xolo

Hey Garyon, good to hear back from some of the 2015 applicants. The Spanish thread completely croaked.

Hi Lotar, Is the professor Spanish and yourself British? Is it a Spanish program, ie, in the Spanish language? There are some cultural differences possible. I'm only going to add that I can guarantee you that her perception of the "issues" are not anywhere near your perception of them. I am not saying she is right and you are wrong, but if you love your work and want to work in her lab, I would be thinking real hard how she views things and make my strategy based on what will make her happy.

It's unfortunate that religion and ignorance are being conflated as it is completely irrelevant to the argument. The principal might have just been caught off guard, otherwise what a basket-case, and they might even have an Ed. D. (if we are going to conflate arguments, let's throw doctorates under the bus) Actually, one can say that Spanish is a modern version of Latin.

If you are in a PhD program in the US you need to discuss this with your adviser or trusted mentor. I don't see any reason not to change fields. My god, you have a good idea what you want to do with your life, you are better off than many of us. You just need to transition as efficiently as possible. My only caveat is that you need to be damn sure that is really what you want to do.

I had a similar problem. I had no Writing Sample that I liked so I ended up writing an academic essay from the ground up on my own. I had six months and I should have allocated a year to the project. I think it is important that you present yourself as a coherent whole.

Hi schoggi, I don't think anything you listed will hurt you per se (I don't know if your intended school is exotic like an Ivy League school, maybe then it might matter). I agree with mvlchicago. I can see a number of ways you can use your European second degree and language skills to differentiate yourself - which can be big plus. So I think you are doing a great program. BTW, B2 in 3 months is fantastic! But, attending a university with B2, even though possibly it was a univ requirement to attend, is a bit problematic, at least the first semester.

Bananas, are you teaching or RAing? Is the lab a big time commitment on top of classwork? I'm sure you'll survive, but the stress level might be another thing! I checked out the textbook for my stats class and it is definitely a class for scientists and engineers. I just wonder if any students in the class will be coming from a pure literature background. They'll be busy! But I'm with you, the guidelines seem to be blurry with a lot of discretion. [Not that I'm complaining, that's a lot of academic freedom]

If you have the time and money, go ahead and study and the re-take it, why not. You have time. For me the GRE was not a major time factor compared to all the other app material. I'm not in your field, but in the humanities the GRE is generally not heavily weighted in the app process. How you present yourself and your ideas are important. In my case, I took the GRE, then I studied lightly for a month, then I took it again and my overall score went up 6 points (iirc) and my AWA went from 4.0 to 5.0. But 4.0 is supposed to be "safe" so you are already there.

Wow, great input. I'm beginning to understand this process. I am proposing 16 quarter units (10 week quarters). Sorry for the lack of clarity about that. I'm in a program that would be closer to rising_star (social sciences) than planetary sciences (which makes my head hurt to think about). I have little academic background. (Talk about impostor syndrome!!). You guys are echoing the grad adviser (who is a wonderful person to work with), she cautioned me about that fourth class, although none are seminars (except maybe the teaching related stuff)

Hi rchd25, I'm not the Prof, but I have little academic background in my field. I feel I did have a good research oriented SOP, good LORs, and a consistent, original writing sample. I got into a well ranked research university, so don't let your academic background per se limit you. I don't know about India, but I feel like compared to, say, Spain, the US is more flexible and open. It depends on how you can present yourself and your ideas. BTW, the Prof gave me excellent advise, he's great!

Really interesting to read your responses. I checked, one class is a teaching practicum (4 units), and the other is research methodology for linguistics/teaching (4 units). The other two classes are fundamental to the rest of the program (4 units each). The grad adviser wanted me to take both plus the math class but I've loaded up one additional class that includes a lab or separate section.

I have a similar question. I'm starting a PhD program in the fall and the graduate adviser suggested I only take 2 classes, 3 max, and that seemed like so few. So after several discussions I ended up with 2 TA practicums (This is in connection with an undergrad class I will teach, which I've never done before, and I don't know how much of a study load a practicum would be), plus a grad math class (this class seems meaty), plus another class (this class seems like some work too) for a total of 4 classes plus additionally teaching one class (but only two classes are traditional classes, the other two are teaching practicums). Is this a balanced workload?

I think it is very positive

Yours is a very personal decision and no one on a web forum can tell you the right answer, they can only give you their perspective, which may or may not align with yours. I'm entering a grad program that makes no economic sense whatsoever and many people on this forum tell me that I must reject grad school for this very reason (not to mention people in regular, real life). But I'm doing it for love of the subject without any rose colored dreams of the future. Whether you want to do the same or not is for you to decide what is right for you. I do have 5 years of funding which should be enough to cover my whole stay, I wouldn't do it unfunded since that is well into the 6 figures of pure debt.

I'm not sure how all these ideas can be separated into a neat list of "do nots" and "onlys" because those kinds of absolute terms are pretty hard to defend or even to make sense of. I don't even try to declare what others should do, that doesn't even make sense to me. I have a great love for the broad subject and am driven to write about it. According to the above my motivation is invalid, but they don't know me. I could cite many counter-examples of successful individuals that violate these rules.

Hi HumanCylinder. I'm super-duper non-traditional and applied sort of out of curiosity as much as anything and had some success. I feel like I learned a lot about the somewhat random process of PhD applications. PM me if you want and I'll share what I know.

Hi Eigen, nice quote and I enjoyed it, but it does not mention anything about a job.

Hi fenicia, There's been several of us around GC this season who applied to Linguistics through the Spanish Dept. My comments are in respect to Spanish departments, so might not be exactly in line with your interests. As rainbowpink says, consider applying to more programs. I applied to 9 programs and got 4 acceptances. I am super-nontraditional and consider the result to represent victory. I took 6 months preparing my apps and wish I had had a year. You really need to think about what it is about you that makes you unique and then make a simple yet original and hopefully interesting presentation that ties across all your important material (SOP, LORs, Writing Samples). If I can do it, I guarantee you that you can do it. Message me if you want to talk more.

I would add that there were a number of prolific posters, like Wyatt that kept things upbeat.

There are a lot of reasons for getting a PhD beyond "getting a job".

I've noticed that too 1Q84, I've sort of moved away

I don't think knowing, or not knowing, Chinese has impact on Computer Science applications. Nor does being 1 year older, or younger, at time of application. So do what you want to do. Why not apply both years for CS? The first year, even if you receive rejects, will be enlightening and you will learn the process and have a lot more material for the second go. Who knows, you might get accepted.

Hey Randomgal, that's great that you got in!

I've seen some really good suggestions on this thread, thanks! People make sooo many assumptions when they hear what I am studying. Anyway, my only comment is that the idea that "grad student" == "really smart", is a false stereotype.

I got an offer for MA admit that included a TAship. I decided to take a different offer, a PhD admit, which also included a TAship. I would think that your department contact could answer this question. In my case, the TAship, tuition remission, health insurance, etc. was contained in an offer letter that came from the department, several weeks (as I recall) after the official admission letter from the graduate school.