wardword

I do not want to badmouth Buffalo as I was also accepted and think it is a very solid program. I would say, however, that their program is a little dated and their specialties and research are a little on the older side. This is not always a bad thing! I just feel like, as a general trend, they are not as relevant or up-to-date in their research as other universities might be and may have more of a struggle placing their graduates with jobs as a result. I personally know somebody at a school similar in size and rank to Buffalo who was all but guaranteed funding after their second year and told they would receive a TA-ship after their first semester. He ended up finishing unfunded and with a 4.0, which hurt him both financially and emotionally. He does not regret his PhD at all, but still harbors a lot of resentment that he was "all but promised" aid after the first semester. Anyway, those are just two small partially related comments that might help. Ultimately, there are no wrong decisions if you're happy with your decision!

Hi Meanyus! I'm piggybacking off your question because I am in the same boat and some of the information here is pretty outdated. (This thread started in 2006 and a LOT has changed since then!) I am also looking at E.S. King at the moment, and I will let you know a little more what it's like when I go and visit pretty soon! I have never been to North Carolina, much less Raleigh, so if this thread had a revival, it would be very much appreciated!!

Well, I got in with funding at my top choice! It's been a very fun and bumpy ride here at gradcafe but I'm glad I got to spend it with you guys. Good luck to everyone! Also, if you're 99.999% sure you want to go to School A, would you accept even if you hadn't heard back from School B? I can't imagine anything changing my mind at this point and I want to get my acceptance in as soon as possible, but it just seems like such a waste of an application fee if I don't wait it out.

Very strange acceptance from UBuffalo! I started an application and then told them I was no longer interested right before paying the fee. (I had just had some unexpected expenses and they were pretty low on my list anyway.) They told me that was fine and we parted ways. Just got an email this morning saying they had accepted me into the MA program instead of the Ph.D and would take $25 bucks off the application cost if I formally applied. Very strange, but really happy for my first acceptance!

I had a rough couple semesters with an upward trend too. Did you ever have a 4.0 semester later on? I used my first 4.0 semester to show how something had 'clicked' and sparked my new academic career. It only took one line in my SOP and I think it worked pretty well.

I haven't responded since the very first email when I told him I wasn't interested. And you're right, it'll obviously stop in about two weeks when their deadline is past, but it does sort of bug me. It just makes me wonder how many other people they are doing this to! I wish I got so much attention from the schools I actually applied to.

I'm having a weird problem. A school I didn't apply to has been sort of hounding me... And they won't stop! About a month ago I got a call from one of their grad students (unsolicited) and I told them I was not interested because the program was not in my exact subfield and I'd have to take a lot of pre-reqs. Then I got an email from their graduate director asking me to apply and I told him the same thing. He insisted the pre-reqs wouldn't be a big deal, and since then, he's emailed me twice a week for almost a month. They just won't stop and the emails are getting more and more aggressive! (The first were "I hope you apply!" and the new ones are "Here's my personal cell number, let me see your SOP as soon as possible.") They got my info through ETS, so the ONLY thing they know about me is my test scores. My research interests and background are completely irrelevant to this school! I don't understand why they just can't take the hint and leave me alone. Has anyone had this problem?

I've only heard back from one school. The other two I applied to said they aren't even looking at applications until mid-february to early march! It's killing me! I was hoping to have made a decision by now, and that one acceptance I have is still looming over my head as I wait for the others.

Just got a call from the secretary at one of my schools. They're not even LOOKING at applications until their non-funding deadline of March 15. I have another month before they even glance at my application. It's an okay school so I have no idea why their admissions board is so freaking late to the game. :/ So frustrated. Edit: ALso why have a funding deadline in December if you're going to look at all of them at the same time?! Sometimes I think this process could use a HUGE overhaul.

I haven't heard a single thing, yet. The only POI I talked to said they weren't even considering looking at apps soon, but that was about twelve days ago. Every professor I've talked to lately has said this has been a VERY slow season. Not really sure why.

My POI at NCSU told me they aren't looking at apps any time soon. They are also ridiculously nice and everyone in the department always emails me back past 11 PM. Do they ever sleep??

I'm really starting to panic again. I'm only applying to 4 schools because it's all I can afford, and my advisor and letter writer chewed me out the day I graduated when he learned I was only applying to four... He basically said I screwed myself over, and to think about applying for more next season like it was pretty much a given I would not get in anywhere. I chose my 4 VERY carefully, but now I'm freaking out. He also gave me a bunch of conflicting advice, telling me one time that graduating early was a plus, and then telling me later that it wouldn't matter at all or might be a strike against me for having a semester of stagnation after I graduated. My school is SUCH a no-name school that even lab experience and related work experience might not help me. I just wish this could all be over with so I wouldn't have to obsess over grad school EVERY day.

Is a 3.6 GPA worth "explaining?" I don't think it's terribly low, but really it seems like a 3.6 is pretty low for successful applicants. Would you recommend explaining a 3.6 GPA in your SOP? I finished my senior year with two 4.0s, but had some "straight-B" semesters freshman year.

