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tspier2

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Posts posted by tspier2

  1. My biggest concern is whether admissions committees will look unfavorably at my double major and in particular my concentration in secondary education.  Does these varied interests make me look too wishy-washy to be taken seriously as a history doctoral candidate?  Since my interests lie mainly in cultural and social history, I think I can make something of a good case for my English major, but there's no doubt that my credit hours have been spread more thinly than those of students who may be more competitive for having focused mainly on history and languages. 

     

    If it makes you feel any better, my undergraduate degree was bipartite by form -- English and Secondary Education -- and led to my state certification. I applied to and was accepted at my current institution for a doctoral program in linguistics, which is certainly a different beast from what you're looking at, but I still had to tailor my background to the program. You'll find the right fit for you.

  2. I'm torn between just doing my best to put it out of my head for the next few months or just going all out studying the language and other things.....It does seem like a rather competitive year...

     

    Why not study it, anyway? If you don't get it this year, you might be more competitive next year with the language experience. Plus, at the very least, you had an interest in the country for some reason. If you decide to travel there, the language would certainly be useful.

  3. Hello everyone, 

     

    I'm new to the thread, just found this site today. I've applied for an ETA to Brazil and am anxiously counting down the days until finalist notifications are sent out! Best of luck to you all.  :D

     

    I'm hoping it will be earlier this year. I found out last year about it on January 29th. Good luck!

  4. So I am an undergraduate social work student (BSW) applying to graduate school for public health (MPH). I have a 3.838 GPA and GRE scores in the low 300 range. I've also held two internships throughout my undergraduate career. I am applying to the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University, and Virginia Tech. 

    I'm really just looking to see if others in this field or related fields have been accepted to these schools and what did your scores / gpa look like etc. Basically I'm trying to not panic if I don't get in to any of them (had a little chat with my adviser about "what if no one accepts me" and now I'm a little freaked out... 

     

    Thanks to anyone that takes the time to comment! 

     

    I'm at Tulane University right now, and everyone raves about the program. You might want to add it to your list, if you see yourself living in New Orleans. I got accepted here for a doctoral program (not in public health though) with a 3.91 and a 312. The MPH probably shouldn't be an issue in terms of acceptance for you.

  5. How is everyone feeling? I am trying to keep busy, but I continue to stress over an application that can no longer be changed! haha 

     

    I'm in graduate school right now, so I totally forgot about the application for the last week. It's much easier to do when you have a million books and articles to read, papers to write, and grants to apply for... :)

  6. I plan to go straight into the field. I don't know that I will ever pursue a PhD.

     

    Maybe someone in the field will have a more informed opinion than me, but I can't see how it would hurt to go to the state school instead: your education will be paid for and you will gain valuable research experience. Remember that you get out of something only what you're willing to put in. The school might not be known nationally, but that doesn't mean its name is worthless. Check with the program to see what their placement rates were like, i.e. what the graduates are now doing. That should give you a good idea about what the end result will be.

  7. What is your end goal -- going into the field or continuing for your doctorate? Although Psychology isn't my field, I'd be weary of people who suggest that state colleges won't afford you the same kind of opportunities. I went from a community college to a state college to a tier one university (RU/VH). It's all about what you do while you're there to make yourself more marketable and better prepared.

  8. Well, it turns out I'm applying again this year for the Macedonia ETA. I applied last year and came up as an Alternate in the final round. I just started a doctoral program and will be ineligible for the ETA once I am awarded the Ph.D. Although that's not for a few years yet, I can only imagine that my fieldwork is going to make the ETA nearly impossible as time passes. Seize the moment, right? :)

  9. Why wouldn't you just apply to general linguistics programs? As you can tell by the name, you wouldn't necessarily be boxed into "French Linguistics" or "Slavic Philology." Obviously I'd recommend you figure out first why you want to go and what your interests actually are though, because you should have some related interests that can be discussed in the SOP. Remember that getting funded in graduate school is an investment of time and effort for you, but also of a large amount of money and resources for the institution. You can't do it whilly-nilly.

  10. I think wuglife's list seems very much appropriate for their stated interests (and assuming the list is pretty much ordered by fit, that seems quite accurate, too).

     

    I agree. My point is that there are so many lists out there that rank schools that the ranking itself should not be the primary consideration, which is the way the comment about UMass and Santa Cruz reads.

