fuzzylogician

So, let me see if I understand. You need to upload a SOP as a pdf document, and there is a separate prompt for that essay. Then -- in addition -- you also need to provide short answers to the two questions you listed above. Did I get it right? If so, then I take the first question to ask for a short SOP-like answer concentrating specifically on your research interests and your background in it (i.e., they want an answer to the question: "what do you want to study at X University, and how does your background prepare you to study this question(s)?"). The second question is more like a personal statement question in nature, where you can talk about any other factors you want them to know but would not put in your SOP. This is where I would propose to discuss a bad semester/grades caused by personal difficulties (e.g. death of a loved one, illness, etc.), work experience (e.g. if it affected your grades, or if it's relevant to your research in some way), etc. This is also the place to mention volunteer work, leadership positions, etc. -- positive things about you that would not normally make it into the SOP, but are good for the adcom to know.

I second both of the suggestions here but I would like to point out that there doesn't need to be anything outrageously wrong with your advisor and even if you have nothing to document, it's still completely legitimate to feel that you two don't get along. That happens sometimes and it doesn't need to be anybody's fault. I think you should make a decision for yourself whether you can fix something in your relationship with your advisor (and it's worth investing the time in it) or you want to switch. Then tell the DGS and insist on finding other solutions if they keep telling you to try and make it work with your advisor. I would maybe also start thinking about who might replace your advisor, because the DGS may ask you for your opinion. Maybe even start talking to potential advisors to get a feel for the probability that they will take you on as a student.

You need to ask the schools you're applying to. Many schools will not count the references as part of the page limit and you might also get away with having the images in appendices. But you need to ask. If you choose to omit part of the paper, there are several ways of doing it. One is to just give the part you want them to read and attach an abstract in the beginning that situates this excerpt in the context of the rest of the paper. Another is to add brief descriptions of the omitted sections where they were omitted (I'd avoid that if you could just have an abstract in the beginning of the paper, but if you're giving multiple disparate excerpts it may be easier to have short descriptions of omitted parts where they occur in the paper instead of putting everything at the top). Yet another way is to submit the whole paper with instructions of what to read and a description of the rest. This allows interested readers to read more, and others to just read within the page limit. This should be done with permission from the schools, because technically you are exceeding the page limit, but I think most schools are ok with this.

You need to check the software that is being used by the schools you apply to. Many systems allow you to save any changes you've made to your application without submitting it. In that case, you can fill out the other parts and upload an SOP and writing sample later on. Some (annoying!) apps require you to do everything in one sitting. You just need to know what holds of the specific apps at the specific schools you're applying to. My guess is that most will allow you to save changes, so you could start completing them now, but it really depends.

Find out if these programs have a cutoff score, and if so what it is. If you're above the cutoffs, move on. If not, retake. GRE scores will keep you out (if you are below cutoffs) but they will not get you in. For that, the SOP, writing sample, and LORs are much more important. I'd spend my time there, once you're above any cutoff that could keep your application from being read in the first place. It sounds like you have good grades and research experience and you are able to get strong LORs, so overall it sounds like you could have a decent chance of having a strong application.

I'm confused. You're getting one strong letter from someone in your field, one letter from a very famous person in your field, and then you need to choose between two "OK" letters: - Someone in a related field who will write a "nothing damaging, but warm and encouraging letter for graduate studies." - Someone in your field who you took some classes with and might not even remember you. I'm not sure what you expect the first professor to write exactly (is it just a "did well in class" or something more?) -- but how is getting a "did well in class" letter from someone you think doesn't know who you are a good option? Seems to me that if you can have a stronger letter from someone in a related field, that's a better choice. If you're basically choosing between two "did well in class" letters and the only difference is in the identity of the writer, you should find out which one is better known in your field and choose them.

I had clear geographical preferences when applying to grad school precisely because I knew that I would have little or no freedom in choosing my preferred location when applying for academic positions. Even so, some position that are on the market this year absolutely do not seem like places that I could live in, and I'm not applying for them. I don't want to make a life choice that I know would make me very unhappy just for the sake of having a (bad) job, there are other solutions here. I think quality of life is very important and there are reasons to make it a priority -- perhaps not the top one, but still an important one. If you can apply to a good selection of schools in places you also want to live in, why not do it?

Yes, you can. The admissions office will open a file for you when the first batch of materials (e.g. GRE scores or transcripts) arrives. Of course there is always a (small) possibility that things will get lost, but I don't think there is any particular reason to expect that GRE scores are more likely to get lost than your CV or SOP.

Generally speaking, you put personal/contact info, education, awards, publications/presentations, teaching experience, research experience, service, other work experience (if relevant), other skills (field specific; e.g. programming skills, languages). In some cases you may also want to add a list of relevant coursework with short explanations of course content, if it's not clear from the transcript (e.g. "Topics in Art" can mean all kinds of different things and the adcom won't know what you actually did). Look at CVs of students in the programs you want to apply to. What do their CVs contain? Perhaps in art fields you also add work you've created and showed or other similar entries. Look in particular at beginning students' CVs -- people in their 1st or maybe 2nd year, to get an idea of what kind of experience they had when they were admitted to these programs. It'll also give you an idea of how to structure your own CV. Don't pad -- it'll be obvious. Better a short but honest CV than a long but clearly faking it one.

