Smaudge

I love slow-motion montages.

So crazy!! How did that happen? Did you cancel your scores?

Out of everyone, I nominate fuzzylogician again. She listened to my nervous explosion of questions and even thoughfully responded with wise encouragement when I inevitably gave her a summary of my writing sample and I asked if I was good enough.

Oh my goodness, the SAME EXACT THING happened to me!! Attempt #1: Registered for the GRE on a Friday. Decide at the last minute that I could use the weekend to study, so I reschedule for the following Monday. That's $150 plus $50 for the reschedule. Feel great the night before the test: eat a good meal, work out, get to bed early. I'm casually reviewing the confirmation email when I realize that I registered under my married name, and my license still says my maiden name. I halfway convince myself that I'll get by with a Social Security card (in my married name) and my marriage license. However, after reading the fine print closely, I crumble into the depths of despair due partially to the current situation, and mostly to my test anxiety. Call in the morning to cancel, but it's past the refund deadline. Attempt #2: Register again for the following week. Feel great, take the test, don't do as well as I had hoped. Another $150 down the drain. Attempt #3: Study for 6 more weeks and memorize 300 more words. Register again ($150) and feel horrible the day before the test. I show up late to the testing center and wind up at my test sweaty and out of breath. Take the test and do better than I thought I could! Go figure. So that's $500 on GREs, plus another $80 to send out additional score reports. (Doing well on the GRE: Priceless?)

That makes me want to barf. Not that I even believe I have any chance there. Ughhhhhh pessimism is taking over my brain.

Everyone's dreams here are so coherent! Mine are always little snippets and random events. Last night I dreamt that I got an email from one of my LORs. The headline was "[Dream School] Admit Decisions...". Somehow she had received my admissions decision ahead of me, and was letting me know that I was put on the waiting list for my top program. I was pretty excited until I noticed that I had somehow applied for a program that existed in Paris--In other words, it was an American school, but I had somehow accidentally applied to live/work on their French campus. I decided to go for a visit. When I got there, I saw that their Parisian campus consisted of a worn-down apartment building with no airconditioning, and there were only four students. My LOR was guest lecturing there, and she got all excited that I was considering the program. I felt guilty about turning it down, but I was hating the entire set up. I then remember having a telephone conversation with my husband, and being confused that I was trying to convince him that we could "make it work" with a cross-continental marriage. Then I started crying because that was not how I wanted my graduate career to be. Weird dream.

For me, it's always that instrumental portion of (2:35) by Coldplay. Picture me opening the envelope, then slow-motion running down a street waving the flapping piece of paper in my outstretched hand. Around "lights will guide you home," I'll probably end in a freeze frame fist pump into the air, a la Breakfast Club. Bliss. Does anyone else have a mental soundtrack in case you get accepted?

I think I'll definitely post something on my wall. Especially with all the waiting and uncertainty we've been living with, we need some definitive congrats! Plus, my absolute favorite thing is when you get emails with comments to a celebratory status. For example, I got about 50 instant emails when I posted my engagement, and it was the best feeling to think everyone was celebrating with me. Of course, I think I'll post something tactful like "Smaudge knows what she wants to be when she grows up, and is on her way there!" And let my family do the boasting for me.

I feel hopeful, but with a growing sinking feeling in my heart. It doesn't help that I am surrounded by other academics (in completely different fields) who know little about me and who are blindly assuring me that I'll get in "somewhere". I do generally enjoy their encouragement. However, every time they finish their hopeful pep-talk I smile, say thanks, and then secretly know that they have no clue what they're talking about. I also get the feeling that I have no clue what I'm talking about. Why would I think that my dinky undergrad degree and grasping-at-straws thesis would make me a decent applicant? Looking back, I feel like I never had anyone give me any straight talk about my chances (even my LORs were blithely optimistic for me. "Sure, go for the top programs.. why not?"). And now I don't know what to believe. It also doesn't help that I have a husband going to a top 3 law school next year, and I don't want to disappoint him.. or force him to comfort me when he should be enjoying his transition back to school. Blerg. On a good day I daydream about framing my acceptance letter and hanging it next to his. I'm torn between wanting this week to be over, and then wanting to prolong it just a teensy bit so that I have a chance to return to false optimism.

