[GRE Retake for MS in CS (Quant 165)]

If you have the money and time to spare, sure. Otherwise I think your score is fine.

[More than the required amount of letters]

Thanks! Fortunately, 3 out of 4 professors who I want to write letters for me are affiliated with MIT in some way (one of them is Angelika Kratzer). I hope I have a good chance.

[More than the required amount of letters]

Do grad schools look down on this? I'm a philosophy major and I want to apply to grad schools in linguistics, and I can get at least 4 letters from linguistics professors so far. MIT for example requires 3.

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

Uconn, umass, uc santa cruz are very average unis dont worry.

 

UMass has one of the best linguistics programs in the world.

 

In addition to having fabulous syntacticians, they do an excellent job of teaching you how to teach, making their grads highly sought after.

 

I can corroborate this. I know a couple syntacticians at UMass and they're really incredible.

[Chances with a 2.91 GPA]

This was not due to my inability to grasp the concepts being taught – on the contrary, I thoroughly understood the concepts but found it difficult to retain a steady pace of work.  This resulted in many missed classes, last-minute essay writing, and a few incompletes (which remained incompletes – hence the low GPA).  I’d say that my immaturity in college really hurt my potential.

 

Honestly, this sounds like a really bad excuse to me. I don't want to be mean, but graduate school may not be right for you.

[Best vocab sources?]

Hi guys. I just started studying for the GRE verbal section today and I'm pretty good with the reading and reasoning bits though my vocabulary is a little weak.

 

Can you guys suggest me, and others, good vocab sources? I'm going to use this:

 

https://gre.magoosh.com/flashcards/vocabulary

[Getting into MIT]

Of course it's also because of the program--I'm not just interested in logic; I'm also interested in syntax and semantics. And yes, I posted this in the linguistics forum because I'll be going for a linguistics PhD.

 

And I like the sound of Carnegie Mellon as well--I'll keep it in mind in a couple of years when I apply. Thanks.

[Getting into MIT]

It's been my dream to get into MIT since I was around 7. I'm currently a third year student in UM Amherst (please never say UMass to me, I just hate that name) which is probably one of the best schools to be in for linguistics. I'm majoring in philosophy and minoring in linguistics, and I was wondering what I could do to get into my dream school for my last 2 years?

 

I'm not too worried about my GPA. I should have a GPA of around 3.9 for all my courses and my major by the time I graduate, and I think that's good enough. My main interest is logic. I've taken 4 logic courses in my first two years: two graduate level and two undergraduate level. By the time I graduate, I should have around 8 graduate level philosophy courses under my belt (4 logic courses and 4 in metaphysics, such as in philosophy of mind and language). I should be able to take around 6 graduate level linguistics courses by the time I graduate, as well.

 

I think my recommendation letters will be a plus over others. I can get some from my major if need be, but I should be able to get two from my linguistics department: one from a professor who is a graduate of MIT and another from a professor who was the doctoral advisor of MIT professors.

 

There are a few things, however, that I am worried about. The first is not having any research experience at all. The only areas that I'm taking courses in--syntax, logic and semantics--are theoretical, and there's not much I can do in the way of research. I've done a lot of tutoring (3 semesters worth) so I have experience with tutoring others. Would that make up for it or should I look for a research assistantship?

 

Another is my writing sample. I'm going to be doing an honors thesis before applying, which will be reviewed twice by a committee, and that will be really helpful. But I'm worried that it won't be as good as other people's writing samples since I hardly have any experience in terms of writing in linguistics compared to them.

 

That also brings me to my final point. I won't be able to have anything published or presented--I doubt my honors thesis would be good enough for that, anyway. Would that diminish my chances?

 

I really would appreciate your help!