vlf

I attended Michigan for my B.A., which was in Spanish and Linguistics, and also studied Portuguese there for a couple of semesters - so if you have any questions about the school and departments generally, and/or specific people there, let me know!

The fact that you have an upward trend in your GPA is great, and (not knowing your overall GPA) the numbers you give don't actually seem that bad. Your research experience, SOP, and LORs are really what will make or break you, not your GPA or GRE. From my experience and those of some others I know, however, high GRE scores can help you get a better funding offer and/or make you more competitive for university-wide fellowships. Just something to keep in mind.

Not a graduate student there, but I can confirm that they are both wonderful people to work with (and just wonderful people in general). Also, keep an eye on the department website... I've heard that something's happening that may be interesting for phoneticians looking at the program

Have you thought about Michigan? There's a lot of interest in language variation and change there, including among some of the phoneticians/laboratory phonologists (although I'll admit, I'm not sure if it qualifies as "large-scale corpus phonetics")

Off the top of my head, you should probably look into UIUC, Indiana and OSU as well

Congratulations!!! I just made my final admissions decision, choosing a less prestigious program that's an *amazing* research match over a couple of "better" programs (after being reassured by all three of my previous advisors that I was making the right choice), and I feel so relieved and happy! ...or at least I did, until one of the professors at one of the more prestigious programs sent me an email saying he doesn't accept my choice, and basically telling me that I was dooming myself to mediocrity. And now I'm a) feeling guilty for turning his program down, and 2) back to freaking out about my future... again...

Have fun in the mitten!! You may even be there soon enough after Fat Tuesday that they still have paczkis

Great, thanks for the info!

Yes, some are at UCLA, and others live in neighborhoods that I've been told are popular among UCLA students. If they mentioned that you're getting a specific fellowship, though, it probably means that you're getting one of the better offers... so you have no need to worry!

That's intense... good luck! I was honestly really worried about not visiting more until I talked to my advisor, who basically told me that I shouldn't kill myself trying to visit six schools in 2.5 weeks when we both knew that my research interests fit spectacularly with three of them and only so-so with the other three. And I'm still a little worried about not visiting more (but mostly because I'm the most indecisive person ever )

I'm sure it'll be enough to live on... if you're still worried after you receive specifics, I can PM you what I know about the stipends and salaries of friends I currently have in LA (none of whom are starving!) Thanks It's pretty surreal, to be frank... and considering the number of interviews you've gotten, I'm sure your list will look just as impressive! And yeah... I've basically had to narrow it down to my three top choices in terms of actually visiting, since with the transatlantic flight time I'll be taking a ridiculous amount of time off of work even with just those.

I just got into UCLA too... I can't believe it!!! Which open house are people planning on attending? I'll be doing the one in March.

Thanks for posting this!!! ... And holy crap. Now I'm just going to be a nervous wreck. 7 out of 180?!?

I wouldn't necessarily be nervous, they seem to stagger admissions a bit... I heard back from them nearly a month ago!

Congrats to both of you! I've been admitted as well, but I don't think I'll be able to make the open house

Everyone in the department is really, really lovely... feel free to ask me questions as well (especially if they pertain to the p-side of things, socio, or historical linguistics... I've actually taken most of the graduate courses in those areas, and know all of the professors and grad students who specialize in them very well!)

Congratulations!!! The open house is always a lot of fun (even from an undergrad perspective)... and the department is, of course, amazing, so congrats on that

I'm also a phonetician, and most of my research is on Spanish (/Portuguese)... so hi!! Are you coming to the open house?

I'm applying with a BA- I graduated last May, and am currently spending my gap year working in Spain. I had A LOT of research experience as an undergrad, though, and am still working remotely for one of my former advisors as an RA. That's part of why I decided to take a year off- I knew that I'd look much better on paper with the extra year of experiences, and I wanted to use my completed undergrad thesis as my writing sample.

Oh, definitely! It's one of my top choices, so I feel like it would be a huge mistake not to go... luckily USC's open house is the weekend before, so I'll be able to have a little bit of a California vacation I don't think it's really that late, since they're apparently planning on sending out admissions notifications until the beginning of February... gives people time to make travel plans!

UIUC told me last week that their open house weekend is in the middle of March, so still plenty of time to hear back from them!

Me too!!! Holy crap, I knew it was a possibility but still... this is totally surreal!!!

I graduated last May, so W2014! I took the capstone seminar fall semester of my junior year, though, so probably not... haha It says you're applying to Michigan... Linguistics, or another department? If it's Linguistics, super envious (I miss it so!!)

Wait, did you mean you're attending at Michigan? (If so, hi from a 2014 alumn!) For Berkeley, they didn't actually ask about my writing sample at all, despite what the email said- the one research-related question they had was about the experiment I'm currently running. I think they likely wanted to be 100% sure my current research fit with their interests, so I'd say that doesn't reduce the chance that they'll admit candidates they didn't interview! And, when I asked, one of my former professors said she wasn't aware of UCLA doing interviews in the past... and she's been doing this for a while, so I think it's safe to assume we shouldn't worry about no interviews from them.

I didn't have any pre-admissions contact with any of the schools I've been accepted to so far- they didn't contact me for interviews, and I didn't contact any faculty either before or after I sent in my application. I actually asked a couple of professors whether or not I should send POIs emails during the application process, and they said not to bother. It could be different depending upon your subfield, but apparently for phonetics it's not expected at all... and considering one of the professors I asked does a lot of sociophonetics, it may not be for sociolinguistics either!