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I've already submitted my application to the Continuum! The location would be really convenient, so fingers crossed.

I'm moving back to FL in the Fall ♥

Hi everybody, I've also decided on UF. I grew up in the greater Jacksonville area, so it will be nice to be an hour away from my hometown. I haven't lived in Florida for almost nine years, so I'll have to readjust to the humidity... So excited though!

... I can't believe I actually made a decision. Go me! I decided to go to UF. Now the next part should be fun: planning and shopping!

Sorry, I don't know anything about it! I hope you got the information you wanted elsewhere though.

Thanks for the reply! I know it's hard for somebody outside of my shoes to really give a perfect idea, but it was worth a shot. To answer some of your questions: 1. I've already been in contact with Indiana about funding. They keep telling me "the process is slow, and we'll let you know ASAP. Please wait a little longer!" In the meantime, they've offered at least one person on the forum the funding package, so I know they know more than they're letting on... Understandably, of course. This leads me to believe funding = no go. 2. Since UF is about an hour south of my hometown, my sister actually wanted to move in with me, eliminating some financial stress, but also making the funding a little meager. I would probably take out about $5,000 for the first semester to offsest the difference in funding before my stipend increases. They've offered me $5,000 to help me relocate to FL, but I have so little stuff that I'd really only need a $300 plane ticket . They're nearly doubling my salary for the second year, and I am guaranteed funding. 3. I did visit Davis on Monday, since it's only 30 minutes away. The city is beautiful, the campus is decent from what I did see, but when I actually got to the department, I instantly became depressed -- it felt like a wasteland. I like to look at the bulletin boards in the hallways and see what kind of seminars and programs they have available to grads/undergrads. They had "GRADS" posted up and literally nothing around to offer, haha. I am really concerned about there only being one professor with my research interests. As another person mentioned, this is really concerning for me, with reason. UF has more of a faculty resource in that department. I've been in contact with people from both schools, and I have a better overall "feeling" about UF's program, but I love the city of Davis. Plus, the extra funding at Davis makes it more appealing, but I genuinely think I will find myself less satisfied with the program. Then I think maybe I'm being too picky since I'm just doing my master's for now (I intend to reapply to Indiana for PhD). Thanks for everybody's input!

Hi! Currently considering an offer for French linguistics, so we may be working together in the future! I am visiting Davis tomorrow (I live in Sacramento) and I am excited!

Hello all, I am currently resting on two funded offers and one offer awaiting a funding decision. My areas of interest (French Linguistics) are pretty hard to find programs for, so I applied to the only three universities that have defined graduate programs/degrees for this area of study: University of Texas, Austin; Indiana University, Bloomington; and University of Florida. As a backup, I also applied to the University of California, Davis, which appeared to have some linguistic influence, though the program was fairly small. Indiana was my preferred program, but they offered me no funding. UF's program is smaller but still is strong in French Linguistics; they also offered me 100% tuition waiver, a $5,000 supplementary fellowship to help me relocate to Gainesville (~4,000 miles away), health insurance and a TA stipend of 8,500 the first year and 14,000 the second year. As my hometown is an hour north of UF and I have lived on the West Coast for so long (excited to be near my family again!), this seemed like a no-brainer: choose an academically fitting program with decent funding and proximity to my family. Then, three days ago (terrible timing!), I was offered admission to UC Davis. They offered me tuition remission for in-state and out-of-state supplemental tuitions (totaling ~30,000) and a teaching assistantship with an annual salary of $17,600, plus health insurance, with additional but undefined funding for future years. Blinded by dollar signs, I decided to look into the program again. Currently there are three French Linguistics students (out of 14 grad students) and only ONE professor whose interests and specialty are in French Linguistics (the rest are literature, something I have no interest in). They insist the small size of their program allows for strong mentorship and flexibility, but I'm hesitant. Davis is seemingly a good community, and I could live more comfortably on 2,000/month. Plus, it's only 15 miles from where I currently reside, so the relocation would be effortless, as opposed to the ~4,000 miles between UF and me (even with the $5,000 fellowship). Sorry for the length, but I feel like I need someone familiar with graduate school anxiety to just tell me what to do instead of my loved ones saying "you'll figure it out." =/ Thanks for reading! M.

