Bumblebee

I agree with @latte thunder. Grad school is vocational, not an easy way to avoid facing reality.
I would also like to add that I waited 8 years since I graduated from college to go to Grad School and I think it was my best decision ever. During these 8 years I've worked in 4 different countries, I've matured, I've found out what my real passion in life was, etc. In other words: I've enjoyed life! When I graduated from college one of my professors advised me to pursue a PhD. At that time, I saw it as a really scary thing to do, something I couldn't handle. When I finally applied to grad school, I was very excited knowing that I had finally found what I really wanted to do in life and knowing that these 8 years had helped me be ready for an MA and a PhD. After enjoying traveling and meeting people all around the world, I'm finally ready to focus on my studies for the next 7 years.
So, after this lengthy paragraph, this is my advice: graduate from college, travel, work, enjoy life, and think about what you really want to do in life. And then, if you feel you're ready, apply to Grad School.

@Elipschu! You may want to try OneStart as well. With the username and pass phrase you created you can go to OneStart. Once there, you go to classifieds and you can post an add there. People moving to Bloomington to study or people changing places usually check there. Good luck!

Well, back when I applied for the Spanish Linguistics program at Umass I also received a rejection letter in my home country, although in my case it was after I rejected them and was already attending another school. Apparently they didn't take my rejection too well 

I agree with @latte thunder. Grad school is vocational, not an easy way to avoid facing reality.
I would also like to add that I waited 8 years since I graduated from college to go to Grad School and I think it was my best decision ever. During these 8 years I've worked in 4 different countries, I've matured, I've found out what my real passion in life was, etc. In other words: I've enjoyed life! When I graduated from college one of my professors advised me to pursue a PhD. At that time, I saw it as a really scary thing to do, something I couldn't handle. When I finally applied to grad school, I was very excited knowing that I had finally found what I really wanted to do in life and knowing that these 8 years had helped me be ready for an MA and a PhD. After enjoying traveling and meeting people all around the world, I'm finally ready to focus on my studies for the next 7 years.
So, after this lengthy paragraph, this is my advice: graduate from college, travel, work, enjoy life, and think about what you really want to do in life. And then, if you feel you're ready, apply to Grad School.

I agree with @latte thunder. Grad school is vocational, not an easy way to avoid facing reality.
I would also like to add that I waited 8 years since I graduated from college to go to Grad School and I think it was my best decision ever. During these 8 years I've worked in 4 different countries, I've matured, I've found out what my real passion in life was, etc. In other words: I've enjoyed life! When I graduated from college one of my professors advised me to pursue a PhD. At that time, I saw it as a really scary thing to do, something I couldn't handle. When I finally applied to grad school, I was very excited knowing that I had finally found what I really wanted to do in life and knowing that these 8 years had helped me be ready for an MA and a PhD. After enjoying traveling and meeting people all around the world, I'm finally ready to focus on my studies for the next 7 years.
So, after this lengthy paragraph, this is my advice: graduate from college, travel, work, enjoy life, and think about what you really want to do in life. And then, if you feel you're ready, apply to Grad School.

I've already been in grad school for a few years, but I went straight from UG, so lots of UG experiences are still relatively fresh on my mind for comparison:

In undergrad, you feel as if you're the smartest person on campus.
In grad, you are almost 100% sure you are the dumbest person in the entire region of the country.
You had a full schedule of classes each week in UG, but in G, you really only have 2 or 3 real classes, and they only meet once a week each for ~3 hours. You find yourself actually really looking forward to going to them.
Professors look younger.
Undergrads look like children.
Agree with 3point14. You find yourself being wrong more and making lots more mistakes.
You stop using flash cards. You start using lots of thin post-it flaps.
You go to the school library just for fun, and you hang out most often in the periodicals section, which you didn't know existed as an undergrad.
You know exactly what times to avoid going to the university student center.
School spirit matters nill to you; but hey, if your department had a hoodie...

There are relevant threads in the grads forums you should look up. Basically my two main thoughts are these:

(1) The job will take from you everything that you give it. If you devote your entire day to studying, that's what your life will look like. You need to ACTIVELY schedule your other important activities - including (if necessary) sleep, work-out time, household activities time, hobbies, friends, relaxation. It can be hard to keep to a work-day like schedule - at the very least there will be some times when you have to work longer hours before deadlines - but barring that I think it's important to have at least one day off, if not more. You're not necessarily more productive if you spend more time at the office.