Ugh, exactly. I read another post somewhere advising us all to embrace the waiting process, since at least for now we can daydream about our limitless futures. It's only after the decisions come that we have to face reality. Boooooo... I'll hear this week if it's good. Otherwise, I'm stuck 'till March

I want a big family, somewhere around 4 kids. I grew up in a 4 kid family and loved it, and my grad school husband is in agreement. (However, every mother I've talked to always rolls her eyes at my number and says "Wait until you have one") Right now we're young and newlywed.. not really thinking about kids. However, now that I'm seriously thinking about what my life will be like in six years, I'm trying to mentally fit our family dreams into the mix. I posed this question on another thread, but might as well repeat it here: Is it unusual to take time off between graduating with a PhD and getting a teaching position?

I'm in Linguistics too, which I love love love. In an alternate universe I'd like to have started early (pre-fluency cut off age, aka <13) learning a language with a non Roman alphabet.. something like Arabic or Russian, and then continuing through undergrad. Throw in some years studying abroad for complete fluency. Mmmmm.. If that's cheating since I picked something still language-related, then I choose Anthropology of media (is that a made up field?), where I could study propaganda during different political periods. I once took a Nazi cinema class and was absolutely fascinated!

Next Fall I'll be 24. On the having kids topic, I always thought I'd have my first around 28 which should be during research/dissertation time. However, was anyone thinking of more than one kid? How detrimental is it to take time off between graduating with a PhD and starting to teach if I want to start a family? I mean, I want to be a professor as my career and this is important to me. However, I don't want to miss out on my dream of having a decent sized family either. Are there things (for the Social Sciences) that I can do in between graduating and teaching that are flexible enough for me to also do the multiple kids thing?

My husband deferred entering law school a year so that we could get married and have a brief period normal life before going back to school. All of which made me realize that I wanted nothing more than to go back to school and so now I'm applying to any program in my field within an 1.5 hour radius of his program. Luckily I've got some great options (8 programs total), but it's going to be a nailbiter until we know where I will be. Mid Febuary, come quickly!!! It's nice to hear that there are other married people in academia. I had heard that there aren't many married couples in law schools.

I get the kind of questions you ask, but could you summarize an answer to one? I'm curious and universals are the best!

Then don't write about things related to your field. Of my two GRE Issue Essay prompts, the examples and studies I made up had to do with literature and some scientific discoveries. Lying here works because no one grader could know every study or scientist that ever existed, and the accuracy of your facts is irrelevant. The graders are even taught to disregard the accuracy (The same is true for SAT essays, for which I am a grader). The only thing that matters in this essay is your ability to set up a reasoned argument and to support your thesis with clear, relevant points. I have heard that schools can obtain copies of your essays. However, I also read that they never look at them unless your AWA score is very low and disparate from your scores on the V and Q. Even if they did read mine and realized somehow that I made it all up (which would be hard since, again, no one person could know all the obscure semi-legit sounding studies I referenced) I don't think they would really care. I've got a perfect AWA score and they can look at my SoP and writing sample for evidence of my real writing ability.

On a bad day.... They're thinking, who is this kindergartener who thinks she can get into PhD programs a year out of undergrad? No Masters?!!?! No extracurricular research experience?!?!?! What, you think your dinky undergrad thesis will satisfy our expectations? HELLs naw. Let's wait three months and then send her a mass "reject" email. On a good day.. They're thinking, this girl may be newly graduated... but man, she's got POTENTIAL. Did you see that GRE? Did you see that SoP? She's got a great transcript too! She's determined, and we could use an open mind with a willingness to do the work. Let's give her a call right now and scoop her up before another program does!

