sydiamonde

Hi everyone! Been checking this forum out for the last couple of days. I've read the entire thread for Fall 2015 applications (and I'll admit it was like binge watching a show you've just begun) and I must say I feel more discouraged than encouraged! I'm a would-be international student from Turkey with a TEFL background. I've only graduated last June and been working as a primary-secondary school English teacher for the last month to make some money for admissions and future funding purposes (USD to TRY rates are 2.8 and GBP/TRY 4.2, which might give you an idea why). I graduated with a 3.87/4.00 GPA, and I've been considering applying to unis in the UK and the US, particularly to programs with a socio-historical linguistics and/or corpus linguistics focus. I have taken couple of classes on Linguistics like an intro, language acquisition, and sociolinguistics; but honestly most of my Linguistics training has been unofficial due to curriculum restrictions-Linguistics isn't really big in Turkey. I've taken online courses on Revivalistics, Bilingualism, and Corpus Linguistics; audited Philosophy of Language classes, took Social Psychology and Intercultural Communication as an exchange student in Poland. I have no research experience whatsoever, I was pretty much a regular straight-A student. So I'm here, trying to do some research on my own and read as many papers as I can, keeping a positive outlook... and then I bumped into Gradcafe. Reading the 2015 thread made me realize how far behind I am from most of the applicants! Honestly I started to think even booking a seat for GRE and TOEFL was a waste of time (Oh well, at least they will be valid for a couple more years). My GRE and TOEFL scores aren't in yet. I like to think I have three strong letters of recommendation and although I could go for 4-5 I feel like that would be an overkill. The only positive side to my applications would be that I have a full scholarship by Turkish government, which would cover all my tuition expenses and most of my living costs for 5 to 6 years so I don't need to be funded at all, although some extra work like TA or RA would be nice. I was wondering if this would make any difference at all for my applications? Do the universities offer places without funding? I honestly would like to aim (or rather, dream) high and apply to UCB, UPenn, U of Chicago and maybe Ohio State; but honestly I don't know if it's worth my money anymore. I am feeling pretty pessimistic at this rate! I would have applied to Masters only programs had there been anything like that, but I guess most universities prefer their students go for the full package. Would appling for an MA at UPenn instead of PhD be wiser? Would applying be wise at all? Or should I just give up on the U.S. entirely and try to do an MA in the U.K., then reapply? Does anyone have any suggestions on anything? Sorry for the long post & thanks a gazillion in advance!