semling

Thank you for channeling nervous energy in such a useful way! Are you taking requests? If so ... Linguistics Arabic / "Middle East" / "Near East" / "Middle Eastern" / "Near Eastern" (just about every program has a different name, but that should catch most of them!)

I applied to NYU, Georgetown, and Cornell. As far as I can tell, they don't do interviews so I don't think we'll have any indication at all until the decisions go out. (Which seems to be in late February to early March, based on previous years?) I've so far gotten an interview with Yale, but that was in the Linguistics department. My previous work has mainly been in Arabic Linguistics, but I'm also interested in modern literature.

I would first find my husband at work and tell him in person (I imagine hugs and 'yays' and maybe some tears will be involved), then immediately tell my mom (and ask her if she can babysit so my husband can take me out to celebrate). After that, I'll have to keep it a bit on the downlow. I have a job that I need to keep until at least partway through the summer, so I don't want to tell them that I'm leaving this early. So I won't be able to post it on social media, or tell anyone who might mention it by mistake.

Oh, in reading this site more, I've realized that this seems to differ greatly between disciplines — it looks like the science fields often bring people for a big in-person interview weekend. So my response above might only apply to Humanities and Social Sciences programs.

Hello All, Was enjoying reading all your posts, so I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm applying to 3 PhD programs in Arabic (all called different things, though), and one in Linguistics. I have a masters in Arabic from Georgetown, where I focused on Arabic linguistics. I'm an older student and have a lot of work experience and such, which I'm hoping makes me "interesting" in a good way, and not "oh, well that's ... interesting." I have little kids and a spouse with their own career, which makes things a bit more complicated. I'm also giving up a steady, prestigious, fairly well-paying job to live in penury as a graduate student and then join the bloodbath that is the academic job market ... The things we do for love, right? العربية In my current job, I've had the opportunity to participate in admission committee discussions and interviews for a to-be-unnamed Ivy League university, and even though it was undergrad admissions, I feel like it's given me a lot more insight into how the sausage is made, so I'm probably a bit less freaked out by this whole process. So far three of my applications are still inside the black hole they were sucked into as soon as I hit "submit", but I did have an interview with Yale a couple weeks ago. Which was a relief since I submitted the Yale application two weeks late (I was originally planning on applying to a different department that had a 12/31 deadline, then decided at the last minute to switch to Linguistics, which had a 12/15 deadline). But no one's reading applications over the holidays anyway, and luckily they were understanding about the situation. I feel like the interview went pretty well. (I had a single kicking-myself-afterwards, why-did-I-say-that moment, but I sent a follow-up email clarifying what I meant to say, so hopefully no harm no foul.) When I asked how many interviews they were doing, the prof told me that they were interviewing 12 candidates, with the plan to admit 7 and hopefully matriculate 3. Which I figure puts my odds at 58% — a heartening improvement from pre-interview single digits, I'm sure. Aside from Yale (which is an awesome fit for me), one of the other programs is also a great fit, one is a good fit but for different reasons, and the fourth is probably a bit of a stretch. I don't think my other three schools do interviews (at least as far as I can tell from the results board from previous years), so I probably won't hear anything until the decisions are made. But in corresponding with one of the professors at the other "great fit" school before I applied, he confirmed that my interests give me a "strong standing as an applicant" and he looked forward to reviewing my application "with enthusiasm". So that sounds like a good sign, right? Also, when I asked the Magic 8 Ball app on my phone if I'd get into Yale it said "Count on it!" So I figure it's pretty much a done deal. But the waiting is hard ... I have wasted way too much time trying to read the tea leaves on this site ... And I know I'm probably not going to hear back from Yale for another week or two (prof said mid-Feb at latest), and probably another month for the other three, so I don't know why I'm grinding on it now ...

@eighty8keys Be sure to send a short note to all the programs that you applied to, letting them know that you just had this paper published (if you haven't already). Could make the difference!

I think most interviews are often conducted on Skype. (Mine were — for international students I would think they definitely would not expect you to fly to the US.) They also gave me the option of a telephone interview if Skype was not possible. If you can't make the interview at all, I don't think it's necessarily a deal-breaker — as long as you have a valid reason. (i.e. "I'll be backpacking in the Alps that week and will not have phone or computer access.) In that case, you'll be at a disadvantage compared to students they were able to speak to and get a sense of, but I'm sure they'll still consider you.

I think this is by far the best answer. You don't want to send an updated version of your CV ("there's something new here: find it!"), and in my experience admission committees are always happy to have the updated information to base their decision on. In no way is it unprofessional to let them know about a major update like that.

I seriously doubt that would affect your application at all. First of all, the application materials will be compiled by the graduate school into a single electronic record (depending on their system), and it's possible the filenames won't even appear. Secondly, even if it did appear it's likely the readers wouldn't notice something like that. And, lastly, even if they did notice they probably wouldn't care. In my experience (inside Ivy League undergrad admissions), they're decent people who give applicants the benefit of the doubt on things like that. They're not going to nix you just because you made a very understandable human error. (Of course, if there are many errors, to the point that it looks like you didn't put much work into your application or can't follow instructions, that's something different.) But they're not going out of their way to look for reasons to throw you out.

Being asked for an interview is a sign that you're in the top tier of candidates. Based on the numbers from the school that I interviewed with, when I first applied I had less than a 10% chance of acceptance, but the fact I had been selected for an interview meant that I now had about a 58% chance of acceptance. So a big jump. As far as the interview itself, you can google "grad school interview" and you'll find lots of articles with sample questions and advice. In short: Be prepared to talk about your background and research interests extensively, and make sure you really know the program and the research interests of your POI(s). Have some intelligent questions to ask. And try, as much as possible, to relax and be yourself. (A professional version of yourself of course.) A lot of the interview evaluation is "I'm going to spend the next several years with this person, would that be enjoyable or would they drive me crazy." :-) (BTW, I don't know my results yet. My advice here is based on experience on the other side of the table in job interviews and on an Ivy League undergrad admission committee.)

Hello All! Just checking in ... I have an MA in Arabic (Linguistics) from Georgetown, and have applied to the Linguistics PhD program at Yale, in addition to three Arabic PhD programs (Georgetown, NYU, Cornell). I had an interview with Yale a couple weeks ago, and am driving myself nuts waiting to hear back....