Does it appear on your transcript (or else: how do you know that's true, where is this information published)? If it's in your transcript you don't need to mention it again. Otherwise, you might mention it but honestly it seems like a bit much to me. If you also graduated with some kind of honors (presumably you did, with a placement that high in your class), that makes the same point but is much more common on CVs. It shows you actually got high grades, whereas finishing high in your class could also be interpreted as going to a school where the other students were not just that strong.

You should have at least one of your recommenders say A about you. You should not say A, but instead talk about the specifics of the research experience(s) you do have, explain what you learned and how it informed your decision to attend grad school and your current research interests.

They can probably still reject it. How likely it is probably depends on several factors - e.g. are the editors doing the review or will your article go out for the usual double-blind peer review? Normally invited papers have a high chance of being accepted, but the peer review process might end in an unfavorable way. However, I imagine that the likely outcome is some kind of Revise&Resubmit, assuming that they liked the abstract (which they must have, because they accepted it) and that they would therefore like to give it a fair chance of making it into the published volume.

You could add a short description of the other sections to help situate your writing sample in the context of the entire paper. I'm not sure listing all the titles would really be all that helpful, at least not as much as actually describing the contents. You could also (if it's allowed) submit the entire paper with instructions to only read sections X-Y, which would give the adcom the chance to read more if they are interested.

Great news! To clarify, this professor told you that the school that you are currently attending may not admit its own alums to its graduate program? This sounds like something you should be able to figure out relatively easily -- find out who the person in charge of the graduate program is (the DGS - Director of Graduate Studies, or else the head of the program, or an administrative assistant), and ask them!

There are such services out there, but it's not clear that you need that kind of help for building an academic CV. There are lots of useful tips here: http://theprofessorisin.com/category/how-to-write-cvs/. This person also offers a paid service, but I can't say anything about it one way or the other. Before you pay someone money, I'd suggest trying to get some (free) advice from professors and friends. One thing you could do to get started is browse the webpages of schools you're considering applying to. Find the grad students' page and see if you can google some students who are 1-2nd years in the program. Look at their CVs and try to determine what kind of stuff they had on there when they applied. It'll give you an idea of what people's CVs look like and it'll also give you an example of a good structure. These things are somewhat field-specific, and in additiona you'll probably find that even within your (sub)field there is no just one correct way of doing things, so just pick a CV that you like and format yours to look similar. Then, once you have a CV, ask a professor to take a look. Hopefully you have someone in your school who would agree to help, and if you've done a good job researching what a CV looks like, it shouldn't be a hard task for them!

This looks much improved. However, now I worry that you give too much detail but not in a useful way. Is this paper you are describing going to be your writing sample? If so (and probably even if not) you don't need to describe the graphs you produced from your data and you don't need to describe all the dependent and independent variables you used in your analysis. Stick to describing your research question and your findings (the positive ones!) and you can also include the surprising one. Explain why the question is interesting/important and what your conclusions teach us that we didn't know before. So, give some more of a bird's-eye view of how this contributes to our knowledge in the relevant field. That's a synthesis that you should do, and it's not evident from just describing the effects of some DV on the results. Try and think of it in terms of the proportions -- you are spending 237 words out of 500 on this one past project that doesn't connect to your future interests, but you're mostly giving small details and not the bigger picture. That's a bit much. Use this past experience to show that you can ask good questions, successfully analyze data, and draw important conclusions -- that's much more important than demonstrating that you can generate a graph. Right now I think you're only trying to show one of these three things, and there too you're doing too much telling and not enough showing. The sentence that starts with "My reasons for applying to..." should start its own paragraph. I'd move the description of your thesis interest (now in beginning of the second paragraph) to this paragraph and maybe add a sentence about why it's important/interesting. This will help your statement have more of a balance: 1/3 long-term goals, 1/3 past research, 1/3 goals while in school+fit. Also, no offense, but this is in critical need of editing by a native speaker. There are too many issues here for me to fix for you right now, but you absolutely need to take this to your university's writing center or at least have native-speaker friends edit the statement for style, once you're done working on the content.

The DGS may have other hidden agendas, like helping the OP's PI get tenure. An important part of that is successfully advising students, and that may be a reason why the DGS would prefer it if the OP stays in his current lab. Although outside considerations should not be affecting decisions and advice, they may be. OP, if you feel that the DGS will not help and insisting on your decision will not convince them, I think you should just go ahead and find yourself a new lab by directly talking to PIs who might agree to take you on. If you have a PI who is willing to have you in their lab, you'll have a stronger position when it comes to dealing with whatever bureaucracy there may be in getting the transition done.

