vonham

Honestly I have no idea, but like....I just don't understand even why the transcripts need to be posted. They need to be uploaded to the application AND posted....why? I mean it's an informal transcript! Anyway I'm assuming if you have it uploaded on the online application it should be fine? Not much I can do about it now if it's not fine

Thanks for posting this! Your post made me realize that I need to mail my transcript as well. It wasn't so clear on the website when I first looked (months ago) and no other application requires it, so I didn't even think to check again. It's especially annoying for me because I have to post it from abroad. I mean I can't guarantee that it will arrive in time....the post office in my country is forever going on strike and generally being incompetent. What a stupid requirement to have, especially because it's an unofficial transcript. At least my university has a service that does this for me, so I'm assuming they're better equipped to deal with the post office here (I am not exaggerating...I don't trust anything to be posted even domestically here).

This will be another vent about grad school application anxiety. I'm applying to linguistics PhD programs, with a focus on sociolinguistics, language contact, multilingualism. It is November 8th. My first deadline is December 1st, for one of my top choice schools. I feel like I'm so behind. From the start I am not the best applicant: my GPA is OK (87/100 because we don't do 4.0, but I calculated it and it's like 3.53). My GRE is not so good (Q: 149, V: 162, AWA: 5.5). I can't retake it. This is the best I can do in math. I'm doing a 3 year BA in linguistics in Tel-Aviv university, currently on my last year. I'm applying to PhD programs in the states (I'm an American citizen so at least I have that going for me). My thoughts where that if I have a kick ass writing sample and a kick ass SOP, I have a good chance of getting into at least one program. For my seminar class I wrote a paper that I wanted to be my writing sample because it is research that interests me. I asked my prof, who is a post-grad and the only person in the country who is doing sociolinguistics pretty much, to review the paper in terms of how good it would be as a writing sample. He sat on adcomms before, and graduated from one of the programs I want to apply to. He gave me very negative feedback. Very constructive, but very negative. Very. He questioned if I'm even ready to apply now and what's the harm in just doing an MA in the meantime. This just crippled me. I mean he basically told me exactly what to do to make it better, and I'm working on it, but my confidence is totally shot. Like if I can't make this writing sample, then wtf am I even doing? This is a topic that I love, and want to continue with! And in the meantime I still don't have a 1st draft of my SOP. I am so screwed, but every time I sit down to write it, I question everything. Not my passion, not whether or not I should pursue a PhD: I know I should, and I know I would succeed. I question whether I'll get in. After received criticism on most things I wrote on that paper, now I'm questioning the wording of everything I write on this SOP. It doesn't help that many of the subjects I'm interested in weren't even taught until this year. But of course I need to get a first draft out ASAP to send to my recommenders, so that they can write their LORs, because time is ticking. But of course this prof says that unless I give him a better paper....well it will negatively effect his recommendation. Although he's just a post-grad his recommendation is important because my other recommenders, while very well known and very senior, research other areas of linguistics. Also I'm taking like a million classes (oh and also working two jobs) so finding time to sit down and actually re-write this paper, and write my SOP is very limited. And the clock is ticking.

I'm also applying to some of those schools, with a concentration of sociolinguistics/linguistic anthropology (language contact, multilingualism, code-switching, ethnic identity) :). So obviously I'm not as qualified as some people in this forum to answer your question, but this is what I think: In your SOP you can highlight certain linguistic classes that you took, even if they were specific to a language, and discuss how they inspired you to consider a wider linguistic problem. Anyway if you want to do an SOP critique exchange I'd be more than happy