I'm a firm believer in lying on the GRE essay. Use the 5 paragraph format and fill your examples with dates, names, studies... and make them up if you have to. "In 1932 Dr. Roger Klaus was the first to inject Rhesus monkey blood into human samples and observe the reaction. This eventually led to the discovery of positive and negative aspects of blood type." Roger Klaus was a kid in my 3rd grade class. 1932 sounds old enough to be legit. The Rhesus monkey part is true-ish. This crap is made up, but ETS loved it. I fabricated every single fact I put in my essays and got a 6.0 both times I took the GRE. This works because they don't care about the quality of your examples, just that they prove whatever point you're trying to make. Also, for those of you who firmly believe that you were cheated on your AWA score, could it possibly be the argument essay? A lot of test takers seem to struggle with it at first because it's difficult to determine what they want from you if you haven't researched it a little.

I got emails today from UConn and Brown. They've received the applications and will be meeting this week to go over everything. Preliminary decisions will be arriving soon... Is anyone else looking to hear back during the first week of Feb?

oooOOOOooo I'm intrigued. Can you summarize a universal for me? It's good practice for when you meet linguists at a party... since that happens so often.

(In addition to the "You're a linguist? So how many languages do you speak" / "My daughter's a _______ language major") Me: I'm going to study linguistics! Lady: What's that? Me: It's the study of language Lady: Oh. So are you going to tell me I don't talk good? Me: I'm going to study linguistics! Man: Oh. You know my daughter had trouble with her r's when she was little. Took her to one o' those speech pathologists. Me: Well linguistics is different than speech pathology. But you know the /r/ sound is pretty interesting because... Man: (glazed over look) Me: (disappointed that I didn't get the opportunity to nerd out on someone) ...Nevermind. Me: Who should I go with? My mom: It's "With whom should I go". What about THAT, Miss English Major?! Me: ....... (I explain that I'm a Linguistics major, yet again.)

I've been pleasantly surprised lately too! A new friend once asked me the difference between a dialect and a language, and when I replied the standard, "an army and a navy", she laughed and said "No, really... you're a linguist, don't you know?". On a separate occasion, I got an entire table to oooh and ahh over my demonstration of the allophones of /p/ (pit vs. tip vs. spit) by holding the edge of a napkin next to my mouth while I said each word. I find that having visual aids makes everything better!

Hello All! I'm a BS Linguistics, BA French (dual degree) from Tulane 3.65 GPA (3.69 Ling, 3.64 French) GRE 710V / 750Q / 6.0AW My writing sample was my undergrad thesis in Southern dialects and analyzed phonetic shifts between a speaker's normal voice and a performance of a "thick" Southern accent. I have some graduate level field research in Cajun French, but no publications. I also studied Italian and German for three semesters each at college level. I got two academic awards but nothing amazing and nothing that gave me money. After graduating with honors, I spent the past year as a teacher/tutor for the Princeton Review. I have 3 recommendations: one from my thesis advisor, one from my Cajun French research prof, and one from another Ling. prof. I generally want to study phonetic and semantic shifts during creolization periods, and how this process affects second language acquisition (although I modified what I said I wanted to study for different programs). Applying to all Boston-area Linguistics Programs: Boston College- MA Brandeis U- MA U Mass Boston- MA Boston University- MA, but has a continuing to PhD program Brown University- PhD U Connecticut- PhD Harvard- PhD MIT- PhD I think my strengths are my undergrad degrees, thesis, GRE, and hopefully my recs. I'm happy with my statement of purpose, but who knows what the admissions committee will think. My weaknesses are my lack of hard-core research experience, and maybe my GPA. I'm definitely shooting for the PhD programs, but since hearing horror stories of people who don't get in anywhere.. I'm also erring on the side of pessimism. I feel slightly confident that I'll get into at least one MA program.. but I wonder how much they will help me in the long run for a PhD? All in all, I go through waves of feeling overly confident, and then waves of wondering if I'll ever get to be a linguist when I grow up. But, since my last apps are being submitted this week... here's hoping!

Yes! I just joined Netflix and I'm currently running through every season of 30 Rock while I wait on hold to talk to various admissions departments about various application oddities. I'm also reading a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and the Linguist and the Emporer by Daniel Meyerson. The first is a pretty fun book about geniuses/oddly successful people and what makes them like that, and the second was supposed to be about deciphering the Rosetta Stone... but it's not really.

No worries. I think it would sound desperate at this point. For now I'm concentrating on my upcoming deadlines: Brown (yikes) Harvard (double yikes) MIT (triple yikes)