songofgallifrey
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Posts posted by songofgallifrey
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@SocPhDStudent thank you for sharing that! i submitted my applications more than two weeks before the deadline, which of course made me feel relieved to be finished with them but also left me to stress over my letter writers. ultimately my professor submitted that outstanding letter at the eleventh hour but on time.
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thanks @csot i hope she submits soon! i sent her another reminder this afternoon since it's still not in *bangs head against desk*. as i wait for schools to get back to me, i'm just trying to focus on my projects at work and not get senioritis! also hopefully doing some traveling while i still have a real paycheck haha.
15 hours ago, meowcow said:Does anyone know any tentative dates for schools that have interview weekends? I'm a full time professional and am starting to have to work commitments on weekends in Jan/Feb. It would be great to know in advance to hold just in case.
meowcow i'm in the same boat. i've been surprised at how little information the program websites have about interviews and the like. hoping someone else on here knows!
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@pandalove I'm glad to [virtually] meet someone else applying to Georgetown and Stanford for sociolinguistics! Good luck!! Looking at the Results page, it seems like we should hear from both of them by early March, but that seems so far away
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I spent nearly $800 to apply to 5 schools. Application fees comprised most of that ($485), since I'm not eligible for any waivers. The rest was GRE study books ($50), the GRE itself ($205), and sending scores to additional schools ($54).
The hours I spent working on my application materials and stressing about my chances: priceless.
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@bachelorette thanks for reviving the fall 2017 phd thread! i had been hoping to hear from others in the process of applying as well. all 5 of my applications are in, with one outstanding LOR that needs to be submitted. and i'm also interested in language contact and variation! what programs did you apply to? for linguistics i applied to georgetown (sociolinguistics) and stanford, as well as second language education at university of minnesota (they have a language policy focus that i'm interested in). i also applied to the joint phd programs in social policy at harvard and princeton, so we'll see!!!
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this thread has been pretty quiet. how is everyone doing? i'm still waiting on an LOR writer to submit my last letter (due Dec 15) and she's making me nervous.
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@MaxWeberHasAPosse thanks!
@sdr2659 could you provide more detail about how you're planning to incorporate the interview into your personal statement? I know my answer would change depending on your answer. If you want to include a summary of the interview to illustrate your research interests and motivation for pursuing further research in that field, I think that would be an appropriate use of the information. I would avoid using direct quotes because that could come off as voyeuristic or a misuse of that person's story, but I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts on that. That's to say, your interpretation of or research based on that interview is what's relevant to your personal statement, rather than that person's exact response to a question you posed.
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@Illusio80 I've poked around looking for the consortium of public policy schools you're referring to, but I'm not sure I found the right one. I've considered a public policy PhD program, but when I started researching programs that fit my research interests I ended up finding social policy programs instead (and specifically the joint policy + sociology programs I mentioned in my original post). Do you have any particular public policy programs in mind?
@MaxWeberHasAPosse I took a look at UCLA's Sociology faculty. As @Illusio80 indicated, the two researchers I saw who were interested in language were both conversation analysts, and that's not quite what I'm looking for. If you know of particular faculty members more interested in sociolinguistics, that would be interesting to know.
Thank you both for your thoughts!
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@historicallinguist I'm planning to work at a policy institute/think tank/intergovernmental organization where I can be a professional researcher. I haven't ruled out academia entirely, but I'm more interested in being more connected to the organizations doing the actual policymaking. Your feedback about the UPenn program is helpful, thanks.
Since I studied psychology undergrad, my thesis adviser who's one of my LOR writers is in cognitive psychology and the other LOR writer that I have confirmed focuses on contact linguistics and language shift. The third person I'm trying to get to write me an LOR is also in cogsci. Does it matter that the two cogsci LOR writers aren't in sociolinguistics or social policy? I don't have much of a choice at this point, but I'm just wondering.
I think you're right that my interests lie more in applied sociolinguistics. I'm not interested in L2 acquisition per se, more so in what happens during acquisition: code-switching, the social impact of language shift, changes in linguistic identity, and the impact of language ideology on these processes.
I subtly asked my LOR writers to give any thoughts/feedback they had on my SOP when I sent it (after they had agreed to write a letter and asked for SOP and resume), but I didn't ask outright because I didn't want to be annoying. I can follow up and ask more directly.
I've thought about applying to my undergrad institution, and haven't 100% ruled it out, but it doesn't look like my research interests would really fit with any of the faculty members'.
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@St0chastic thanks for the feedback, that's helpful. I wasn't sure if emailing them to clarify would be annoying, but I'll give it a shot with a quick one-sentence message like you suggested.