Hello! I've lived in Cruces for 8 years, and I graduated from both high school and NMSU with a BA there. I will gladly offer some information on the lovely Las Cruces, New Mexico. First and foremost, I like to refer to Cruces weather as "extremely hot and extremely cold with sprinkles of 'wtf was that?'" The summers you can expect to reach triple digits most of June and July, although July is our rainy season so the thunderstorms are a blessing. The weather stays nice and warm until mid-late October, where it stays nice and cool for a month before the temperatures drop to ~20-30 day time and teens or below at night. January is probably the coldest month, and you can expect nighttime temperatures of below zero and also some light snowfall and hazardous ice conditions. Please do be careful when driving during snow because, as we are a dry, arid climate, nobody prepares for or knows how to drive in icy conditions. April is windy season, where you will probably experience your first sandstorm. The demographics here are pretty even -- about 50% white and 50% hispanic. As we are about 40 minutes from the Mexican border, the environment is heavily hispanic (which means the best Mexican food and green chile of your life!). Still, most people still speak English. Las Cruces is kind of "college-towny" but there are also many professionals who are employed at White Sands missile range or NASA, and there are many families. The city is fairly low-income, which makes finding affordable housing rather easy. There are a lot of apartments within walking distance to NMSU and, if you choose to live farther away like I did, the university is still easily accessible because Las Cruces is directly on I-25, meaning you can just take the interstate and hit University Ave. on exit 6 The campus itself is pretty big and I always thought it was pretty, but I can see why many people might say it's plain. You have a beautiful view of the Organ Mountains from anywhere in Cruces, so that's always a plus. Nightlife in Cruces is amateur; many people go to El Paso (I-25; merge onto I-10 into El Paso; approx. 35 minutes) for the scene on the weekends. There is a bus system on campus that is free for all students. As far as parking, you can park in the free parking lot and a bus comes to take you to central NMSU every 15 minutes. I did this all four years and never paid a dime for parking passes! There are plenty of services for students on campus. Feel free to ask about anything else. I am happy to respond! (Sorry in advance for any typos. Im on my ipad).

wmb, that is a good thing to consider. I am not sure how accurate that link is either, but it seems fairly accurate in my current location. Thank you for sharing! Fransces, unfortunately I don't know much about Columbia's programs. Maybe research a few days and wait to hear about funding in the meantime. We still have a week -- let's milk it!

Hi guys. Now it's my turn to ask for advice! Yesterday, I was called by a professor at UC Davis who told me I was admitted to the department. Today, I received my 2013-2014 funding package info: a $14.6k fellowship to help offset the cost of out-of-state tuition (which is over 30k), and a 50% TA position, which pays 17k a year as salary and offers an in-state tuition waiver of about 16k. This all totals to about 47k for the year. They made no mention of funding after the first year, but the funding offer at hand is far greater than what I have been offered at UF or Indiana, the latter of which I'm still waiting to hear about. As my research interests are primarily historical and theoretical French Linguistics, Indiana or UF would be my ideal picks. UC Davis is more general; even though they offer a "Linguistics track", there is only one professor who teaches French Linguistics. Everybody else specializes in Lit. I know this question has been asked before, but now it's me who feels conflicted... Do I go with the significantly higher (as in over 2x what UF offers) funding, total moving distance of about 15 miles, but potentially less academic "fit" or maybe support? Or do I go with less money, a total moving distance of about 4,000 miles but really close to my family, and a much stronger academic fit? They both have their pros and cons, of course. Right now, I'm so blinded by dollar signs that it's a miracle I can even see what I'm writing, lol. I'm leaning toward Florida because my boyfriend brought up a good point: living an hour away from my family, I could babysit my 4-month-old niece on the weekends! But... All that money... Help!

