[Fall 2016 Application]

1 hour ago, historicallinguist said:

Wait! I am surprised that there are term papers in your U.K. program. My program basically has nothing like this, i.e., no homework, no term-paper, no practice, etc, throughout the whole year. And all assessments lie in the final examinations at the end of the academic year. I thought my program is typical of a U.K. program, but after I saw your post I now feel quite surprised. 

I think what you describe is a typical Oxbridge thing! (So in a sense the truly traditional way maybe lol). They refer to those exams as papers if I remember correctly?

Most other programs now use a mix of assessments (coursework, essay, presentation, exam, etc.).

[Fall 2016 Application]

6 hours ago, historicallinguist said:

I am on the same boat. Accepted into Ph.D. but no funding yet.

I do not think GRE and GPA matter for this kind of thing. I have a decent GRE and almost perfect GPA, but still getting no funding. 

I guess the problem is in writing sample. It looks like literature review type of writing sample is not reviewed favorably by adcoms. They are looking writing sample that proposes new things. This means generally speaking a term paper is unlikely to be good enough to stand out as a great writing sample.(in a 10-15 pages, double spaced term paper, it is hard to write anything substantially new, and it is more likely that the whole thing is a literature review).

 

That's what I thought when I selected my writing sample - term papers tend to not have the kind of originality expected for PhD app (especially a typical UK style term paper? I don't know much about how they're supposed to look like in the states). So in the end I decided to only submit my MA thesis which was 30 pages in total but only 5 pages were background and lit review stuff and the rest was an artificial grammar learning Exp. I did plus results and discussion. I guess it would be much harder if it's pure theoretical stuff so I've always admired those.

3 hours ago, vonham said:

Hmmm, I wonder. I don't think with me specifically the problem could have been the writing sample, as I was quite happy with it, and have received favorable feedback. My paper was not just a lit review. Basically I compiled a corpus of bilingual interaction in a community of practice. I took some theories on CS, and came to original (as far as I know, so probably not lol) conclusions regarding code-switching in a community of practice. Mine was like 20 pages long. It was originally a seminar paper; we are required to at least attempt to formulate original ideas in our seminar papers. I mean, I didn't reinvent the wheel or anything, but I didn't just review the literature. 

Maybe it was my SOP? I thought CUNY was a great fit. As is Arizona. (Pittsburgh not so much and I don't really know how I got in). I guess something was missing. I mean it seems that they liked me enough that they want me to attend, but not enough to provide funding? Ah well, no use dwelling. Time will tell if I do end up getting funding, and I'll definitely know more once I visit Arizona and CUNY. 

 

 

 

 

I was also wondering a lot about the proper way to approach SOP after I had some time reflecting on my application this time. One thing I'm most confused about is the degree to which you specify your research interests and plan.  In my SOP I tried really hard to be specific about what kind of topics I'd like to pursue, using which methods, within which theoretical framework, etc. I guess it worked quite well if that school's indeed a fit but I did worry about by doing so some schools would perceived me as an applicant who's only comfortable with doing A, B and C but not others. Especially after I found out my friend's SOP was in contrast sort of vague (open) about she'd be interested in doing and she did manage to get interview and waitlist at schools I got rej (she's from my MA cohort with quite similar background as mine). 

[So, I got all the rejections, what to do next...]

3 hours ago, historicallinguist said:

I do not think GRE writing is particular a big deal. I am on the 90 something percentile for GRE writing, and still get whole bunches of rejections. SOP is way way more important than GRE writing.

I will second this. GRE is probably one of the least of your concerns so don't invest too much on it unless you don't have to compromise on other things. My friend form my MA cohort had far worse GRE scores (literally devastating) but she seems doing great this application season.

I would recommend taking some serious efforts this time researching on schools (it actually doesn't take that much time compared to preparing writing sample, etc.) and email some POIs if you're honestly unsure about the fit. Good luck!

[Fall 2016 Application]

12 hours ago, canaan.breiss said:

Hmm, when did you hear about that? And what's your specialization? haha

A few days ago and my POIs are phonology/acquisition people.

(Just to clarify I meant decisions on open house invites and tonedeaf's post may be more accurately since it's from faculty)

[Fall 2016 Application]

Just now, historicallinguist said:

Are you serious? Normally referee won't refuse to write letter for a particular school. One of my referees is not particularly in favor of me, but he submitted his letter to MIT(maybe a bad one though)

Yes I was quite surprised as well cos he's perfectly fine with other schools I've proposed (like UCLA, UMass) and I know he wrote me good letters for those schools...I guess it had something to do with the fact he actually went to MIT

[Fall 2016 Application]

44 minutes ago, intheriver said:

Has anyone heard back from Maryland?

