[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

Successful applicants from previous years, do you remember the date you got contacted for the first time?

 

I've just looked it up in my email. I was first contacted by Maryland (for a Skype interview) on Jan 17.

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

My application for MIT is 15 minutes late since I the fee payment server was having errors. I know it's my fault for doing it at the last hour, but I've done every other application that way since I try to make use of all the time I have, and this is the only case where something went wrong. There's no official lateness policy, but I'm sure this won't help. Am I doomed?

 

Did it go through eventually? If yes, then you're probably fine.

 

Also, on a semi-relevant note, if my memory serves, MIT's application system was the only one in my experience that would allow changing things in the application (like reuploading the SOP) after submitting.

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

But I was wondering, what are interviews about? How do they work? What kind of questions do they ask?

Should I study for them? Clearly I did study the work of my POIs at each Univerisity, and researched the work of their labs and of the people they collaborate with but...should I be ready to asnwer questions about that?

 

I second beccamayworth's post. You definitely should study your POIs' work (primarily for your own sake, you want to know whether they are indeed a good fit for you before even applying), but the questions are going to be about you, not them. In other words, there will be no quiz on the faculty's latest papers, but they will be probing, of course, into how you think you fit with their (current!) interests. This probing might go in different ways; some people will ask you straight-forwardly to elaborate on how your interests fit with theirs, some will just ask you to describe your interests and assess your fit themselves, and some might even lay out their current projects and ask you whether you are interested in any of those. Not everyone will go for the latter option, of course, but don't hesitate to ask them directly about their current projects and plans (you are not supposed to know everything about them, and most certainly you are not supposed to be able to read their minds and know what they are going to focus on in the future, i.e. during the period when you might be their student). Remember that an interview is a two-way street, so take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the programs =)

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

From your list of schools: Maryland, NYU and UPenn do interviews. Unless things have changed since my application cycle, NYU/UPenn do phone/skype interviews and Maryland does an in-person interview/open house combo. And yes, it means you're on a shortlist--typically around 15 candidates are interviewed. MIT, and UMass don't do interviews. I have no clue about Yale, CUNY, Stony Brook, or Delaware. 

 

MIT indeed doesn't do interviews (I think they even say so somewhere on their webpage), but I did have a Skype interview with someone from UMass last year (although that doesn't mean they always interview all the candidates they are interested in). NYU does interviews for sure. Maryland does indeed have an open-house for short-listed candidates, but I couldn't make it last year so I did Skype interviews with two faculty members instead.

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

I also have a question for you guys. Is there anyone who has applied to UMaryland? Has any of you received the ASF?

The application instructions on the Linguistics Program webpage said to expect an invitation to access an Application Secondary Form, to be used to submitted additional documentation (such as SOP, Writing Sample, etc). However the Online Application of the Graduate School asked me to upload all these documents directly into the main application and there was no mention of the ASF.

 

I don't quite remember the entire procedure, but I think that after submitting the main application I first got a confirmation and then several days later I got an e-mail saying that I should now complete my ASF, which was basically uploading the rest of the documents online (there was a link in the email). Have you submitted the main application?

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

Depending on the department, I mentioned one or two in my main area (theoretical semantics), one or two in my secondary area (theoretical syntax), and I sometimes mentioned experimental people (along the lines of 'it's nice to know there will be someone to guide me should I need to do some experimental research').

 

I agree with fuzzy that nine is way too many; it wouldn't show that you're a better fit, but rather that you don't understand what fit is about.

[Is it okay to start the SOP with discussing the advent and importance of your field ?]

Two paragraphs about the field? That's too much. Even one generic sentence is too much, if you ask me, if it does not directly link the importance of the field to why you want to pursue a degree in this field. A SOP should be about you, not the field. Don't waste your space telling the committee something they already know (they are specialists in your field, no need to preach to the choir).

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

Hi guys,

 

I'm cleaning up the SOP for my first group of applications (deadline mid december) and I have some formatting doubts. Clearly, the hypothesis here is that They do not give any specific instruction on the application guidelines.

 

So, should I put a title? Is "Statement of Purpose" good enough?

 

More importantly, should I put my name of every page of the sop (like an header)?

I am hesitant because most of them ask us to leave 2-inches on the top of each page for them to print an header. So, since I am guessing they'll print in it my ID etc. , is my name on the page really necessary?

