WatchfulWombat
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Posts posted by WatchfulWombat
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My two cents: if you think the program is good enough, and there are people you see yourself working with there, I'd go for the program that won't make you go into debt.
- rising_star and hats
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On 12/04/2018 at 8:24 PM, Harlequin1890 said:
I emailed my advisor that I’ll be attending their program. I also rejected everyone else and already committed in their portal. Haven’t received a reply in 4 business days. Should I be worried? (I am.)
I’m getting anxious and feel like this is a bad omen– they were pretty awesome when we chatted a few months ago...
Yes, that's weird. They haven't responded to your confirmation at all? Have you been in touch with anyone there apart from your advisor?
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On 8-2-2018 at 11:15 AM, IA18 said:
It's okay though, I'm 21.
Uhm yeah, that's the spirit! Even if you have to try again next year, you'll still be nine years ahead of me! ;-)
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Good grief, why would anyone want to sabotage your academic career like that?
Honestly, it surprises me that a department in any field would rescind an offer over a blog post about mental health, though I suppose that might be normal in medicine. Though I cannot say for sure, I doubt this could be a problem for most departments. Try not to worry about it..
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On 27-1-2018 at 8:52 PM, IA18 said:
Good luck to you (hope you get it this year) and I'll make sure to post here whenever I hear from UMich
I saw some posts on the results page about rejections via Wolverine access, so I logged in and sure enough, there it was! This makes my first rejection. :-) I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's better news for you!
I've received one offer so far, so I'm less nervous knowing that the PhD thing will happen. It would still be good to have a few options though.
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9 hours ago, semling said:
Well, I got an email, but it wasn’t the one I wanted. Rejected. :-(
But, hey, it’s their loss. Not only am I a kick-ass scholar, but I bake. See this Rosemary Pecorino Star Bread?
None for you, Yale.
What were they thinking? They should grant you an honorary PhD for the bread alone.
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21 hours ago, IA18 said:
What's your subfield? Waiting really annoys me haha If it's a rejection I would rather get it as soon as possible, so I sort of know where my life is heading...
How about UCLA or Amherst? Have you applied to any of them? I think they only make decisions between mid and late Feb, so that's gonna take a while... I'm also waiting to hear from Edinburgh and Cambridge.
I'm looking at historical syntax and morphology, and did not apply to UCLA or Amherst.. one of my professors has encouraged me to apply to Edinburgh, but I'm still on the fence, mostly because I think my chance of getting in would be even slimmer than where I applied now.
I feel fairly relaxed so far, but I know I will really want to succeed next year and am also thinking of ways I can become more competitive (without collecting debt).. I can definitely handle one cycle of all rejections, but not two.
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10 hours ago, andnothing said:
It is not even February and I haven't heard back from anyone but I am having a hard time trying to stay optimistic. Even though I am not the strongest applicant, I hope I'm given a chance somewhere. I feel like I should start preparing my backup plans to soften the blow from all the rejections.
Keep your chin up. I'm not the strongest applicant either, and have not received any acceptances (or rejections) so far. Here are my weaknesses: I have a very average (foreign) undergraduate GPA, which, if you try to convert it to a 4-point scale, looks downright ridiculous. I have zero research experience, and there aren't any real opportunities to change that in my current location. I do not have a very specific research project in mind. Just putting that out there. Whatever makes you 'not the strongest applicant', there are bound to be others like you, and there must be faculty who are willing to overlook some weaknesses if they 'see something' in your application.
There is no reason to despair this early in the season, I'd say. But.. Yes, I think you absolutely should start working on a backup plan. It will take your mind off the wait! Maybe your plan could involve something like working part time and volunteering at a research lab at an institution near you. Or whatever else you can do to make yourself more competitive if you need to reapply next year.
My backup plan is so good there will be some level of disappointment if I actually do get in. ;-)
Good luck!
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44 minutes ago, IA18 said:
Hey! Has anyone heard from Michigan (Ann Arbor) about being rejected/waitlisted? As some people mentioned in the results section they were invited for interviews/open house etc, I figured they'd be sending out the rejections this week.
I'm also still waiting and expecting rejection. :-)
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1 hour ago, there_is_a_wait_so_long said:
By request, added two more. Please bear in mind that some programs can be too specific (i.e. Arabian studies), thus not having enough data for particular university (I use 30 observations threshold).
Biostatistics PhD https://imgur.com/a/UQ2e9
Linguistics PhD https://imgur.com/a/MauHg
Marry me.
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7 minutes ago, khigh said:
Het is veel lekker! <--that is phrase you should know (that is tasty) as well as Doen normaal! (be normal).
I'm so sorry about this, but I can't help myself.
Het is heel lekker.
and
Doe normaal. (imperative ≠ infinitive)
Other than that, I agree that Dutch food is heel lekker. ;-)
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1 hour ago, fuzzylogician said:
EGG is in early August: http://www.eggschool.org/
Yes, fantastic! Thank you for bringing the good news. I've got summer plans. :-)
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18 minutes ago, littlemy said:
Thank you! You really helped me feel better. Good luck to you, too!!
Well, of course I'm not really an authority on graduate literature programs, but still!
Out of curiosity, which schools have you applied to?
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1 hour ago, littlemy said:
Also, I have this anxiety that, even if I do get in, I won't do very well. I think that part of this feeling comes from my status as an international student and the fact that my major is English (literature). Although I had lived in the States for a few years when I was much younger, I haven't had any higher education in the States, and I often feel unconfident if I could catch up with others who are native English speakers and who must have read so many more literary texts written in English than I have. I know it might be silly to worry this much about what would happen if I got in, since it's either too late or too early to do that. (I should have thought about this more before the application process. Or, I could start worrying about this later if I am accepted, since I haven't actually been accepted to any.) And that's why I'm talking about it here, without censoring my emotions and leaving them as they are.This is my first post in the gradcafe. Thank you for your post and this chance to talk about it.
