks involved), under the new program that is wholly managed by the Dept. of Ed., and they offer very flexible income-based repayment plans, and the possibility of loan cancellation if you work long enough in public service. Academically, it was definitely worth it for me. It helped my figure out my direction in my academic career, and I have (so far) been accepted to two great Ph.D. programs in my specialization (which is a pretty small subfield). My academic record was a little sketchy before getting into Middlebury, and I am sure I would not have been accepted without that degree. Of course, I worked hard to maintain a good GPA, and I cultivated relationships with professors to ensure good letters of rec, which are both crucial elements of PhD applications, as I am sure everyone here knows. I know a number of other Midd M.A. alums who have gone on to apply to Ph.D. programs, and they have generally had their pick of where to go, so an M.A. degree from Middlebury definitely can pay off. Everyone please feel free to reply or PM me if you have any questions about my specific case or Midd in general. I will get notification via email. I encourage everyone to apply. Also note that Middlebury has rolling admissions and the final cutoff isn't until April 1, so if you are on the fence or got rejected from your dream Ph.D. program, you can still apply to do an M.A. at Midd for this year!

Cari amici, Does anyone have any thoughts on the state of Italian at UCLA? I applied to a bunch of schools this year to do a PhD in Romance or Hispanic Linguistics, and Italian would be my secondary field. I did my undergrad and part of my M.A. in Italian, and I studied in Italy for two years (on two separate occasions), but most of my recent work and studies have focused more on Spanish. I have been accepted to the Spanish & Portuguese department at UCLA, so I am in the middle of researching them in more depth now. As part of my decision-making process, I would like to get an up-to-date idea of how the Italian department at UCLA is doing these days. Specifically, I am interested in Italian dialectology and sociolinguistics, which are not widely studied in US universities, I know. I have also been admitted to CUNY Grad and Georgia (GA is for Romance Linguistics), and I am still waiting on replies from UMass Amherst, Michigan, and Ohio State. I'm pretty sure I won't be accepted to these last two, since I know that other people have already been accepted and I have heard nothing. But the deadline for UMass was only a few weeks ago, so I still consider that a "maybe". But I get the feeling that my choice is going to come down to UCLA vs. CUNY. If anyone has any thoughts on Italian studies (specifically linguistics) at any of those schools, I would be very appreciative! Congratulazioni a tutti quelli che hanno già ricevuto delle belle notizie! Per quelli che stanno ancora aspettando, "in culo alla balena!" Best, J-froms

Ciao! I have been accepted to UCLA for a different program, Hispanic Linguistics, but my undergraduate degree was in Italian and my Master's was half in Italian, half in Spanish. Italian lit/linguistics are a strong secondary focus and, I plan to incorporate elements of that into my studies on language contact and sociolinguistics in the Romance languages. I am currently evaluating my options (I have two other admits so far, too) and I am wondering how you rate UCLA's Italian program. I know that historically it has been very strong, but I also heard that it went through a lot of strife during the financial crisis and might have even lost some important faculty. Have you had an interview or any other contact with them? What is your proposed specialization? Crepi il lupo!

I did write to the admissions coordinator at UT Austin, and she just wrote back to inform me that I am on the waiting list – so there's still a possibility I will start a program this fall, even if it's not a great chance. At this point, though, I almost certainly won't hear anything until after April 15th. Grr. Still, out of the five that I applied to, it was tied for my top choice, so I will wait it out. Oh, and to whoever said that UT Austin was almost certainly going to accept only people who brought in outside funding, here's what the admissions coordinator just told me, verbatim: Suffice it to say, UT Austin is now notifying admits (and presumably their outright rejects), and there is a waiting list, which some tortured souls (such as yours truly) have to sit on until after the April 15th acceptance deadline. While it doesn't feel good to be second banana, this is my last chance, and sitting around doing odd jobs and biding my time for another 18 months would be a much blacker prospect. Pinkie, I'll write you a private message with the rest of the info, as it's not really pertinent to this thread, and I don't want to clutter it up for people who are looking for information on this application season for anthropology programs.

Hi Pinkie, You and I should be friends :-) I spent last year in Italy for my MA, and contemplated studying Italian immigration, but I realized that the topic would be better studied on this side of the Atlantic. Sorry to be MIA, I took a week or so off from these boards – last week was rough, with three rejections in as many days. I am going to write UT Austin today (the only school that has not officially turned me down yet) to see if they will at least shut the door on this year so that I can go on with my life. I am a little discouraged, but not deterred. I have been in touch with my mentor from my MA, and he emphasized that every school in the US is under one sort of financial strain or another – the private unis are still trying to recover from the hits to their endowments taken during the financial crisis, and the publics have to deal with an adverse state funding environment. He saw my statement of purpose, transcripts, etc., and wrote a very strong letter of rec, and he says he "doesn't know how to interpret this outcome" and encourages me to reapply, because the outcome may be very different in a year or two. I'm making plans to raise my profile and make myself a stronger candidate for next year: retake the GREs, try to get a paper published, take an anthro course or two at my alma amter during the summer or fall. I will also apply to some of the Spanish and Italian departments that allow you to focus on linguistics. My MA school is very well regarded in foreign language and lit departments, but might not be well-known outside those circles, so maybe it didn't help me for anthro. I'm determined that this time next year, I will be celebrating at least one admit, whether it's to an anthro department or a Romance Linguistics program.

Yeah, I have a sort of muddied background combining Foreign Languages/Linguistics (mostly Spanish and Italian linguistics) and area studies (southern Europe), so if I reapply, I will probably stick to Romance Languages depts and specify that I want to focus on linguistic topics. I'm kind of bummed because many from my MA cohort have been accepted to PhD programs in Spanish or Italian, and here I am stuck in no-man's land. But they want to be literature professors, and I would rather gag myself with a spoon, haha. I guess it was OK to reach this time around. I just checked again, and no change yet, but my last name starts with “R,” so if yours is higher up on the alphabet, maybe they're just working their way down ;-) Seriously, at this point I am not expecting anything this time around, so if something comes through (even if I get “bumped” down to an MA-only program, as long as I can TA for Spanish/Italian), it'll be a pleasant surprise at this point.

I got mine today, from the dean of students, “well-crafted” but generic. I'm coming from a totally different discipline (with an MA), never taken an anthro course in my life, and asked to work with (probably) the best Linguistic Anthropologust (and maybe best Anthropologist, period) in the world. I might have been slightly over-ambitious It still stings a little bit, though. I haven't received an email, and when I log into the website, it still says "In review" — so hope lives on at least another few hours! Good luck finding a “home” somewhere :-/

Well, thanks for the information, anyway. Good luck to everyone else who is still waiting.

I am beginning to think this year is a total re-do for me (I have not been called for any interviews, and have one rejection under my belt), but I am still holding out a little more hope for UT Austin. If anyone has any info on this school's timeline, that would be great. Do they conduct interviews, contact prospectives, etc? Has anyone "here" been in touch with anyone "there"? Thanks!