If so, having to leave such broad header I wouldn't know where to put it without the layout of the whole essay looking weird.

 

Finally, I've written the SOPs as  essays but I've read somewhere on the forum that one should close up by thanking the committee (something like "thank you for your consideration"). It really feels strange to me, since I am not writing a letter but a - almost - scientific essay. Should I do it? Or is an effective closing paragraph good enough?

 

Ops, I know my posts looks a bit like streams of consciousness, but I am writing them during my short breaks at work. Please forgive me.

And again, thank you all for your help.

 

I don't know what the 'proper' way is, and I doubt there is one. I can only tell you what I did:

 

(1) I had my name and 'Statement of Purpose' on the first page; initially I had a header on each of the two pages, but one of my recommenders (a grad program director at a US linguistics department) who gave me feedback on my SOP suggested deleting the header on the second page. I don't think the name is necessary, though, either. 'Statement of Purpose' should indeed be enough.

(2) I did end my SOPs with thanking the committee for considering my application (and a generic statement about how honored I would be to be able to contribute to the department X). My understanding is it's just one of the closing formulas you can use, but you don't have to, it's a matter of taste. I used it because I couldn't think of a better way to end my SOP, and ending with discussing what I am going to do after I get my Ph.D. seemed a tad abrupt. But once again, I don't think there any set-in-stone rules about that, do whatever feels right and fits the overall tone of your SOP. I suspect the committee will be more interested in your research interests than in whether you thank them or not =)

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

@onzeheures30 I noticed I'm applying to most of the schools you tried last! season I hope I'll have the same admission rate   

I certainly wish you at least the same admission rate! (But feel free to do better =))

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

HI guys,

 

kind of a silly question maybe but... is any of you applying to Stony Brook?

I am trying to figure out if they have any specific requirements for the length of the statement of purpose, but I cannot find any info on their web page. I've written to their graduate coordinator but I haven't got an answer back yet. I am sure they have put some indication somewhere and this is just me being unable to find it! I'm feeling stupid...

Do you have any info about this? 

I don't think they have any specific requirements. Mine was two pages, 12 pt Times New Roman, single space, and it worked just fine for them.

[Cognitive linguistics?]

Do you mean co-speech gestures? To my knowledge there's been very little rigorous research in this direction.

 

Among what I am familiar with there is this work by Ebert and Ebert: http://www.ilg.uni-stuttgart.de/mitarbeiter/ebert/GestenWS-Stuttgart/Folien/Ebert.pdf And Philippe Schlenker from my department (and Institut Jean-Nicod) has recently started looking into co-speech gestures in conjunction with his research on sign languages linguistics (the major idea is to see whether some of the grammatical devices present in sign languages but seemingly absent in spoken languages can be found in co-speech gestures); here is a very short squib outlining the direction of his current research: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/002158/current.pdf 

["Recommended" Deadlines]

When I was applying to NYU, I submitted my application on the final deadline. I don't know what the exact purpose of the 'recommended' deadline is. Maybe to spread the administrative work a little bit. It is highly unlikely, though, that the adcomm will convene between the two deadlines, and it is even less likely that there is any actual preference given to those who applied earlier. But it never hurts to ask.

[FALL 2015 APPLICATONS]

3. NYU                               (lots of good computational work and access to dancers at the TISCH school of the Arts)

 

I am not sure how good a fit NYU might be for your agenda, although it is true that being in NYC in general gives you access to many communities and networks. In any event, feel free to PM me for more specific comments about our dept.

[Linguistics SOP]

I understand that using personal anecdotes is Bad. But I have an unusual academic background (I have a degree in Computer Science and mathematical modelling. Since in Italy we don't have major and minor choices during our degrees, most of my linguistics courses are all "extra"  with no grade attached). I really feel I should spend a paragraph to explain how I came into linguistics, how do I know i want to get a Ph.D in Linguistics, why I do think I am ready for it and how I have eventually filled the probable knowledge gap. I don't have a story such as " I always loved languages". A couple of years ago I went to a conference about "Possible and Impossible grammars" (the speaker was Andrea Moro) and I fell in love. I've studied so hard since then to get to understand if linguistics was really what I wanted to do. I feel an explanation is needed, and it is sort of academic related. Would it be a bad idea to start with it and then move to explain my research interests and actual plans for the phd?

