chasingexcellece

Updates: NYU and Arizona sent out rejection letters yesterday.

Hey Everyone! My background and results so far. Hoping they will provide insights for those who are curious on the process. Undergrad: Oakland University, BA Linguistics, Spanish and TESL GPA: 3.92 Research: Honors Thesis (Fieldwork of Indigenous Language) and Individual Research Project of Polish Multiple Wh-Fronting Specializations: (2017 round): Phonology, Fieldwork (2018): Syntax, Fieldwork, Experimental Methods Involvement: President of Linguistics Club, Resident Assistant for 3 years, ESL Teacher, spent 2 Summers Abroad in Bolivia working with indigenous populations I applied to 6 schools last year, which were UCLA, UC-Berkeley, UCSC, Hawaii, UofM, and Arizona. My Polish research paper was not a part of my application last year. Last Years Results (2017): UCSC- Contacted Jan 1st for phone interview. Phone interview on Jan 6th. Rejection on March 3rd. UCLA-Rejected Feb 11th UofM-Rejected Feb 7th UC-Berkeley- Jan 20th Hawaii- Offered non-funded MA on Jan 31st Arizona- Personally contacted on March 1st by one of the faculty I wanted to work with (who encouraged me to get some more research experience and to apply again). Rejected formally on March 4th. Due to finances, I couldn't accept Hawaii's MA offer, and chose to work with former faculty on research while working full-time. This year, I reapplied to four of the schools from last year and looked more into strong syntax/experimental schools. Over the summer in preparation of the next round of applications, I conducted a formal syntax study of speaker's acceptability ratings of polish wh-constructions and wrote a 30+ page paper on my findings and their implications for CP and wh question structure. This Years Results (2018): Schools: UofM, Hawaii, Arizona, UCSC, UMD, NYU, UChicago, U Kansas, U Indiana, UConn UofM-Rejected Early Feb UChicago- Rejected Feb 2 Hawaii-Offered same non-funded MA on Feb 21st Still waiting back for the rest. I do want to share this, as I think it's important to know about this process: 1) If a school (or all the schools you apply to) rejects you, it does not mean that you do not have potential to be an incredible linguist. You may not be the applicant they are looking for and have some room to grow, but it doesn't mean you'll never make it in our field. 2) That being said, if you're discouraged now, it's a long road. Make sure its a road you're willing to fight to travel down. Rejection is hard, but grad school applications won't be the only rejections you'll face in your career as a linguist.