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I've sent out a few emails asking if POIs will be accepting PhD students in the upcoming cycle. I think my language is clearly asking if they are going to be taking on students in an advisory role, but the only responses I've gotten seem to misunderstand my question. They think I'm asking whether the program itself is accepting PhD applications. Am I not being clear? Here's an example:
"Dear Professor X,
I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to ask whether you will be accepting graduate students in the upcoming Fall 2017 cycle.
~Short paragraph with my academic background and current work that applies to my research interests~As a PhD student, I am interested in studying x. Your research and policy work on x fascinates me, and I hope to contribute to this scholarship on x.Thank you very much for your time and consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.Best,~Me~" -
3 hours ago, Volo said:
Do anyone have any ideas on how to approach a faculty member if they've already indicated in their bio page that they are planning to accept a student in this application cycle? I do want to introduce myself and make a connection, but I'm not sure what direction to take with the e-mail.
I was wondering this too. I plan to email something to the effect of "I think your work on x topic is fascinating and my research interests would be a good fit. I see that you are accepting graduate students this year, and I am writing to ask about your current research interests and plans for future projects." And so on. That way I'm still being proactive and also making sure that the information on their website isn't stale or that they aren't planning to pivot to a different topic in their upcoming publications. Thoughts on that approach?
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Hi grad cafe,
I didn't see a thread for fall 2017 applications in the Linguistics forum yet, so I figured I'd take the initiative.
I'm looking to study linguistic identity and language policy as they relate to social, economic, and political inequality, so I'm applying to a couple different types of programs. Relevant for this thread are the programs in Sociolinguistics at Georgetown, as well as Educational Linguistics at UPenn and Second Language Education at Minnesota. One of my former linguistics professors, who is writing an LOR for me, highly recommended that I apply to the latter two programs based on my research interests, although I'm not 100% sold on the education bent. She spoke highly of Prof Nancy Hornberger at UPenn and Prof Kendall King at Minnesota, and they're researching exactly what I'm interested in, but I don't want to pigeonhole myself as strictly an educational language policy person. I'm also applying to the joint Ph.D. programs in Sociology & Social Policy at Harvard and Princeton. Does anyone else have thoughts on schools?
I studied psychology and linguistics at a top 3 university and graduated in summer 2015 with honors. Since then, I've been working as an analyst on fair lending issues, particularly for folks with limited English proficiency, at a financial regulator in DC. My GRE (167 V, 161 Q, 5.0 W) and GPA (3.72/ 4.00) are both solid, but I'm still worried that I'm not going to be competitive. I have 2/3 professors confirmed to write me letters, and I think they'll write strong ones, but I'm still trying to nail down a third and I'm getting worried. Does anyone have thoughts on applying to PhD programs with 2 academic LORs and 1 non-academic? I'm sure my supervisor would write a strong letter about me and my work ethic, but I thought it would weaken my application.
I also have no idea if my SOP is solid. I think it looks good at this point, but I don't have anyone in my field to ask for advice. What resources are you all using to polish your materials?
Anyway, thanks for the support, even if indirect, from this thread. It's nice to have a community of people working toward a common goal!
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Hi there! I'm looking to study language policy and linguistic identity, so I'm apply to a couple different programs. Relevant for this thread are the joint Ph.D. programs in Sociology & Social Policy at Harvard and Princeton. I'm also applying to Sociolinguistics at Georgetown, as well as Education Linguistics at UPenn and Second Language Education at Minnesota. One of my former professors, who is writing an LOR for me, highly recommended that I apply to the latter two programs based on my research interests, although I'm not 100% sold on the education bent. Does anyone else have thoughts on schools?
I studied psychology and linguistics at a top 3 university and graduated in summer 2015 with honors. Since then, I've been working as an analyst on fair lending issues, particularly for folks with limited English proficiency, at a financial regulator in DC. My GRE and GPA are both solid, but I'm still worried that I'm not going to be competitive. I have 2/3 professors confirmed to write me letters, and I think they'll write strong ones, but I'm still trying to nail down a third and I'm getting worried. Does anyone have thoughts on applying to PhD programs with 2 academic LORs and 1 non-academic? I'm sure my supervisor would write a strong letter about me and my work ethic, but I thought it would weaken my application.
I also have no idea if my SOP is solid. I think it looks good at this point, but I don't have anyone in my field to ask for advice. What resources are you all using to polish your materials?
Anyway, thanks for the support, even if indirect, from this thread. It's nice to have a community of people working toward a common goal!
Fall 2017 PhD Application
in Linguistics Forum
Posted
@bachelorette yes I bet they lose a lot of good candidates that way who can't accept an offer without funding. Did you end up deciding where to apply other than Ohio State, Cornell, and Kansas?