(2) You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, possibly do all the required readings and assignments in graduate school. You need to start to prioritize. Some readings need to go undone; some assignments need to be done just-well-enough but not perfectly. Concentrate on doing a good job when it matters and on the projects that are relevant to your future career. If you're a phonologist with no aspirations to become a theoretical semanticist, then it won't hurt if you write a shorter paper or spend less time on the assignments in that course. Do a good job in presentations and published papers, and do the work that will lead you there well. Other things need to be prioritized lower and treated accordingly.

As for the comparison with professional programs, I can't help much except to point out that it's probably not a fair comparison and that even if it was, it wouldn't be useful. I think you'd benefit more from just doing a better job taking care of yourself and being mindful of how you invest your time.

There's a couple of things you could do. First, you could try reminding the students what time the lab starts and that their lab grades are a reflection of their work. If they want higher grades, they need to put in the work, ask for help, etc. and showing up on time is a big part of that. Second, you should let whomever your supervisor is know what's going on. Tell him/her that you think you lost the students and explain what's happening. Third, you should try talking to other lab instructors, more senior grad students, or someone in your campus teaching center to get ideas on how to turn things around in your course. Maybe you need to bring in someone to observe before they can adequately comment on your teaching and the classroom atmosphere.

Last but not least, a student being rude/disruptive is not a reason to talk to their coach. Plus, if the student is an athlete, it's likely that you will have to fill out a progress report at some point during the semester. At that point, you can address the student's grade and attjtude towards the course at that time. But do so by conversing with the academic advisors for the athletics department, not with the coach(es).

Whatever you do, don't give up. Your students will be able to tell if you do. Instead, you need to try to get control over your classroom, which you can have even if you have one (or two) disruptive students. Also, the more attention you pay to that student's misbehavior, the more the class will. If you ignore it, they will too eventually. That said, there's no way in hell I'd wait an hour for students to show up. If no one was there within 10 minutes of the start of class, I'd leave a note on the door saying that I'm in my office and wait for them there if they do indeed want to do the work.

I would first talk to the lab instructor. In any case s(he) has to have your back make sure that if this guy goes to him directly he will know about the situation. Then scare the kids, or let him scare the kids about their performance and the appropriate grades that will follow. You may have already lost this class in the sense that your evaluations will be lousy (it happened to me once) but you have to stand your ground and if they deserve to fail, fail them. You may even want to try to leave (of course with the agreement of the instructor) if they do not show up. Maybe if they are scared at least the majority will get back to behave and you can help them.

With that one person: it may be too late but just stating that you can not only increase their grade but decrease their grade too if they want revision can help with the complaints. If he is in a competitive sport he may have to maintain an average. Letting know the coaches that this will not hapen may be appropriate. Also when any situation gets out of control if the person tries to communicate with me in email I always include the instructor as a cc in my response in which I try to be the most appropriate ever. Audience often silences inappropriate behaviour. Good luck!

I hope you don't mind. I had to turn this into a rage comic I hope you like it!

My dad: "What will you be researching?"
Me: Something about CFD and modelling
My dad: "OK, I'm going to tell my friends that you're moving away to pursue modelling"

I gave up explaining linguistics as well.

Before:
- Hey there, what are you applying for?
- Linguistics, historical/comparative.
- The same as your BA and MA?
- Yeah.
- So... is that a science or what? How many languages do you speak? You're going to be a translator, right?
- :AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH:

After:
- Hey there, what are you applying for?
- Languages.
- Which one?
- All of them.
- Cool.

It's easier.

This time last year I was enjoying my last days of holidays in my home country before returning to the US and starting to freak out about my MA exams (which I passed, by the way )

Please, anybody, correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt you will find anything like an easy PhD program. A PhD program requires lots of work and effort. As @fuzzylogician said, it is very hard to succeed in a PhD program. Many students who are very passionate about what they do end up burnt out after years studying, researching and working on their thesis. And, again, those are students who really love what they do. From your post I understand you see getting a PhD as an obligation, rather than something you want to do (if it's not the case, please, tell me), which will make the task of getting a PhD even harder.
I'm sorry if this sounded very blunt, but I think it's better to know the reality before starting any program. Don't get me wrong, it is not impossible, but it's not easy, either.

