ergative

Hi everyone! I am currently in a business analytics master's degree program, but after a lot of thought over the past few months, I have decided that I want to pursue my original interest - computational linguistics/natural language processing - at the PhD level. I've already compiled a list of programs I'm interested in so far based on the research they are doing. However almost all of them require a writing sample as part of the application. This is a problem because my current program has 0 research whatsoever, I have no writing samples at all I could submit. I no longer have the research paper I wrote in my linguistics BA as my senior exit requirement, though it's a phonology paper not related at all to computational linguistics, and I also wrote it 8 years ago, so probably not a good sample anyway. I would have to write something from scratch. Looking for general advice here - how would you approach trying to find an issue to research that can be easily written up in only 10-15 pages? All the ideas I have seem too big in scope to be covered in such a short paper. I've heard that "compare and contrast" papers are frowned upon, but what original research could I do that's that short?? Because of this issue with the writing sample, I am concerned about being able to apply for this application cycle, as the earliest deadline I have is December 1. I'm not sure I will have the ability to produce a quality paper in this time. The schools would also only see last year's grades on my transcript, they wouldn't be able to evaluate me based on my entire performance in this program - and I'm taking the more advanced classes now, the first year was mostly prerequisites thanks to my BA in linguistics. Also if I wait a year, I could potentially do independent study next semester and work on a small research paper and produce a writing sample that way (a thesis is not an option, sadly), but I'd have to get approval from the department and I haven't discussed it with them yet. Do you think it would be better to wait until next fall to start applying under these circumstances? I would much prefer to start the PhD next fall, but if I'd have better chances waiting, then I will have to do that. I wish I had made up my mind sooner! ? Any advice at all would be appreciated!

Anyone going to CSU Fullerton this fall? I just got accepted into their MS in Information Systems!

I hadn't thought to look at Australian universities, but that's good to know! Also I'm glad the approach might work for U Arizona, Carnegie Mellon and U Washington since those are all programs I'm very interested in as well. I'll be sure to add a little note about funding in the SOP for all those schools just in case it helps! Wow this is an excellent idea, thanks so much! I didn't know this was something I could do for a writing sample. The only book in the series I could find that would be applicable to what I want to do is Corpus Linguistics - which is something I'm very interested in, but from what I can tell so far U Arizona doesn't do research in this field, though U Washington does. (These are the 2 programs that require the writing sample). Should I try to find a different topic that would align with both universities? If so, I imagine I could take this same approach but with a different textbook right? You're probably right in that this is the best approach for the SOP, however I don't have one distinct plan of research in mind yet. There are so many interesting subfields in the world of comp ling that at the moment I don't know how to narrow it down. I was hoping I would just be able to talk about my interest in their research without having a defined research project of my own in mind yet. Should I just try to come up with something anyway? I feel like it will end up being something different for every school just because my interests are so varied at the moment haha.

I will definitely revise my SOP to show my interest in multiple professors' research then! Thanks for the advice! This is actually very good to know, thank you! Is this just for CUNY, or do you think this would be effective for any program I'm applying to? You make that sound so easy haha. My first instinct is to think that if there are problems out there that people with PhDs can't solve, then how would I, a person without any grad degree, be able to solve it? At least not without the training of a grad program? You're definitely right in that that's a better approach to take - I'm just very intimidated by trying to find the right problem to tackle (especially since I only have a couple months and I have to juggle it with other things). Though I suppose it must be possible, or I should try to make it possible. Guess I'll start researching now! I definitely don't intend on emphasizing my knowledge of any particular language (not that I really have any deep knowledge of any other than English at this point) - I just brought that paper up because it was the only paper of a decent length (over 10 pages) that I wrote as an undergrad. Since Spanish phonology is quite a different field from comp ling, I'm probably better off writing another paper anyway. I have work experience as a programmer, not any formal background in computer science (other than a couple classes). I do currently emphasize this in my SOP so I'm glad I'm in the right direction. My approach to the SOP was to have a common base explaining my background - and I also figured that if I'm going to put the effort into writing a new research paper in comp ling for 2 programs, I should be able to at least mention this to the ones that don't require a writing sample so I can get the most value out of that effort? Unless you think I shouldn't? Each SOP would still be different however as I would tailor it to mention the specific research of each department I'm applying to. Since my background isn't going to change, I thought it was ok to at least use the same base for all of them. Is this approach frowned upon?