     

     

    My point wasn't that I was applying only to tippy-top-ranked schools; it was that YoungR3b3l's assertion that they were "average" was simply incorrect. As I said, I put in many hours of research and talked to someone who is very knowledgeable about her field and the people working therein. I will say that reputation and placement record is an important factor to consider, given that professor positions are hard to come by and I do want a paying job after I get my degree. In any case, I've made a spreadsheet listing potential advisors at each of these institutions, and I've knocked off any schools--no matter how highly ranked--that didn't have what I was looking for or that put too strong an emphasis on facets of linguistics that don't interest me. Trust me, I'm putting quite a lot of thought into this decision, not just culling the ranking lists.

     
    I understand now what you're saying. The tone just sounded a little bit reactionary to me, which is why I felt compelled to respond. It sounds like you're on the right path.
  11. I'm still kind of uncertain though. The Greece program just seems to fit me better, and I've wanted to live in western Europe or the Mediterranean region for a long time

     

    Bulgaria is right above Greece. You're not confined to your country for the duration of your ETA, i.e. people do travel. If you think you have a good shot at Bulgaria and the odds are in your favor, then apply to Bulgaria and just travel to Greece at some point during your trip. Also: There's no reason that you couldn't work with or at a library in Bulgaria.

  12. Actually, UMass and Santa Cruz are considered to be in the top three of theoretical linguistics programs (along with MIT). 

     

    There are so many lists for ranking schools out there that this comment just makes me shake my head. Look at RU/VH schools and focus on your fit instead of strictly ranking.

  13. Hello,

    I'm an international student. I've already acceped a funded phd offer from a university.

    But unfortunately, because of some unavoidable circumstances, it is not possible for me to leave my country this year.

    So, I will have to decline my offer.

    I've heard someone that if I decline my offer, I'll have to pay my full one year stipend to my university as fine. Is this true?

    What is the worst that can happen to me? Can the university sue me?

     

    Why don't you make them aware of the circumstances and ask for a one-year deferment?

  14. How can we give advice if we have no idea what your qualifications are? You deliberately avoided stating what you studied, and I'm not quite sure what the reason was for that.

  15. Well, the application fees aren't much of a problem. I'm in the McNair research program, so every application fee from each university I'm applying to is waived. I just have to focus on sending my GRE and Subject scores to universities, which is still a chunck of change. Fortunately, I have already budgeted for that, though.

    All of those universities are considered RU/VH? I don't want to come off as cocky in any way, but not only do I feel like a decent candidate for a majority of those programs (as do the rest of the thousands of applicants, I'm sure), I also am fairly confident I'm a genuine fit with many. I think I can fit into any of the ones I've chosen, but I feel more comfortable with certain ones. I did think it was risky to choose just thirteen because of the competitiveness of each school, and I may still add more once speaking with my advisor because I can't imagine what I would do if I wasn't granted acceptance into any of them. I do appreciate your advice, and I'll look into more programs. English degrees are already risky job placement-wise, so I will probably only choose programs that have decent job placement records for graduates (as long as they seem like a decent fit, of course).

     

    I'm not sure if Temple and Penn State are RU/VH, but all of the others are. Although, to be fair, I'm not sure if either of those two schools are even known for English. Many of my colleagues found Lehigh (about two hours from Philly) to be a great fit for English [literature and composition/rhetoric]. I'd personally try to narrow the list down a bit though, because you're going to spend an eternity putting together those materials. You can find a lot of information on this site about how many schools to apply to, how to write each statement, etc. You don't really want to send slightly-modified, but overly generic, statements to the schools out of a lack of time to individualize. In any case, I've sort of derailed your thread at this point, but most have suggested a few thousand dollars and more specifically to look at factors related to cost-of-living.

  16. I haven't had much free time myself, but just having the time to read these texts WILL feel like a vacation to me! I'm actually upset I haven't had a free summer precisely to do these kinds of things!

     

    Our terms are odd, being only 8-instense-weeks-long. Honestly, October cannot come soon enough. I want to relocate already!

     

    Although I also haven't had a summer -- until now -- to catch up on reading, I put most of that aside a few weeks ago. With these major life changes about to take place, I really wanted to have some time to regain my sanity from all of the responsibilities of the last few years. I'd say take a break, personally...

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