ThousandsHardships

Hey guys! I'm popping back after years of inactivity after a Google search led me here. My current program is with Indiana University, though I've had other grad school experiences before that, so feel free to message me questions!

As I mentioned, this is a completely normal part of the admissions process. There's no need to keep any of this secret. As long as you keep interactions professional, there's no reason for anyone on either side to hold anything against you.

I think you should just be honest. Tell Program A that you're very excited about their program and would like to accept their offer, but that there's a chance that something may change in the event that you're accepted off the waitlist for another school that may be a better fit. Ask them what they would recommend. Some schools may offer you an extension on the decision deadline, or they might encourage you to accept and wait it out. These things happen all the time. It's a normal part of the admissions process. As long as you're upfront with it and polite in all your interactions, no one will get offended.

I was 23 when I entered my first graduate program and 27 when I entered my second. I got in on the first try both application seasons, but with only one acceptance each time out of ten schools. Finances weren't an issue since I was funded both times. Sure, a grad student stipend isn't anything luxurious, but it's enough to pay the bills and live comfortably as long as you aren't a single parent or have exorbitant medical expenses. As far as knowing what you want to do, I think my first experience in grad school definitely helped concretize my goals a lot, even though that particular experience didn't go all that smoothly.

Once you've been through a graduate program, it would look a little questionable if all of your letters came from your undergrad program (one is okay but definitely not three), so be sure to do well in your classes and get along with your professors. People switch programs for various reasons. As long as you don't make it seem like you have something personal against them, your professors will treat you professionally and it shouldn't impact the quality of your letters, if that's what you're trying to ask. And if you do use an undergrad professor, make sure to update them on what you've been up to since you last saw them.

As people have said, it varies a lot from department to department. In most cases, you don't have to specifically apply to be considered for a TA'ship within your own department. They automatically consider you a candidate and the most they do is check in with you to make sure you're still interested and what specifically you're interested in teaching. In filling TA positions, first priority usually goes to PhD students with no outside funding, then master's students with no outside funding. They also consider students from outside programs whose research is closely affiliated with the program or whose research advisers are within the program. If they fill up all the slots available with these students, then that's it. If not, they will open up applications for unaffiliated graduate students and sometimes even advanced undergrads who've taken and aced the class in the past.

Academically-speaking, I would go with Davis since you have a 5-year funding guarantee and have already been accepted to the PhD program. If later on you don't like the program or wish to apply to more prestigious ones, graduating with a master's and applying to new PhD programs is always a possibility. I was in a PhD program in food science at UC Davis and left with a master's after three years. It's really not all that uncommon. Davis also has a LOT of flexibility when it comes to course work. Regardless of which program you're in, you can always take classes in other fields as long as you have room in your schedule, so if working on your languages is a goal, there are a lot of ways that you can work that into your program plan. So now the only real issue comes down to how much you feel like you need to stay with your partner. It's hard to give you advice on that front. Some questions to consider might be: given the length of time and the nature of your relationship, how likely are you going to be able to handle long-distance? Is your partner fully settled in a full-time permanent job that he/she does not want to quit, or is there a possibility that he might be able to move to be with you after a semester or two? How much are you willing to invest in visiting each other as often as possible? Once you finish course work and reach dissertation phase, is there a possibility that you might be able to work away from campus or spend time as a visiting student/scholar at another university?

Our department is the department of French AND Italian, so I got into this conversation with our department chair (who's Italian and speaks French): Him: "I just think of French as a dialect of Italian." Me: "That's funny. I think of Italian as a dialect of French."

They won't be writing 10-15 different references. Likely they will write a single reference letter and use it for all of the schools, with small modifications as needed. And if there are supplementary questions, they will spend a few minutes answering those as well. Professors know that you'll be applying to multiple schools. It's part of their job to help you through the process. The best thing you can do for them is not to avoid asking them for letters, but to send out the official requests several months prior to the first deadline and all at the same time if possible. Also give them a list of the schools and deadlines. With all of this information laid out ahead of them, they will be able to work to their own schedule. In my experience, each of my recommenders submitted the majority of their recommendations within a half-hour time period (some within two minutes of each other). Clearly they weren't writing entirely new letters within that timespan or else they couldn't have submitted them one right after the other.

At "that" level, you're judged for your thought and organization above all. Grammar, if it's an issue, can be easily corrected. No one cares if you make mistakes as long as they are easily correctable mistakes. If your English prevents you from performing to the best of your ability in terms of your analytical capacities (e.g. if they make your writing a mess and difficult to understand), then there may be a problem. But honestly, if they've accepted you, then likely you are capable of doing exactly what they expect. You may work more slowly, but chances are that you're harder on yourself than anyone else will be on you.