So crazy how long we have all been feeling the emotions of this process, together on the forum and also apart... And now it's almost over! Congratulations everybody on your good news. I will be sharing my decision soon as well.

It sounds like you're struggling with the classic dilemma that many grad students face, myself included! There are many things you should consider, in my opinion. First of all, I wouldn't solely trust the reviews of Calgary you find on the internet. With universities -- and especially graduate programs -- it's a unique and personal experience. Even at the best universities, there will be stellar and terrible departments. I think that, when attempting to make your decision, you should take your funding and departmental opportunities into consideration first. To me, that says Calgary. Now what are the hard facts between Vancouver and Calgary? What's the difference in cost of living? What's public transportation look like? What's the crime look like? Do they have resources for your favorite activities? What's the weather like? It's your job to arrange questions like these in order of most to least importance. What's more important to you: living in a beautiful city where you may be hard-pressed for cash, or living in a smaller, less exciting city where you'll have extra money (taking into consideration the potential difference in cost of living and your funding offer)? I too applied to UBC. I think it's really a wonderful school. My concern for you is that you'll be dissatisfied with the direction of your department. You know it well, as you're already finishing your Master's there. Take your gut instinct into consideration here. It sounds to me like you're leaning toward Calgary but are afraid of how it looks. I've been where you are, and I know how hard and frightening it can be. My advice is to consider what I've said above... and if you really need somebody to tell you where they think you should go, I'll tell you: I think you should go to Calgary. Best of luck!

Congratulations on the good news from Vanderbilt! I'm surprised to hear that they are offering a position after all. It makes sense that you would be considered; it seems all the programs want you to be honest with you, my gut instinct is telling me that you should stay with Duke. I'm not sure why; maybe because you'll be the only one admitted this round or maybe because their indecision about having available positions doesn't sit well with me. I just get this feeling in my stomach that you'll be happier at Duke. When I was looking into programs, I too was applying to Duke and Vanderbilt, despite the differences in faculty interest. Duke's program especially was very appealing to me. They have an awesome program, great faculty and they are very supportive to the grad students they bring in. Their program is very strong, unlike how Vanderbilt feels to me -- weak and unsecured (at this time -- I know they are very highly ranked in French studies overall). I can say, however, that Nashville is lovely and a lot of fun -- from what I hear, of course. I've only been in the airport. This is just speculation, of course. I know you'll make the right decision. Keep us posted!

In other news... I've still not heard anything from Louisiana or UC Davis. As these aren't dealbreakers for me or anything, I'm not stressing about getting an acceptance or rejection, but the neat-freak side of me wishes that I had answers from all my programs so I could mark them all of my list and be done!

Congratulations on your acceptance! As Indiana continues to tell me that they currently have no information on funding, UF's offer of assistantship (tuition waiver, health insurance and stipend) and Atkin fellowship ($5,000 just offered to me today) is starting to look like a winner! I'm excited by the prospect, since it's an hour away from my hometown where my family still lives. Perhaps I will see you in the Fall!

Hi guys, Congrats on all the acceptances and my condolences for the rejections. Right now, I'm sitting on one unfunded offer and one funded offer. I hate making decisions too! :'(

Thanks! Good to know about Berkeley, but I'm already considering that a rejection. It's even in my signature already -- that makes it official! Have you heard of anybody interviewing for Berkeley? I haven't heard a peep. Maybe they were just taking their time rejecting me.

Oh, the things I too could say if I allowed myself to be brutally honest. I have a paper smile taped to my face

As a graduate from NMSU, I take offense.

Hooray! We made this thread 'hot'. *sizzle*

Thats possible too. They didn't really tell me anything about funding, so i am in the dark. :x