Hey, you were just being rude. People relied to you are all from top linguistics PhD programs. We are trying to tell you the truth that it is impossible to quantify "difficulty/easiness" of Linguistics PhD programs. A university can not get lots of financial benefits from theoretical linguistics program, not like business, law program. I have to say those schools have linguistics program and fund students are no way easy to get in.

I am not trying to be judgmental. But, from your conversation with other people, I could tell you are not fit for PhD program. What do you mean by "I should be a professor" or "I am supposed to do a PhD otherwise I will lose my job". Are you sure you can get back your job after leaving the position for more than 5 years? Do you think international students can have part-time study in the U.S? Are you sure you could be a professor after 5 years' "easy" PhD training? I didn't see any passion from you about linguistics despite your repeated statements of "I love linguistics" "I want to do Phonology". My suggestion: if you do want to get in PhD Program and you do love linguistics, prepare yourself well, Do your current research in phonology, Talk to the professors you would like to work with. Prepare an excellent writing sample in your specialty, FORGET "easy", "less difficult" stuff.

Best of luck

There is a bus from Chicago, but I don't think it goes to the airport, so you would need to go to downtown Chicago and then take that bus. Just as @unforth said, your best bet is to fly to Indy. There are two shuttle companies that go from Indy airport to Bloomington (Go Express Travel - formerly known as Bloomington Shuttle -, and Star of America). They're not too pricey and usually you don't have to wait much in the airport for the shuttle. Once in Bloomington, they have several stops, so you can choose which one suits you better.

I also didn't feel supported by my family at the beginning. My mom wanted me to accept an offer from another school since it was closer to home (and by that, I mean a regional flight and an international flight instead of a regional flight, an international flight and another regional flight). She also thought that going to an East Coast school was much better than ending in the middle of nowhere in the Mid-West. My father kept saying that I was making a mistake. When I received the offer from the school I was super excited about it and after I did the campus visit I knew it was the place I wanted to study at. But my parents didn't support me and the issue of grad school was a taboo topic in our conversations. We didn't even discuss it. I felt miserable because I really wanted to accept the offer but didn't want to go against my parents (they're a really important part of my life). I ended up accepting the offer, but it didn't feel how it was supposed to feel. It took them a few weeks, but they finally realized that it was a great opportunity for me and that it was a good program. During the summer I kept telling them great things about the school, the city, the program, etc. to let them know that I was going to a good place. This is my second year here and they're just excited as I am with my progresses. They are happy now seeing how happy I am with my program, how many good friends I've made, etc. and they're coming in a month for my MA graduation. :-) It ended very well, but at the beginning I went through really tough moments.
What I meant with this looooooong post is that, even when my situation was not the same, I know what it feels not being supported by your family and making a decision that is making you miserable instead of excited (as it should be). I guess my advice is that, even when it might go against your family's wishes, you need to do what you think is best for you and go to the school you really want to go to. It might end up well for you (as it did for me), or it might not. But follow your dreams. Don't make a decision that you might regret all your life.

I also didn't feel supported by my family at the beginning. My mom wanted me to accept an offer from another school since it was closer to home (and by that, I mean a regional flight and an international flight instead of a regional flight, an international flight and another regional flight). She also thought that going to an East Coast school was much better than ending in the middle of nowhere in the Mid-West. My father kept saying that I was making a mistake. When I received the offer from the school I was super excited about it and after I did the campus visit I knew it was the place I wanted to study at. But my parents didn't support me and the issue of grad school was a taboo topic in our conversations. We didn't even discuss it. I felt miserable because I really wanted to accept the offer but didn't want to go against my parents (they're a really important part of my life). I ended up accepting the offer, but it didn't feel how it was supposed to feel. It took them a few weeks, but they finally realized that it was a great opportunity for me and that it was a good program. During the summer I kept telling them great things about the school, the city, the program, etc. to let them know that I was going to a good place. This is my second year here and they're just excited as I am with my progresses. They are happy now seeing how happy I am with my program, how many good friends I've made, etc. and they're coming in a month for my MA graduation. :-) It ended very well, but at the beginning I went through really tough moments.
What I meant with this looooooong post is that, even when my situation was not the same, I know what it feels not being supported by your family and making a decision that is making you miserable instead of excited (as it should be). I guess my advice is that, even when it might go against your family's wishes, you need to do what you think is best for you and go to the school you really want to go to. It might end up well for you (as it did for me), or it might not. But follow your dreams. Don't make a decision that you might regret all your life.