You're welcome. People have different opinions about whether or not you need to explain a bad grade, there is no one correct answer. Personally I think that one bad grade in an otherwise good transcript is nothing to worry about, everyone has an off semester or a problem once in a while that can affect your grades. What I do think everyone agrees on, however, is that if you do decide to explain your grade, you need to keep it short and positive, and if possible you want to demonstrate that the problem is in the past and is unlikely to repeat itself. 1/3 the length of the whole statement is a lot more than necessary.

Sunday, as in two days ago, over the weekend? Give it some more time before you decide you're being ignored. If you don't hear back after a week, email again and give it a few more days. Then you can stop by the professors' offices and see if you can talk to them in person, preferably during office hours if you know when they are. You can browse department websites for information about the professors and perhaps their office hours, or call an administrative assistant if you're not sure. This is also where you can find out if a professor moved to a new school, and googling their name should yield a website at the new school if that is the case. Professors are normally very good about maintaining an online presence.

I think the most prudent strategy is to ask for letters now, when your professors still clearly remember who you are. The letters can be uploaded to a service like interfolio so they should be safe and easily accessible later. Then it may be wise to stay in touch with your professors on and off during your time working so they still remember you and can perhaps write a stronger letter based on your later accomplishments as well as your time as a student (or at least, you have nothing to lose if they just submit the same letter they wrote before without changes). Depending on what kind of degree you apply for, you may be able to submit 1-2 professional LORs from employers, but it's probably always going to be good to have at least one academic LOR, so it's good to keep those connections alive.

I am not an expert on historical linguistics programs but generally speaking, to have a good chance at getting into a program what you want to do is demonstrate that you are a good fit. The question adcoms will be asking themselves is what are your chances of finishing the program successfully and in a timely manner, and for someone with your kind of background that translates into two (related) questions: how do you know that you want to study linguistics, since you've never done it in the past, and will you be successful at it? So you will want to tie as much of your past as you can into your future plans, and you'll want to demonstrate research ability in a related field (i.e., your undergrad field). You should have a rational explanation for how you know that you want to do linguistics and you should be able to tie it to some kind of future plan, because people don't normally do an unfunded MA program unless they have a good reason. If you can do those things, I think you'll stand a good chance. People with unusual backgrounds get into PhD programs quite often, so getting into an MA program should be a feasible goal.

So basically both of them can say you took a class with them and did well? Can they say anything beyond that? If not, this letter be quite weak -- which is ok, if your other letters are stronger. If the content will be pretty much the same, you could try asking yourself if maybe one professor is better known than the other. I imagine the more established professor is better known, but the question is if they'll also recognize his name in EE. A letter from someone famous will carry more weight, though again this is all under the caveat the usefulness of a "did well in class" letter is rather limited.

If you need to miss a class, do it. Deciding on a lab for the next 4-5 years is more important than one lecture, and even one whole week of lectures. You're not going to be email people out of the blue, but instead as part of the process of choosing a lab. It's not crazy at all, even if they don't know you. If they don't know you at all, just introduce yourself, explain that you need to choose a lab soon, and ask if you could meet in person for a chat about the lab. It doesn't have to be long. Offer to buy them coffee if it makes you feel better. It's generally much better to talk to people in person than ask questions in an email because people may not want to put down in writing any problems or misgivings, especially if they are writing to someone who they don't know (well). Most people should respond kindly to such a request, I'm sure they remember the pressure to make that choice not all that long ago when they needed to make it. No one benefits from having lab members who are unhappy or don't fit, so it's in everybody's best interest that you make a good choice for yourself. When you talk to people, just tell them that you need to choose a lab by Friday and that you're currently considering their lab and also lab X. Ask how it has been working in the lab for them - are they happy with their interactions with the PI and other students? Are they publishing enough? Are they working on projects that they like? Did they get freedom in choosing their topic? Do they feel that the PI provides the necessary support (maybe more guidance early on and more independence later in the process)? Have there been students in recent years who have transferred out of the lab without graduating (or taking the MS option if it's a PhD program)? Do they know how many and why? Also - on the personal side: what other labs were they choosing between when they needed to choose, and how did they decide? Do they have advice for you on what to look for or how to choose? What are important criteria for them? Hopefully you'll get some helpful replies and you'll also get a sense of whether or not these are people you enjoy being around. You can ask a lot of these things in an email too, if you don't get a chance to talk in person.

Overall this is a good first draft, but I think it needs to be reworked so the focus is more on the present and future. Both the 'previous work' you describe and the 'fit' portion (why you want to attend this university) are quite vague. I've made some edits and I have some thoughts about the text below, in bold.

I think there is no other choice except to meet with as many people as you can and talk to as many students as you can. The lab environment will be crucial for your happiness and therefore for your success. I understand that you've busy with classes but if there ever was a week to fall behind or miss an assignment deadline, this is it. Try and schedule meetings with both PIs and also talk to all the students you can find. You could also consult with older students in your program (in any lab) about how they made the choice and what they thought were the most important considerations. Spend your time this week doing this--it's far more important than classes.