Of course! It's your course work, grades, and research experience that matters the most (well, in addition to letters of recommendation and personal statements). As far as your degree goes, you just need a bachelor's level degree and relevant classes that demonstrate your background.

1. This depends on what "weak" means. I don't think it's necessary to be within the 90th percentile, but an abnormally weak verbal or writing score will not look good. A GRE score has more potential to hurt you if it's really weak than to help you if it's really strong. If your scores aren't abominable, chances are it won't make a difference. Everything else on your application (grades, statement of purpose, letters of recommendation, writing sample) will be more important. 2. Contact can help, if only to narrow down your choices. Do not contact faculty just for the purpose of contacting them, though, if you have nothing to say. It's really obvious when a prospective student tries to contact faculty just because they think they should. Make your conversations productive. Don't contact them to ask about logistic things that you can easily find on their website. Instead, express an interest in their research and a desire to get to know it better. If you've had specific research projects or certain research interests or want to inquire about field-specific opportunities to speak, publish, or present, let them know. If a professor of yours had recommended them or their program as a good fit, mention it. Name-dropping never hurts. These people tend to know each other. 3. Exactly what @echo449 said. If you've done an honors thesis or some research project/paper you're really proud of and want to summarize it as a means of introducing your research interests and the work that led up to the development of these interests, then it's very useful to incorporate some field-specific language to prove that you know your stuff. I don't think the admissions committee would even read your writing sample unless your statement has passed its inspection. So an impressive writing sample alone probably wouldn't help you if your application gets eliminated before the committee has gotten to that step. 4. Most humanities students don't have publications before grad school. Publications definitely give applicants an edge, but I'd say there are few enough of those people around that not having one shouldn't affect your chances if your other qualifications are good. If you have an honors thesis, though, that'll look real good, and a lot of applicants have those. If you don't, you can frame one of the research projects/papers you've done for class as part of your research experience and incorporate that into your statement. 5. No. Humanities programs do take teaching seriously, but they don't really expect you to have taught. They judge more on your potential to be a good teacher (for example, interpersonal skills as seen from your letters of recommendation) than your actual teaching experience.

In my previous program, it was common for grad students to take relevant undergrad classes. It's also very common for grad students in all sorts of disciplines to take language classes (to gain a skill or to meet a language requirement), which are almost always taught by other grad students. So yes, it is indeed possible for someone in your cohort to be your TA. When I was doing my master's, I've TA'd classes with grad students in them, and I've taken classes led by grad students. I don't feel that it's awkward at all. In class, you are held to the same requirements as the other students, and you won't get any special treatment. But you'll get to know these people outside of class as well. You'll have common friends, go to common social events, etc. It's not the same type of relationship as you'd have with your TA if you're an undergrad. TA's are also not as wary of forming friendships with their students if said student is a grad student. I often also ended up TA'ing the same class with these people later on, and we got to know each other more as colleagues than as student and teacher. That said, if you're insistent on avoiding having a grad student as your teacher, simply don't take undergrad classes. Unless you have a specific reason for taking them (such as making up a prerequisite or enhancing some skill), most graduate programs would not require you to take them. Grad students generally don't teach graduate courses. I don't even know if they're allowed to. So if you're taking only graduate-level courses, you likely would never have a grad student as your instructor.

I would say that my experience was somewhat similar to yours. I had multiple undergraduate degrees from a top university. I then started a PhD in a STEM field which ended up turning into a terminal master's. I did also get an MA in French as a secondary degree, but my decision to pursue a PhD in French was nevertheless a very unanticipated change in disciplines, and my MA program hadn't been preparing me, teaching-wise or research-wise, as they would have any other grad student, under the assumption that this wouldn't be my path. Things I discovered during my application season: If you have the qualifications and the correct motivation (and it looks like you do), the admissions committee generally doesn't care what other interests or pursuits you've had in the recent past. All the faculty I've talked to during my own application season were only curious about my future research interests and my experience within the field. No one ever questioned my dedication, intent, or ability to focus based on my scattered academic past. PhD programs typically do not require a master's and often actually hold those with a master's to higher standards when it comes to admissions. Statements of purpose are very, very important. Make sure to explain what attracted you to linguistics. Not some abstract idea, but what in your experiences, your research, your studies, etc. inspired you to pursue this field or your subfield. And how does it fit into your future goals?

READ. And watch talks in Korean on YouTube or something, ideally in your area of specialization. If your goal is to be able to perform research in Korean, then the only way you can do that is to read more, look up words that you don't understand, read layperson articles about that subject, etc.