beccamayworth

This!

Woah! I have a somewhat similar tale: I had a roommate who, two months after moving in, I discovered was schizophrenic. I discovered it because he had a pretty bad episode and we had to call 911 (everyone's fine, and he's a good guy, and he moved back in with his family so I hope everything is going better for him). I'm 29! I completely agree with you. I just want to be able to do whatever I please in my own home, and I feel I deserve that right! I wish everyone else felt the same way you do! Alas, I don't think that's the case... for example, my friend lives in the dorms and her roommate "does not feel comfortable with having men stay overnight in the apartment". And that is totally her right! Personally, however, if it were me, I'd have to find another roommate.

Each has its pros and cons! I've had some wonderful roommates and yes, it was very nice to always have someone to talk to, watch tv together, etc. Mostly, it was great to have someone I could count on if I needed help, assurance, or a hug. BUT - it's really hard to find roommates with whom you mesh that well. Unless you sort of already know someone you could live with (maybe other first years, maybe a friend who lives in the new town), it would be difficult to find someone that you believe would be a great fit. If you do choose to go this route, please be careful with craigslist - I've had some wonderful roommates, but I also had some... less than great experiences. I should add, though, that even living with amazing roommates has its limitations. I missed having me-time (I think I need more me time than most people). Silly things slightly annoyed me - like every inch of space in the fridge being occupied, or waking up early because they were up earlier than me (not their fault at all - they were fairly quiet, but the apartment was small and I'm a light sleeper). So when I moved to a PhD program I decided to live on my own. I told myself - if it gets too expensive, or if I get too lonely, I can always change my mind and get a roommate next year. I LOVE living on my own. I spend so much time on campus, in the office, hanging out with my cohort, that when I get home I don't feel lonely at all. What I feel is extremely grateful to have my own little place, where I can do all the things I want to do, and feel completely at home. I do have a cat - which is also great, and I'm sure contributes immensely to this general sense of happiness. My main piece of advice is: you can change your mind. Whatever you choose, after that 6 month or 1 year contract is done, you are free to change things up.

I relate. Way too much. I've been learning (slooooooowly) that it's okay to think of myself first. Sometimes I need to go see my friends. Sometimes I need to do things for myself, even if it is locking myself in my room to watch netflix for eight hours straight. Do it.

No, not necessarily. I don't think anyone should take these standardized tests results too seriously. But roughly, without taking other application aspects into consideration, a 116 leaves less reason to doubt one's proficiency than a 90-100.

I'd suggest contacting both the TOEFL folks and the department to ask. It's always better to get all the info you can, when in doubt. Other than that, I think a high score only helps a little, e.g. if they're comparing you with other international students with a less-than-great command of English. They have other (better) measures to assess your writing (mostly the writing sample).

I don't think the Grad Cafe users sample is representative of the entire population of Grad students out there. For some reason, Grad cafe is widely popular in some fields (perhaps Neuroscience is one of them?) and not at all in others (most of my friends in linguistics haven't heard of it). That's not to say that Neuroscience is not a popular field! I think neuroscience is growing in popularity precisely because, as pasteltomato said, it's hugely interdisciplinary.

If you mean getting a masters after undergrad to boost your gpa and get into a good PhD program, then it's not necessarily a bad idea (it depends on how you would fund your masters) and a lot of people do it. But if you mean getting a masters to then go to a more prestigious school to get another masters... then that seems kind of pointless, as others have noted above. And I think most programs would feel the same - "why does this person want to be in our program? he already has an MA"

I agree as well! Don't worry about it. There could be so many reasons why she hasn't responded. For example, maybe she's waiting on a meeting where she will find out more about how much funding is available before she responds to you. In any case, I wouldn't take this as a bad sign.

Just to contribute to the discussion... I don't think mentioning POIs in other departments is necessarily a bad thing. In some of my SOPs I mentioned a few professors I'd be interested to work with in other departments such as Psychology and Spanish & Portuguese. I got invited to interviews, and even interviewed with the people from other departments (which was actually surprising to me!)... and ended up getting accepted to those places. So maybe, it depends. Some departments are very into collaborating with other departments (people were talking about Maryland earlier... I think they're a great example of such a department).