I had an informal interview with POI, but no feedback since then. I saw someone was invited to the Open House last week. I guess it's not the good news to me. 

Someone from Maryland told me the decisions have been made...I don't know if it's just my specialization tho..

[Fall 2016 Application]

Congrats to folks got into MIT!! My application to MIT was nipped in the bud when one of my referees actually refused to write me LOR for MIT lol...

[Fall 2016 Application]

6 hours ago, embeddedV2 said:

To be honest I would just like to know at this point, one way or the other, because I would really like to finalise travel arrangements. Though obviously I understand that the main factor driving the admissions process is not my obsession with flight prices

Have you emailed the department to ask? I'm sure they'll be happy to give you an answer if that's for making your travel plan (especially from abroad).

[Fall 2016 Application]

4 minutes ago, WVE said:

Is it just me or is UCLA's process strange this year? There were reported, at roughly the same time, an acceptance and a rejection (and now a wait list (congrats btw)). I've yet to hear anything myself. Isn't the trend usually acceptances > wait lists > rejections? I realize more people apply to these schools than post on this website...but still, UCLA is a big school that I'm sure a lot of us have applied to and I haven't heard much? I'm sure this is just my paranoia kicking in...

Thx! My friend got her wait-list email half hour later after mine, so I guess they're probably just sending WL today. The wording of the email sounds like they've already made all the decisions tho...

[Fall 2016 Application]

Just when I kinda assumed rejection form UCLA...got an email saying I'm wait listed

I never thought I could be this thrilled just be on the wait list!

[Fall 2016 Application]

10 hours ago, adel rahimi said:

I got my unofficial rejection email from Sun-ah jun (UCLA) ?? it was my top choice and I really wanted to work with her... Congrats to those who got in. Great school and great faculty...enjoy.

and by the way she said that they have notified all the accepted and waitlisted applicants. So if you haven't heard from them you are probably rejected.

 

My top choice as well T T oh dear...

Just few days ago when my POI at NYU asking if I'm waiting to hear back from any other schools so that they can coordinate the arrangement for open house, I almost wanted to tell her unfortunately not like many other admits who's gonna visit you to choose between programs, I'm most likely just gonna be there knowing I'm gonna be there next fall lol.

Well, don't get too disappointed. It's supposed to be one of the most competitive programs so in the end it's not really about how great every component of your app is cos that's the case for everyone who made it to the final pool...

 

[Trinity College Dublin or University College London]

Congrats! As a former student at UCL, I would say the MA here definitely helps your academic career (PhD program, research position, etc.) if that's what you want and you work reasonably hard. Also it's particularly ideal if you're interested in phonetics/phonology side of research and prefer doing your PhD in America, since UCL phonetics/phonology faculty members are mainly hired from the states (MIT, UCLA, etc.) and therefore the teaching, tutoring, and research here are quite North-American style (I don't really know much about Dublin so maybe there is no difference with regard to this).

I did find the sense of community missing sometimes, partly because it's quite a large program (40-50 students during my year) so people tend to hang out as smaller groups (or just because I already stayed in London for some years so I didn't live in a student hall nor try very hard socializing within the program). But I wouldn't worry too much about this at UCL--even I made some great friends here sharing similar interests in linguistics lol, if that's what you mean by "joining a tight-knit community".

Do PM me if you have any specific questions about UCL!

[Fall 2016 Application]

1 hour ago, Iwanttogotothere said:

So...I'm wondering. 

For those schools that do interviews in late January (NYU, UPenn, Austin, etc.) does anyone know if they interview all of their shortlisted candidates? As in, anyone who doesn't get an interview is probably not in the running? I'm sure it varies by school, I'm just wondering if I should start letting myself down easy haha

I think at least for NYU, if you look at the 2015 thread, you have to be interviewed to get further. But apparently different subfields have very different timetables for this (as long as they finish interviewing before the faculty meeting), so I guess no need to panic yet!

By the way I just had my interview with three faculty members at NYU. They told me they're aiming for 6 new students this year and the results would be out around early-mid February. Well, fingers crossed...

[Fall 2016 Application]

12 hours ago, zahraamir said:

Someone has gotten interview request from NYU, if you read this thread, Can you tell us what's your area of interest? and PM me your POI, please?

Hi that would be me. My subfield is phonology.