Hi Fuzzylogician, excellent responses as usual. I was wondering if perhaps you (or someone else) can clarify what you mean by "research experience".....does it mean writing an original research paper, like a term paper? Being a research assistant? The reason I ask is that I have two aspects of my BA so far that I think could be considered research experience, but I'm not very clear on what it means, and I'd like to focus on whatever will look better, in my SOP. 1. I've written original research pieces for term papers. Most notably, my seminar paper (like a BA thesis) due in a couple of weeks, on code-switching among the English speaking community in Israel. For this paper I've collected and transcribed over 10 hours of conversation, which gives me a corpus of tens of thousands of words. I've been working on this paper for pretty much 8 months now. It's shaping up to be an amazing paper that will serve as my writing sample, and I know that if the adcom gets to reading it, it will make me a competitive applicant indeed. On a smaller scale I've designed and implemented an experiment for my experimental phonology class, and wrote a term paper on that. For advanced phonology I also wrote a paper that presented original ideas, albeit to an already existing corpus. Next year pretty much every course I'm taking (loan word phonology, structural and perceptual similarity, multilingualism and language contact in Israel, acoustic phonetics etc etc) requires a term paper that must be an original piece of research, based on either my own data, or a pre-existing corpus. I'll be writing another seminar paper (we have to do two) for the course segmental optimality, and it will be completely different than this paper (I'll be using pre-existing corpus on Scottish Gaelic). Each one of these papers requires me to collect, organize, and analyse data meanwhile familiarizing myself with the language I've chosen to study, and with the existing literature. Is this research experience? In that case, don't all BA students have research experience? Or in the states do BA students not write papers in this manner? 2. I'm a research assistant for a very well known professor emeritus in my department. I do absolutely nothing connected to research in this position. Basically I assist her in editing a volume that she's serving as main editor on. And do other odds and ends. I'm so grateful for the opportunity, which usually isn't presented to BA students, and of course she'll be writing me a letter of recommendation, but to try and spin it like this position is "research experience"....well it would mean I'd have to be very crafty in how I word things, if not downright lying. She isn't even involved with any research at the moment (I have the worst timing; she had just finished a project when I joined), so there's not much in the way of research that I can do using this position. Also, her research is more in the field of language acquisition, wherein my focus is more sociolinguistics, language contact, multilingualism. Anyway I guess my main question is, given the above information, do I have research experience, and what is it? 1 or 2?

I'm an American studying my BA in linguistics in Tel-Aviv University (Israel) and looking to apply for PhD programs back in the states. Do I fit in here? Do I fit in anywhere?

Hey guys! I'm also looking to apply for fall 2016. I'm currently a 2nd year linguistics undergraduate student in Israel. Looking to apply for a PhD program in the states. My main focus is sociolinguistics; specifically regarding multilingualism, speech among immigrant communities and things like that. The programs I'm looking at for the moment are: CUNY, UIUC, Stanford, U of Chicago, Georgetown, U Penn and Pittsburgh U. Always open for suggestions

Thanks for the offer! Funny you mention Tulane University; I was just looking at their website! If I understood correctly it's an interdisciplinary website? There seems to be a heavy concentration on anthropological linguistics and language contact; super cool! I'll definitely look more into the program since it peaked my interest (and I'll admit I've always harbored a fantasy of living in Louisiana....not that I've ever been there ) Thanks I definitely will! I have yet to take a class with Prof. Ariel, since intro to pragmatics was filled last year, which sucks. I'm hoping to take that class next semester.

It's more a matter of a lack of profs with my research interests in the department or in the country (my sociolinguistics prof was supposed to be there for this year only, decided to stay another year but I don't know if he'll stay after that and I don't think he could advise a doctorate) But that's really cool! I wonder why no one's mentioned it to me yet? My department head is always trying to convince me to stay in the department instead of going abroad, and I would think she would mention something like that to me. Super cool, though

Thanks for your responses, everyone! fuzzylogician your post made me feel a bit better about things, like I have an actual chance . I definitely want to keep my SOPs as positive as possible. I guess unless someone asks, I won't mention my first year grades. Once applying, I'll contact the departments to ask them about the timing of it all. I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't automatically mean I can't apply, or something like that. The person who's grading my seminar paper is my sociolinguistics professor. He did graduate from a very good school, and I think he has the best idea of how I go about research, and can speak best about me as a candidate. His hesitancy though, made me rethink. I still think I'll go with him, though, because now that I think about it it's not like my phonetic's professor is that well known (he doesn't present often, or even have that many publications). I'll definitely stick with my sociolinguistics professor; especially because he graduated from a program that I'm looking to apply for. If I don't get into any programs I'll definitely stay here and do my MA; it'll be cheaper and I really do love the linguistics department here (we're like family here). Anyways thanks everyone for the responses! Just one more question that I have: How far in advance should I start contacting potential advisers? What should be included in these emails? Pretty sure this question's been covered, but I couldn't find the thread, so if someone could point me in the right direction that'd be great.