That's really good to hear! I'll still keep studying for it, but I won't worry too much about it anymore, thanks for the clarification! I can't say I'm surprised that the SOP is the most important. It's also the part I'm actually the most worried about. I have a really rough draft of the one for CUNY (the earliest deadline) but I hate it, even though I did include a section talking about my interest in a specific faculty members' research - do you think I should highlight the research of multiple faculty members? I also have another question. Two of the programs I'm applying to require a writing sample. I lost most of my college work due to hard drive problems, but some survived. However only short assignments survived - my 20 page Spanish phonology research paper did not. So I think I will have to write a new sample from scratch which is intimidating. I was thinking that maybe in this new paper I could research something comp ling related? My specific idea is to read about a few different approaches to part-of-speech tagging and compare them (and possibly test them on already-tagged corpora to compare accuracy rates). Would something along these lines be a good idea for a writing sample? (I could also talk about it in my SOP for all the programs I'm applying to) Or should I try hunting down my old phonology paper?

That's awesome to hear! I'm really excited about this program, not only because of how good it is but also because of how cheap Tucson is lol. I am aware that it's not funded - none of the programs I'm applying to are, as master's degrees generally aren't. I considered PhDs for a long time because of the funding alone, but it just didn't feel right to claim to be interested in a PhD only because of the money and not because of the desire to do a dissertation you know? So I've resigned myself to taking out a considerable amount in loans (and working part-time while in school). That's good to know! I'm still not sure how to explain why I'm not currently working as a programmer; at the moment I'm glossing it over in my statement of purpose by saying something like "I'm focusing on improving my skills first" which is technically true but not sure if that's an adequate explanation. As for my GPA, it's pretty decent for when I was at UCSC - about a 3.71. But I went to community college before then and my GPA there was more around 3.5. I also haven't taken the GRE yet, I scheduled to take it early November, but I'm dedicating a lot of time to studying for it because I'm sure I'm going to need all 3 scores to be solid to be taken seriously as an applicant.

Is this the thread for fall 2017 applications? I hope so because I'm about to tl;dr here... I have a degree in language studies from UC Santa Cruz (though the bulk of my classes were pure linguistics classes - I should've switched majors but didn't). Over a year after graduating in 2010, I stumbled into a position where I ended up learning how to program - specifically, the company I was working for was implementing Salesforce, and I first learned everything point-and-click about it. But I wasn't satisfied with just knowing that, so I started to teach myself how to program using their proprietary languages. Eventually I branched out to learn other languages as well - I've dabbled in web dev (HTML/CSS/Javascript), PHP, Java and Python as well. I was in this position for a few years before I quit due to mental health reasons back in 2014. I haven't had a programming job since then - only data entry jobs. However, I really did love learning how to program, and I loved my linguistics degree - and after reading the Natural Language Processing with Python book, I really think comp ling is a fascinating field that I'd love to explore further. Thus I am hoping to apply to master's programs starting next year. I'm not looking at PhD programs because I don't believe I'm capable of doing a dissertation haha. While I've looked at a lot of programs, I've only settled on 5 at the moment - those being the programs with Erasmus Mundus (Language and Communication Technologies), City University of New York, University of Arizona, University of Washington and Brandeis University. Is this a good selection of schools or should I consider some more? Also, just based on my background, do you think I have a decent chance of getting accepted to any of these programs? Or should I wait and do more to boost my appeal?

Hi everyone! I only in the last few weeks decided to apply for PhD programs in computational linguistics. I have a BA from UCSC in linguistics (with a 3.7 GPA), and I have 3 years of programming/technical experience as a Salesforce Administrator/Developer. This field feels like the perfect match for my interests and skills, and I'm really excited to get involved. My main concern, however, is the GRE. Since I took so long to decide, the earliest I was able to register for the test was December 1. This already disqualifies me from a few programs with deadlines at this time (much to my disappointment). There are a couple schools with December 15 deadlines I'd love to apply for, but hearing how long it takes for the scores to arrive, I'm afraid I won't be able to apply for them. The early January deadlines might be even be a stretch. Should I even try to apply to schools this year, or should I wait until next year?