I received a TAship from my school but in Spain there are banks that offer scholarships to do graduate studies in France, UK, USA, etc. They pay for your plane ticket, a monthly stipend, tuition, application fees, visa fees and an additional payment at the beginning of your studies to pay for "moving" expenses (apartment deposit, furniture, books, etc.). They're really competitive, but they're really good. I don't know about the UK, though, but I think it's worth checking.

I have a complicated relationship with English, and I'm a native. I think this is why we want to become linguists, to find out what the hell's wrong with us... ;-P

As a non-native speaker of English, I don't think I should be treated differently from the rest of the students. When I decided to stay in the US for my degree I knew that it included being able to write research papers in English. My first papers were hard, since I had never studied real academic English and my English was considered too informal. However, I have worked hard to improve. I've read tons of research articles and I have asked fellow students to help me with my writing. I still make mistakes, but I've noticed that now I'm much better than when I started my degree. Nobody has treated me differently for having a different native language and this has pushed me to improve. If I had had special accommodations or if the professors had been more lenient with me, I'd probably play the not-a-native-speaker card often and I'd be too lazy to improve.
As I am pursuing a degree in Hispanic Linguistics (I'm a native speaker of Spanish), some of my courses are in Spanish and some in English and I write papers in both languages. But I have a professor who teaches in Spanish but when it comes to writing the final papers, he always makes us write them in our L2. Native speakers of Spanish have to write them in English and native speakers of English have to do it in Spanish. He always says that we should all be able to write proper academic papers in both languages. At the beginning I didn't like the idea very much, since the class was already in Spanish, but I now thank him.

I didn't do anything special. Some schools had a special form for international students where you could write down your GPA in your country's scale, but there was no room for writing comments about the grading system.
However, when I did the campus visit to my current school, one of the professors in the ad com told me that they knew exactly what my GPA meant, that they already had experience with them.
My guess is that schools with a large international student population like mine are familiar with the different grade systems, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I didn't do anything special. Some schools had a special form for international students where you could write down your GPA in your country's scale, but there was no room for writing comments about the grading system.
However, when I did the campus visit to my current school, one of the professors in the ad com told me that they knew exactly what my GPA meant, that they already had experience with them.
My guess is that schools with a large international student population like mine are familiar with the different grade systems, so I wouldn't worry about it.

As a non-native speaker of English, I don't think I should be treated differently from the rest of the students. When I decided to stay in the US for my degree I knew that it included being able to write research papers in English. My first papers were hard, since I had never studied real academic English and my English was considered too informal. However, I have worked hard to improve. I've read tons of research articles and I have asked fellow students to help me with my writing. I still make mistakes, but I've noticed that now I'm much better than when I started my degree. Nobody has treated me differently for having a different native language and this has pushed me to improve. If I had had special accommodations or if the professors had been more lenient with me, I'd probably play the not-a-native-speaker card often and I'd be too lazy to improve.
As I am pursuing a degree in Hispanic Linguistics (I'm a native speaker of Spanish), some of my courses are in Spanish and some in English and I write papers in both languages. But I have a professor who teaches in Spanish but when it comes to writing the final papers, he always makes us write them in our L2. Native speakers of Spanish have to write them in English and native speakers of English have to do it in Spanish. He always says that we should all be able to write proper academic papers in both languages. At the beginning I didn't like the idea very much, since the class was already in Spanish, but I now thank him.

You really think all that coursework is a stupid formality? You think you're better than everyone else who've done things before you and helped revolutionize your discipline? Even if a seminal paper has little to do with your precise research interest doesn't mean it doesn't hold monumental value over the way you go about conducting research. There's a REASON why these papers become benchmarks in fields and why people today still read and cite them heavily. Having such a narrow view is what causes gaps between related disciplines, and that segmentation only weakens a science.

And I know this is a forum that's supposed to be, more or less, encouraging and all, but why are you even in the program then? If you're going to be this negative and cynical of academia, then get out. No one's forcing you to stay in. If you have to think twice about whether or not this path leads you to what'll make you happiest in the long run, then get out. There are easier ways to make a lot more money than getting a Ph.D.; if you're unhappy with what research leads you to, then there's no point in staying in a doctorate.