selbstverteidigung

Nice to see someone in this field who thinks outside of the box.

Well, it's not affordable. Education is a privilege in this country, not a right. Vote differently if you want that to change. For people like Bernie Sanders who aren't afraid to speak out against the system.

Having a graduate assistantship is key. You have to have an avenue for doing research before you do research. If you do not know whether someone at Iowa would like to work with you, I'm not sure that it would be worth giving up the graduate assistantship and scholarship at another university. Also, the graduate assistantship is a way in. You're allowed to have more than one area of interest, and I don't think it would be an issue if you work on TBI during your Masters. As long as you are well read, and you can become that through self-study, I'm pretty sure you can research whatever you want at the PhD level. Your CFY also might be a good opportunity to do more with Aphasia before you move on to the PhD. I wouldn't give up the graduate assistantship even though it doesn't have a doctorate option, but that's just me.

Why did you apply to UNL and no other universities in New Mexico? Do you have a particular interest in UNL or someone there? Do you know whether you can claim residency in Nebraska as a student after 1 year? Some universities have policies against this, but many do not. Find out every university's reclassification policy before making your final decision; you may be able to qualify for instate tuition after 1 year.

Is there an apocalypse prophesied before then or something?

University Utah is beautiful. Salt Lake is quite liberal. The new Portland they say. I studied at the U for awhile and dream of doing my PhD there one day. I've never been to U Montana, although I hear it's also beautiful. Salt Lake has great public transit, ranked 3rd in the country. You can live near campus or a good bus/train stop and go without a car for the entirety of your studies. That should save you some dough, and you should seriously consider it. Living without a car is not as hard as it might seem. And it's good for Pachamama.

Who made you the etiquette police? It's striking to me on this forum how little people know about culture and language use. What may appear negative or rude to you (especially on the internet where there is no inflection of voice or facial expression) may be perfectly neutral to someone else, all dependent on language use. Query before you assume someone is being an A-hole. As people in a language-based field, it is not our job to be prescriptivists. Leave that to the religious zealots.

What did they ask you, and how do you feel about it?

I know they are under that heading. But that is crazy. Linguistics courses that have to do with brain and language are understandable, but not the ones I and many others have taken. I have a theory that whoever verified my courses judged that "Old English" was a language class like Latin, which would be incorrect. This course, however, was accurately designated as "Other", even though it has the LIN prefix. They informed me that they take both course prefix and title into consideration. Well, they should have done that with more than just Old English!

I am too. But I'm not sure what you mean. Why can't you find any information? You mean other than what's on their website?

I also applied there. I hope that in person you will find that I am not a misogynist.

This is perfect! But what's a good response for #2?

I'm looking for where on the website they mention interviews. I know I've seen it, but I can't find it again. Does anyone know where it is exactly?

This is what I wrote to the schools I applied to through CSDCAS. I'm brave, or maybe you'd call it suicidal. Lol. "To whom it may concern: I am writing in regards to my application through CSDCAS. I would like to express my serious doubts as to the accuracy of their verification process. My BA was in Linguistics, and because of this, CSDCAS has included any course with the LIN prefix under the course subject "Basic Communication Processes (CSD courses)." This includes courses such as "American Indian Languages," "Field Methods," and "Historical Linguistics," courses which have little to nothing in common with CSD courses. Ironically, they included "Historical Linguistics" but did not include "Old English" in this category. This conveys ignorance as to the content of both courses and suggests that their assessment is somewhat arbitrary. All in all, my evaluation of CSDCAS is that they only complicate what they are meant to simplify. The application process through CSDCAS was not a very pleasant experience at all. Their GPA calculations are erroneous, and therefore, I think each institution should scrutinize their results and, if needed, conduct their own calculations. I hope you will take my experience into consideration for future application cycles." One school actually replied to me that their admissions committee feels much the same and is recalculating GAPs!

Yes, everyone in their faculty is super nice. I think the idea of off-site placement is to be able to increase their cohort size once their faculty grows. Many of the private practices in Jacksonviile have agreed to collaborate in the process. I think it's a great idea.