I'm in sort of an unusual situation, and would just like some feedback on how I compare to the average American applying for linguistics PhDs. So I'm currently in Israel, and have been living here for 6 years (since I was 17). My high school education was in the states, in English (so I'm 90% sure I don't need to bother with TOEFL?). My parents still live in the states. So I'm currently doing my BA in linguistics in Tel-Aviv University. I am interested in applying to PhD programs (focus on sociolinguistics) in Linguistics in the US. The reason for this being: 1. I've sort of had enough with Israel 2. There aren't any straight to PhD programs in Israel for linguistics 3. There's barely any sociolinguistic research going on here. By chance we had a visiting professor here this year who's teaching it. My main concern is that I just feel like American BA students have a lot more opportunity to build up an impressive resume. Like RAships and even publishing. Because everything here is so small, there is very little opportunity for BA students to take part in research, or participate in reading groups, present in conferences or anything like that. I myself try to be as active as possible in my department, and therefore I did manage to secure an RAship. I'm doing very little having to do with research though; basically I help my professor edit a series she's editing and do other office work. Not that I'm complaining; I'm grateful for the opportunity (especially since she's a pretty big name in linguistics), and at least on my CV it'll say "RA". My question is: Do you think the grad committee will take this into account? Should I mention this anywhere? How would I go about mentioning it? Another concern that I have is simply the timing of things. Our degrees here are 3 years. So I'm just finishing my 2nd year now, and want to go straight after this degree to the next. But our school year is october-july (including exam times which run all throughout July, and some are even if August if you need retakes). I'm a little worried that I won't be able to receive an actual diploma by Sept 2016, even if I have technically finished all of my course work and finished my degree. Has anyone had any experience with this? Will there be leniency in this regard? I'm also a bit concerned about my grades. In the 2nd semester of my 1st year I had some pretty bad grades because during exams a war broke out and I got called to reserve duty. Sounds weird I know, but it's the truth. So I wasn't able to improve my grades. One of my profs who had served on the committee at stanford said that committees are more lenient with grades from Israel because here we get no curve. Apparently in the states they really round up the grades so 4.0 isn't necessarily a 100 or whatever. Here it's whatever grade we get, we get. Currently my average is an 86, but my average for this year is a 92. I'm hoping for my average to be in the 90s but I just feel like I'm in such a disadvantage with all of the 4.0s I see on this site getting into programs lol. Also because the degree is only 3 years, and because of the timing and everything, by the time of the applications the only grades I'll have is 1st and 2nd year because 1st semester ends in Feb. ​Is this leniency with international grades a thing? Should I mention anywhere on my application the reason for my bad grades 2nd semester of 1st year? My research interests are multilingualism, code-switching, immigrant communities. I'm doing my seminar paper, which will be my writing sample, on a code-switching and ethnic identity among English-Hebrew bilinguals in Israel. This, I think, will be the strongest point of my application. Another strong point is that here we don't have to take classes that aren't connected to our major (though 1st year we need to do a double major) so out of 120 hours of my degree, only 20 hours AREN'T linguistics. In terms of letters of recommendations.... the only professor who deals with sociolinguistics is a visiting professor (though I think he might stay here), who had just finished his PhD a year before. He said he would be happy to write me an LOR but that his lack of seniority might be put against me. On the other hand, all my other LORs will be from people who are dealing with things totally different in linguistics. I was thinking my department head (phonology, morphology) with whom I have a good rapport, and the professor I RA for, who is a leading name in language acquisition. Because of this, I feel maybe I should get my sociolinguistics LOR despite the fact that he doesn't have that many years in the field? The only other person I could think of is my phonetics professor, who I have less of a rapport with, but I do take many of his classes. I guess my last query is: Should I be applying as an American, or International student? Do I have a choice in the matter? Sorry this was so long and thanks for taking the time out to read! I would really appreciate any response; even if just for one of my queries. I'm just sort of on my own with this, since most Israeli students apply for a PhD in the states only after they've done their MA