Good luck! If this helps at all, I don't think you need to worry too much about not having the right "preparation" for an English lit program. I'm sure having read in other languages will be equally helpful, and you'll still be able to catch up whatever you need to read.
I'm European but I have a degree in English literature and linguistics (from a European university) and have lived in the US for a while. I definitely noticed that the literary canon in the US is somehow different, and US students are assigned "classic works of literature" that I have never heard of, while ignoring others that I thought were essential from my European perspective. But all of that is easily remedied once you get into a program.
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8 hours ago, ms123456 said:
I applied to only 4 schools. I expected a couple of out right rejections. Well at this point I have had 7 interviews, and 3 schools are flying me to see them. I’m a bit overwhelmed with this process. I work 6 days a week 60 hour weeks between two jobs. I am always worked up and having quite some trouble sleeping. While I know the interviews and meet and greets are good signs, I do not know how people do this when they have applied to 10+ schools.
Congratulations on the interviews and the invitations! That's great! I applied to eight schools, but haven't heard back from any and am pessimistic about my chances. I guess many people who apply to more departments start selecting in the interview phase?
14 hours ago, surprise_quiche said:Can we talk about how ridiculously expensive this whole process is? $205+ for GRE, $300+ for application fees, $50+ for travel expenses... and more... the process is so limiting for people with low income or those of us living independently.
Uhm, yes! That ridiculous TOEFL is even more expensive than the GRE, and only valid for two years! I've taken both the TOEFL and the GRE twice. I chose to retake the GRE, but the only reason I took the TOEFL again is because my two-year-old score (of 118/120!) was no longer valid. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to rant about this blatant injustice! ;-)
But seriously, this process must have cost me close to $2000. 2xTOEFL, 2xGRE, eight application fees, fees for sending TOEFL and GRE scores, fees for sending transcripts, ... I did refuse to pay for WES or any of that transcript evaluation rubbish, and just hope adcoms can make sense of my weird foreign transcripts. It's a lot of money to spend without a guaranteed payoff..
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Thanks fuzzylogician and thevphone!
All of the most interesting ones are somehow in the second half of July or (partially) in June, and I really can't take time off work then. Maybe I'll get lucky and EGG is held later than usual!
Anyone else here planning to attend some summer school?
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Can I hijack this thread to ask about summer schools in linguistics ANYWHERE?
Last year, I attended the LSA summer institute, and want to do another (preferably cheaper) summer school this year. I'm in Europe but happy to go anywhere in the world, but all of the good programs I can find are in June and in the second half of July, and I am just not available then.
Does anyone know decent summer schools in early July or in August?
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12 hours ago, Lena_Regina said:
OMG this thread is such a relief to find! I got accepted to all the MA programs I applied to (they're all in the UK), but I'm waiting on PhD programs and I have a feeling I won't be getting into any of them this round.
But my ultimate goal is also to go into language preservation!
I went to a small liberal arts school so I didn't really have any opportunities for research and we didn't even have a full linguistics department.
Major: Spanish and Russian
Minors: Linguistics and Computer Science
GPA: 3.46
GRE: V 164, Q 154, AW 3.0 (yikes
)
Schools: UT Austin, U of A, UCSB & UCSD ( reaches obvi), Manchester (accepted), Kent (accepted), University of London SOAS (accepted)I've been working for almost two years now in an unrelated field so we'll see what ends up happening! Good luck to everyone and hopefully the wait doesn't drive any of us too crazy.
Hey, welcome! Congratulations on getting accepted to all the MA programs! Are you getting any funding? Just curious, because I'm starting to think about what I will do if I don't get accepted anywhere.
I'm probably going to do an additional master's at my alma mater (not funded, but super cheap tuition and no application necessary), and then reapply.. but maybe I should also consider MA programs in the UK.
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On 2-1-2018 at 11:32 PM, historicallinguist said:
To be honest, it is really HARD TO BE REJECTED by UW Madison, because the program is really in bad shape right now there and they even have a rolling admission for their phd program. So, I think you will get at least into this school.
Well, this makes me feel a lot more anxious.
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Hi!
I'm an international student applying for PhD programs in linguistics. I'm expecting to be roundly rejected, and pretty much all of my schools are reach schools, but I'm prepared to try again next year and complete a one-year masters in my home country in the mean time.
Here's my info:
Schools: Boston University, Purdue, UPenn, UCSC, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Ohio State, University of Oregon, University of Michigan
Degree: European MA in Literature & Linguistics
GPA: no idea, but definitely on the mediocre side
GRE: V 167, Q 156, AW 4.0
No conference presentations or publications
Other Stuff: Eight years of experience as a language teacher, including in college and at a US university.
Good luck, fellow applicants!
I'd made a spreadsheet containing important info on all of my schools, and somehow listed the wrong deadline for my Purdue application. Sooo I applied two weeks late and no, I didn't contact the department or graduate school about it. Haha! I'm too dumb for grad school.
Online Grad Schools that accept low GPAs, please help
in Questions and Answers
Posted
I was in a similar situation as you when I applied for grad school, with a similar GPA that was also about a decade old. Even more than the GPA itself, I think the main challenge was getting credible recommendation letters from people who knew me. So I did what you suggested: I took advanced courses as a non-degree student at my home university after work for two years and did really well in them. While I did not seek out specific people, some of my professors were big names in their field, so it helped me get great recs. I did get into some competitive programs with very decent funding. So.. I think taking extra courses to prepare is a good idea.
I don't have any experience with MOOCs, so don't know how those would be valued by grad programs.