Could she be upset about the way you found out about her mistake? I can't imagine a professor would be happy with a student trying to read the rec letter through the envelope (even if it were your sisters)... But in any case, I think it should be okay! I think it's good advice not to push her anymore, you wouldn't want to upset her further. Good luck!

Congrats!!!

I think they're most likely just going to ask you about your research experience, what you expect to be doing at the lab, etc. From my experience they didn't ask any specific technical questions, but we talked a lot about research and I think they were trying to see how well I could explain my work, how knowledgeable of the field I was, etc. (But then again I'm in a completely different field, so... I don't know).

Also, it looks like coursera will be offering a free online intro class to linguistics next year: https://www.coursera.org/course/humanlanguage

Hi! I hadn't seen this post before - if you try the Linguistics subforum, you might get more replies! I strongly recommend Language Myths, by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill. It's a great introduction to a lot of topics in linguistics, specifically the prescriptivism vs. descriptivism debate; it's a short, fun to read, accessible book. I think the issues discussed in this book might be particularly relevant to your field. For a better introduction to language science, I think The Language Files by The Ohio State University is a great book. You'll get an intro to everything from phonology to syntax and semantics, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, etc. Hope that helps!

What's in the user agreement for academia.edu that scares you? I'm curious I have a profile there, I actually like it a lot; there are a lot of researchers I'm interested in that make their articles available there. But I don't remember seeing anything scary, maybe I didn't look enough? I have a website on google sites. It's free and easy. It doesn't look amazing, but I just wanted a simple interface to put myself out there. At some point I might migrate to something hosted by my school.

Only they will be able to answer all these questions for you! I've had a school that booked the flight for me, another who reimbursed me for the flight afterwards, another who offered only partial reimbursement... they also varied in terms of accommodations: one booked a hotel room (it was so niiiiice), others had me staying at a graduate student's place. I does sound like they will be booking the flight for you, but you can always ask to make sure (they'll probably let you know soon anyway). Congrats! And have fun!

Good luck folks!!

If you're technically a first year, it doesn't seem weird to me that you don't have a clear path to completing your PhD. You're just starting. I'm not sure I understood how exactly would the new advisor be a clearer path towards getting the degree. That said, I think it's totally fine if you want to change advisors because you are more interested in his line of research, in his advising style, and/or you think you're a better match professionally (or personally). I think the only thing that would worry me is if your current advisor was the one who brought you in the PhD, to work under her.

I'm in a completely different field, so my advice wouldn't be any good! Maybe try asking in a specific forum for this area? But it sounds like you're applying to a good amount of schools! Best of luck!

Good luck!! Also - yes, I think you still have a chance! But are you only applying to one program?

I can't think of any MA suggestions right now (but I'll certainly come back if I think of something); however, I'd suggest you to also look at post bacc positions. They usually last about a year and give you great research experience. They are more geared towards psycholinguistics (I don't think there any post baccs in theoretical stuff, but I could be wrong). For example, these Maryland positions are not open anymore, but you could contact them and inquire about future positions: http://ling.umd.edu/baggett/jobs/

I don't think you have to worry yet. I know I often read emails but only reply hours (or days) later, when I have more time/when I remember/when I feel like it. I think a lot of Professors are the same way, because in several occasions I'd see a Professor I had emailed and they'd say something like "Oh, I saw your email, I'll reply later today" or "If I don't reply until X, remind me again". They're just really busy. I don't think it's too late to have asked, it's almost 2 months before the first deadlines. If it were me, if they didn't respond in three days or so I'd email again just to check (making sure to be very nice and polite).

Can you talk to one of the professors writing your rec letters and ask them to tactfully explain your GPA in the letter? It will sound much better coming from them than from you.

Programs like UCSC do not really have an independent MA program, that is, they typically don't accept students for the MA at all. They admit students only for the PhD, and during that program you end up getting an MA as part of your qualifications towards the PhD... if for some reason a student quits after getting the MA but before reaching the PhD, then they have the MA as a terminal degree. I think within the next year it is totally possible that you can get enough research experiences to apply to PhD programs as well as MA. The best people to advise you on that will be the professors you'll be working with. Good luck!!