 

I believe there is a difference between using personal anecdotes and telling your own story. I have an undergraduate background in a field other than (theoretical) linguistics; in addition, I started a graduate program in my home country in a seemingly related but essentially different field. So I did tell my story in my SOP (how I got interested in linguistics, how my specific interests developed, what kind of exposure to theoretical linguistics I obtained from various sources, etc.). While I don't feel the SOP was the strongest part of my application, I don't think telling my story hurt in any way.

 

This one could sound strange. Can I use citations (such as a mini-bibliography)? For example can I say something like: " I'm interested in the analysis of overt vs covert movement as done by X in [x]" or even " I find particularly interesting how Y[y] used data from aphasia patients to get informations about said syntactic structure memory load and processing time". Or should I drop the citations?  I have this doubt because if I was writing a research project for an italian fellowship I would definitely do it in this way.

 

I wouldn't create a bona fide bibliography at the end of a SOP but rather simply refer to the relevant works in the text. However, I do not know what the existing conventions are (if any).

 

You can certainly send your SOP to me when you have a draft, and I will provide the feedback (within the limits of my experience). But most importantly, get feedback from your professors and/or other people from the field you know (e.g. your recommenders).

[What helped your applications the most?]

What helped me most during the application process was talking to experienced people from the field. I am not exactly used to asking for advice, but throughout this particular endeavor I was ready to absorb as much advice as I could get, from choosing the universities to apply to to making the final decision about the offer to accept. Thus, I am incredibly grateful to all these people who were there for me.

 

As for the outcome, I think that the key factors that helped me suceed were (in no particular order):

(1) good writing sample;

(2) excellent letters of recommendation;

(3) it was clear from my personal story that the decision to apply for a grad program in Linguistics was a well-thought one;

(4) while my undergraduate background wasn't in Linguistics, I managed to learn a lot myself (via summer schools and courses at a dept other than my home one) and conduct some independent research, which showed my commitment (this bit was pointed out to me by one of my recommenders, who also got to read my other LORs and said that this point was emphasized by all of my recommenders).

[What were you doing when you got accepted?]

I was in a bar with my best friend killing time before her train to another city (I was seeing her off), when an e-mail from one of my POIs at my top choice dept came in saying that she wanted to communicate some good news to me via Skype. Despite the crappy wi-fi connection in that bar, we somehow managed to have this talk straight away. This is also how my best friend was the first to know. The next things I did were (1) calling my Mum, (2) writing an e-mail to my other POI from the same dept who wasn't a part of the admission process.

[Departments with Language Evolution/Music?]

Not my subfield either, but check out John F. Bailyn from Stony Brook, he's very fond of music cognition (apart from being an excellent syntactician), and he can also provide further references.

 

As for evolution of language, I know even less. However, this year there will be a seminar on this topic within the summer school that I attend on a yearly basis. The seminar will be taught by James Hurford from University of Edinburgh (whom I don't know personally), and it will be based on his recently published book. I am unlikely to be attending this particular seminar, but I will have access to the materials and I can forward them to you when they become available (in July most likely). Anyway, feel free to PM me if you need further info.

[Fall 2014 applications]

Ppl from UCLA have finally informed me that they've waitlisted me. A bit late, but it's nice to know that I have no straight-out rejections at the end of the day.

[Decisions... how to choose?!? Fall 2014]

I envy you that you could have everything you want in one school!

 

Anyway, congratulations for finding such an ideal place!!! NYU has a truly great program and the city is exciting!

 

Also, can I ask if you have been to Stony Brook's open house earlier this week by any chance? If did, can I PM you for some questions? Thanks!

 

Hi! No, I wasn't there. I left one day before it. I knew as soon as I had my other offers that I wouldn't be attending SBU, and they knew it too. (But feel free to PM me anyways about whatever =))

[Decisions... how to choose?!? Fall 2014]

OK, so I've made my final decision, I am going to NYU. All things considered, I think it was a fairly easy one. I probably knew from the very start they were the best fit for me, and their Open House confirmed my resolve.