Okay, I'm sort of nervous about this. There is one school that has a pretty earlier funding deadline compared to all of my other schools, and I only have five days before it is due. Although I opened up an application, I was planning on not applying there because it only has funding at the Ph.D level and I was not terribly thrilled at applying for a Ph.D, and also the application fee is nearly DOUBLE the cost of all my other schools. So I've submitted my scores, my letters and most of the application, but I have not paid or submitted my SOP. But today I get an email from the actual department (not the graduate school) urging me to complete my application as soon as possible because I was being nominated for a fellowship! I didn't even think they LOOKED at unsubmitted applications, but the email said they were nominating based on GRE and GPA. So my question is, how big of a chance is there that I could still be denied admission from this point? If they're telling me I'm nominated, is that a good sign that I'll probably get in, or is it completely unrelated? I don't mind NOT eventually getting the fellowship because I know I'm just nominated and it's not for sure, but I hate to pay all that money if my chances of getting in aren't pretty secure. Summed up question: Would you pay a hefty admission fee for a school you were considering dropping if they told you that you were being nominated for a fellowship? EDIT: Oh, I wanted to add that they said my nomination was based on my writing sample as well. Just to let you know, I had made no contact with this school before and had no idea that they looked over your materials before you formally submitted!

beyondaboundary, that's it! Thank you! Apparently I got every single geometry problem wrong. Every.Single. One. Also, I learned that you can get up to three problems wrong in verbal and still make a 170!

Oh, of course! It's good score, I didn't mean to imply otherwise, it's just funding is a whole different world. I'm sure your letters and the writing sample is the most important thing for the program anyways! I would not stress about it!

^ I came into this thread to say just that. Many people have been talking about NA scores on this forum, where they purposely leave an entire section blank because only one portion of the test is important to grad admission. Now I will say that 160 may not be as competitive for MA in English at Chicago for funding (It's not even 90th percentile anymore), but they probably don't give a crap about the math score at all, and the writing score is worth a lot.

I've heard that somewhere on the ETS website you can see which sections of the test you did poorly on, like it tells you which parts of the reading sections you screwed up on or whatever, but I've never been able to find it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

I am currently a GRE tutor in real life, focusing mainly on the Verbal and Essay portions. Most of my 'success stories' are with international students looking to raise their verbal scores, with one client raising her Verbal an entire twelve points after a few tutoring sessions with me! She went from a 144 to a 156, and I was very proud! I'm really in a bind trying to pay for my very last application, so I thought I might offer pay-what-you-like practice essay reviews. I'll look over and offer suggestions for any practice essay, absolutely free. I'll include an attached comments sheet with a compilation of my suggested edits and comments. Then, if you are at all happy with my suggestions, you can shoot me a dollar or two through paypal. If not, that's fine too! I'm really just looking for any way to pay December's rent and my final application costs while improving my abilities as a tutor. PM me with your essay if you are interested. My scores: V: 170 (99th percentile) Writing: 5.5 (97th percentile)

I've worked within the same department as this professor for three years and I've taken two classes with him. Made A's in both classes. He was the one who even suggested that he would write a letter for me when I mentioned a few months ago that I wanted to go to graduate school. I gave him a copy of my CV, a list of my research interests and accomplishments, and he also asked for some personal touches like my hobbies, so I gave him a list of that. Well he sent it to me today and it's FIVE sentences, double-spaced! It's positive, says I'm a talented researcher and writer, but that's it. Doesn't mention that I've worked for him, doesn't mention the classes I've taken with him, nothing. It says I'm focused and passionate, but it's very, very vague. What do I do? This professor was supposed to be my STRONGEST rec, not my weakest. I'm really freaking out now.

I got the same essay topic on my retake. I used the same EXACT points as I had the first time.The only difference between Time 1 and Time 2 was that I added superfluous and pointless sentences to make it longer. I added around 200 words to mine (making it about 1000 words) and ended getting a 5.5 too. So the only difference between my 4.5 and 5.5 was a bunch of fluff. If anything, it totally convinced me that the answer is LENGTH. Longer essays score better, even if it means rambling a little. Personally, nobody will ever be able to convince me that my first essay wasn't objectively BETTER, but them's the breaks.

I would be interested to know if this got worked out for you. The same thing happened to me and ETS was not cooperative. They ended up just not answering me at all about it. This is in addition to my test freezing twice for about 10 seconds on the final portion. The testing center in my town needs to be shut down.

It depends on the schools you are applying to. Some big name schools don't look at the writing. In these cases, your scores would be fine (except TESOL usually favors verbal scores, but even then I think you are in an acceptable range.) I am also applying to some TESOL programs and honestly the GRE is only important in getting past cut offs. Other similar programs however, like applied linguistics or second language acquisition, can be a little bit more strict with what is a 'good' to 'great' GRE score. Honestly, I think your scores are okay, and you should be able to address your writing score in your statement of purpose or in your high TOEFL score if you need to. As an international student, I think you could make compelling argument that it takes more than thirty minutes to craft an impressive essay. Message me if you would like me to look at some sample essays of yours if you decide to retake.

I'm confused what you're trying to imply. They're top-tier? They're low-tier because they only have an MA program? (They do have a Sociolinguistics concentration PhD which is why I'm asking for clarification.) I like the feel of the NCSU program a lot and they've got great professors, but I know absolutely nothing about the school and assumed it took a seat behind UNC Chapel Hill and Duke. Thanks for the suggestion! I looked at Hofstra and it looks really cool. I'm emailing someone I know at Hofstra now to get more information because the forensic linguistics program looks like it has a lot of my same interests.

3.6 GPA 3 years experience in a language lab TESOL certified Graduating a year early from an unknown, non-prestigious state university GRE: V:170 Q:154 W: 5.5 I'm interested in sociolinguistics, (primarily language bias, language ideology, and legal language) and linguistics technology. I'm applying to North Carolina State University, George Mason, Old Dominion University, and SUNY Buffalo. I really, really do not want to apply to any Top 15 schools because I know my low GPA and my school's name will just absolutely knock me out of every pile. Does anyone know of any other mid-tier schools that focus on sociolinguistics?