2017
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Everything posted by 2017
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What have you heard about the application process? Just curious!
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Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone in the department who has been admitted without being interviewed, so I wouldn't keep my hopes up...Current grad student here.
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I applied to programs for Fall 2017 and was accepted to McGill (although i won't be attending). McGill doesn't have any applied linguists, and there is only one sociolinguist. He's a dialectologist, so if you're interested in interactional linguistics and computer-mediated communication, it wouldn't be a good fit. You might look at Georgetown, if the aforementioned fields are of interest to you. However, it's a bit unclear to me what your research interests actually are as your statement of "how humans interact with language" is quite vague.
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I was waitlisted at my top choice. I have a few backups but I'm not excited about any of them. I know at least one person accepted to this school has not made a decision yet, so I'm assuming they are waiting on him. My question is: when you've had all of your decisions and visits completed over a month ago (which is the case in his situation), what is taking you so long to make a decision?????
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At least for Georgetown, this means you're in!
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So I was wait listed at my top program in the beginning of March. I was told that my chances of being offered a spot off the waitlist are "very good", and that while I couldn't be told my exact ranking on the list, it is "very, very, very high". I've been in contact with many of the people who were accepted to this program, and one of them just recently turned down an offer and informed the program a few days ago. Knowing that I'm high on the waitlist and that April 15 is quickly approaching, I contacted my POI and asked if there might be any update with regards to my application status. He just responded, saying that they "are not yet at a point where [they] can move to the waitlist" and that the waitlist is "a frustratingly complicated process, the details of which I’ll spare you". He then went on to say that it's still very possible that they will move to the waitlist and that they are "hoping and trying to get to it". His evaluation of the waitlist process as being a "frustratingly complicated process" and that the department is "trying to get to [the waitlist]" is making me wonder if there is some kind of university-wide blockade in the place that the department has to maneuver around before the graduate school allows them accept and fund waitlisted applicants. Does anybody have any idea if this is common or even a thing? I suppose it's also possible that more than one person needs to decline an offer before the department can move to the waitlist, although my sense is that this is less likely to be the case, as the department accepts 7 students and hopes to enroll 7. So, for every declined spot, there should be a waitlist acceptance. I'm sure waitlist processes differ vastly from school to school, but does anyone have any potential insight on this?
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What I can say is that sociolinguistics is one of the most competitive subfields in linguistics to get into nowadays (I was told this by several faculty). As you may have noticed, nearly ALL linguistics programs will have syntax and semantics faculty. And several at that. Only about half or a third of these departments have 1 socio faculty member. The best socio departments have at most 3 socio faculty. This means that applicants who are interested in socio all apply to the same few programs. This, taken together with the fact that departments receive more applications for sociolinguistics specializations than for any other specialization, makes admissions very difficult. That being said, there are several very good and funded MA programs with great socio faculty. NC State is one in the US, and many top linguistics programs in Canada have at least one socio faculty member and these all offer funding at the MA level, e.g., Toronto, McGill, York U, Ottawa. I believe there are several less prestigious PhD programs that have at least one socio faculty member, but I don't know if it would be advisable to attend there with the intention of dropping out after getting an MA. Although maybe other people would have different opinions about this. Feel free to PM if you want to talk more! I applied for socio PhD programs for fall 2017.
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Do people usually wait until April 15 to accept and decline offers? I was waitlisted at my top choice and was told I have a good chance of being admitted, but I'm not sure when I might hear.
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the open house is Feb. 24 but last year it seems they accepted people after the open house even.
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Yeah, I'm curious about the funding! I can't make it to the open house, but I'm trying to schedule another day to visit and plan to ask them while I'm there what the situation is.
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I got one of them on February 1st and was told that I'd hear about the funding decision in March. I'm not sure how they do admissions because they don't seem to send out decisions all at once.
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Thanks for sharing! If it makes you feel better, the school I wrote this post about ended up rejecting me from the PhD, but liked my application enough to fully fund me for an MA. When I asked if I wasn't accepted for the PhD because of a poor interview, the department responded by saying that they felt my interview was very strong, and that I only wasn't accepted because this year's applicants were "unusually" strong. The program is a top one, so I don't think they would have offered a funded MA if I sounded like a total idiot, which I thought I did. So don't lose hope! We are often our harshest critics.
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Can anybody claim any of the Chicago acceptances?
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I was in the same situation last week. I emailed the interviewer with clarification for one of my answers and she never replied to me, so I'm not sure if it was inappropriate or not. I'm guessing it probably depends on the interviewer. You might want to write clarifying why you want to attend and not about your interests so it doesn't seem that you are trying re-do the whole interview. Draft it so that it comes across as thoughtful and reflective and not panicky.
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One of those was mine, and I just noticed that I too spelled university wrong! lol. But in the past it seems not all invites were sent at the same time, so don't lose hope yet!
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My friend also interviewed with Santa Cruz a few weeks ago, and I don't believe she heard back from them either. So I wouldn't worry yet!
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Are interviews supposed to be conclusive?
2017 replied to trisarahtops's topic in Interviews and Visits
So I'm looking for some reassurance here -- or not, whatever people think about this situation! I had an interview yesterday with my top program and sent an email thank you note to each of the interviewers afterward. A bit later, I found out that somebody from that program was accepted on the same day and started to panic, so I emailed the interviewers again and asked if all the decisions were made. I was told that that person was an exception because they had received a university-wide fellowship. All was fine until I went to bed. I started thinking about my interview answers and felt that something I mentioned about a potential research project was extremely unclear, so I decided to email my interviewers AGAIN and clarify what I meant and noted that my nerves got in the way and hence wasn't able to articulate my idea lucently. The department is usually very responsive, but after this final email, they haven't answered. I'm extremely paranoid that I've annoyed them, come across as panicky/overbearing, etc., and now they're going to reject me. What do people think? Is three emails on the same day too much? -
congratulations!! that's really fantastic! Also excited that I'll hopefully still be considered!
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Are interviews supposed to be conclusive?
2017 replied to trisarahtops's topic in Interviews and Visits
I had a Skype interview today and also feel v conflicted about where I stand. Guess it's because they usually don't have any final decisions at that point.- 11 replies
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thanks for always being so helpful, fuzzy!
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So I had a Skype interview with a program today and after the interview, I noticed somebody posted that they received an acceptance from the same subfield and program in the results forum. The professors told me during the interview that decisions were made with the entire committee and that I would find out in two weeks, but apparently this isn't the case, according to this post. Should I assume I've been silently rejected?
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So I just had a PhD Skype interview with a program I'm interested in, but thinking back over my answers and the responses of interviewers, I'm concerned that I spoke too quickly and wasn't very clear. In previous interviews, I have had interviewers who either nod their head or smile to acknowledge that they are listening / understanding what I'm saying, but these interviewers kinda just stared at me when I talked and then would move on to another question without any comments on my previous responses. Their lack of conversational engagement and my own assessment of my responses is making me pretty upset because I don't think I performed as well as I could have. Has anybody had similar experiences either with interviewers or self-doubt? Or people who thought they did poorly but ended up getting the spot/position?
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Thanks! The interviewers asked a few questions about my background, some things I mentioned in my SOP, and my writing sample. I would re-read your application materials and you should be fine.
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I have an interview with McGill in about 15 minutes. I'll let you know how it goes!
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Can anybody claim the Michigan invite on the Results forum?