 

The reasons that shaped my decision are as follows:

(1) they have several people I could work with on different aspects of my core interests;

(2) they have one specific person I know I am an absolutely perfect fit with (although he's a part-time professor, but he's super available and helpful);

(3) I will have lots of opportunities to explore my secondary interests;

(4) their current grad students (4th and 5th year, in particular) seem very knowledgeable and determined;

(5) all of their current grad students seem happy;

(6) they have a consortium with other unis, so if I find I'm lacking smth at the home dept, I'll be able to get it somewhere else;

(7) I have talked to non-NYU ppl from the field, and they all think NYU is an excellent place for me;

(8) they offer a good financial package (their flexibility about teaching is particularly appealing);

(9) I fell in love with NYC;

(10) closer to the end of my stay in NYC, when discussing NYU with my Russian-speaking friends I started saying something like 'у нас в NYU' (at us.GEN at NYU; 'at ours at NYU') instead of 'у них в NYU' (at them.GEN at NYU; 'at theirs at NYU'); I took it as a telling sign of where my heart was.

[fund a project by myself]

I've always paid for my 'amateur' independent research myself (a video camera, RSL courses, consultants - I never paid them cash, but there were other expenses involved). One of the reasons I decided to apply to a grad school in the US: I am sick and tired of paying for everything myself, and then again, I can only afford that much (and I want to grow).

[I don't know which school to choose!]

I did all kind of mental gymnastics to choose between two schools that seemed an equally good fit for me. It's a well known trick that while flipping a coin itself doesn't help, gauging your reaction to the result does. While I really wanted to go both to schools X and Y, I tried imagining not going to them. Not going to X hurt, but not going to Y hurt so much more.

 

Asking for advice from experienced people in the field also helped. Eventually, I decided not to attend the Open House at school X even, since I wouldn't want them to waste their money and effort on me considering that I won't be taking the offer (I would have visited them, though, if I had disliked something significant during my visit to school Y).

[Fall 2014 applications]

I wrote yesterday to Maryland letting them know I won't be attending their program. My heart is bleeding, but it needed be done.

[Fall 2014 applications]

 

Hi all! I've been lurking pretty intensely for the past month and a half — right after I submitted my grad school applications and started hoping against all hope, LOL

 

 

I didn't get accepted, but I knew it would be a long shot — I've been out of college for more than two decades, so have no "fresh" academic work to show. I surprised myself by doing rather well on the GRE last December (I thought for sure that I'd have to take it at least twice) and got confident enough to apply to a couple of dream schools.

 

 

I, too, was very interested to see everyone's answers to Linguo’s question about “fit.” OnzeHeurs, your answer is especially intriguing to me! I was wondering if you could tell a little about your independent research — what you did, how in-depth you wrote it up (I assume it was your writing sample), did you by any chance manage to get it published, etc.

 

 

Thanks again for everyone’s wise words!

 

Hi, I'll send you a personal message answering your questions.

[Fall 2014 applications]

Fit, indeed, seems to be of utmost importance. All my interactions with the depts were centered around the notion of fit, and all my acceptances emphasized that the dept is admitting me not (only) because of the excellence of my application, but because they think I'll be a good fit with the program. In my case there is a bunch of interests I could pursue, so I mentioned all of them in my SOPs (with a different emphasis here and there). So now when it comes to choices, it's more about which interests I want to pursue more than the others. I know that depending on which school I choose I might end up doing rather different things (within the syntax/semantics subfield, of course). I should note, however, that these were very specific interests; it wasn't just 'I want to do semantics under professors X and Y', but rather 'I want to further pursue my interest in attitudes and indexicality under professor X who has done (some / a lot of) work on it'.

 

For the record: my undergraduate background isn't in linguistics and was probably of no interest to the depts; my research experience in linguistics is limited (although the fact that I've done some work on Russian Sign Language with basically no supervision was probably looked upon favorably, 'cause (i.) it takes some effort and dedication to get into the Deaf community, (ii.) the ability to do independent research, even if not so stellar in quality maybe, is also a good thing); my GRE scores are average (or slightly above average, but I'm 99% sure that unless they are very low or absent, they are irrelevant); my recommendations were all very strong, however, and my writing samples (while probably being somewhat sloppy in the theoretical sense) were evidence of my current interests and how I want to go about them.

 

Another example. My best friend got into her top choice program mostly because of fit. Her undergraduate background is also in a different area (although she got an additional degree in a field related to her subfield of interest), her research experience in the field is virtually non-existent (not her fault, she simply never had access to the proper facilities), her GRE is below average (mildly put). Her recommendations were strong, though, she knew exactly what she wanted, and she knew which program could give her just that.