What field would you like to specialize on in your PhD? From your post, it sounds like either linguistics or culture. You'd want to look at different programs depending on that.
It depends what you want to do. If you want to do the non academia route, there are a couple of options. Educational planning, pedagogy etc for any level of schooling is one route.
Dr. Russell at UC Davis focuses on phonetics/phonology (at least according to his website).
Both IU and UT have very good reputations. And I believe they are both very large (relatively) programs.
Congratulations to you too! I think I'll be happy at either school. The people at UC Davis have been crazy friendly. Where I end up is going to depend totally on funding and estimated timelines. UC Davis is confident (assuming all things go normally) that I can get a PhD in four years, while I haven't even gotten to that point in the discussion with IU because there's no funding yet!
My report:
Received an e-mail rejection from UT on 1/15. Heard from UC Davis by phone yesterday and got accepted with funding. I'm still waiting to hear from Indiana.
Hi everyone!
I'm a current MA student in French Linguistics at UF (and I also did my BA here) so I can answer any questions you might have about the program.
I'm currently applying for the PhD at UC Davis, IU, and UT Austin.