fuzzylogician

Officially the two deadlines are the same. However, many times schools will accept a late LOR and will be much more forgiving than with a late application submission. They understand that students can't control when professors submit their letters. As long as the admissions committee hasn't met, there is a fairly good chance that your letters will be accepted, even if they are late. As for knowing whether this policy holds of any particular program is, of course, much more difficult.

Chomsky is indeed at MIT, but I'm not sure it's the best place to go for Historical Linguistics, unless you don't mind a heavy load of theoretical stuff that may or may not be relevant to your research.

Linguistics, 5. I love my program. I love my professors, I love my colleagues (cohort and other years), I love the city I'm in, and I love the research I do. This is not to say that there are no difficulties, but so far they are more than worth it.

Yes, why?

$26,000 is totally doable for one person. It'll be hard to sustain two people off that stipend, so it'll depend on how long you'll have to do that for. You'll have to keep a very tight budget. But if your boyfriend stays home and cooks, and if you don't mind living in a less upscale apartment, then I think it can be done.

Based on everything you write, it sounds like you should leave. This was not your field to begin with and it is not growing on your either. I'm not sure I would even advise to stay for a Masters, but certainly doing an entire PhD just because you don't want to offend your advisor is a bad idea. I understand wanting to justify the time and money that have been invested in you, but at the end of the day you have to do what's right for you. Remember, others have all kinds of other goals in mind -- you should have your good health and well being at the top of yours. It sounds like your original reasons for wanting a PhD were not necessarily the right ones, and now that you've tried it and realized it's not the right decision for you, there is no reason to prolong your suffering. If you trust your advisor, you could bring this issue up with him. He might find ways of helping you do research that better suits your interests, or he might be able to help you think through the advantages and disadvantages of leaving now vs. staying for a Masters. You'll notice that I still think it's a mistake to go on for a PhD unless your circumstances change drastically. A PhD is hard enough to do when you're happy with your environment and topic and it's almost impossible when you're unhappy with both. If you decide to leave, give him enough notice so that he'll have a chance to recruit someone during this admissions cycle who could take over your duties. If he's just now building his lab, I'm sure he would appreciate the heads up very much - especially if he's not tenured yet. That said, you should be your number #1 priority. Do what's right for you first, then worry about how it affects your advisor.

I don't know, I don't find it that much of a stretch to imagine that someone might ask for non-race-specific advice for dealing with a professor who (they think) doesn't like them, and not bringing up the race issue until after others remark that they don't see what the problem is. On a more general note, I don't see how telling someone to their face that you think they're lying does anyone any good. Like I wrote in the other thread, if you have constructive advice then you should go ahead and give it but you have this habit of putting people down and leading the conversation down unhelpful paths. Don't you see that diverting the focus from someone's obviously distressed question to a discussion of their credibility hurts everyone involved?

I'm not sure why some people choose not to believe the OP - what's to be gained by lying like that on an anonymous internet forum? It'll only make the advice the OP receives all the less relevant for their situation. OP - this is a shame but it doesn't change my opinion. We still don't know that this prof has anything against you personally; but either way, the best thing you can do for yourself is keep your interactions with her to a minimum and stop them altogether once you're no longer in her class. Sounds like you can't win this one, but the loss won't be too great either. I know it's hard to let it go but it's really the best way to help yourself through this situation.

I'm sure your attitude towards this professor is obvious to her, and is not helping. You come across in your posts as very frustrated and you've already decided that everything this professor does is against you and/or wrong. Frankly I don't think anything you described is particularly out of the ordinary or means anyone is out to get you. In any event, though, I'd recommend riding this semester out and then doing your best to avoid her. Take steps to ensure she's not on your committees and don't take any more classes with her.

If there are no guidelines, use whatever is the formatting convention in your field (e.g. based on requirements for papers that you've written for your classes or based on the formatting of articles in the leading journals in your field). Many times applications will generate headings and numbering for the entire application once you build it in the app system; if none are generated, I think it's a good idea to have identifying information on all of the documents that you submit (name, app ID if you have one, title of document) and page numbers (page X of Y) so everything can be easily traced back to you without the possibility of confusion. Also include a list of documents submitted when you send hard-copies of materials.

OP, like some others have said, people are going to talk and you can't do anything to prevent it. Best thing you can do is stand firm and believe in your innocence. If you act that way, that's what people will perceive. You can't eliminate all doubt in people's minds, unfortunately, and as a consequence you should not be trying. You should set straight anything incorrect that someone says to your face, and it is probably a good idea to otherwise minimize conversations about this topic; you don't want this to be something salient on people's minds - they should be talking about your research, not your private life.

muffins and 1Q84, please watch your language and your tone. You can get a point across without being rude and without cursing [the cursing has been edited out of the posts, by the way]. Moreover, I'm sure the OP is not interested in your hijacking his thread. This is a serious question and either you have specific suggestions that could be of help - in which case you should speak up and contribute to the discussion - or else the best way you could help the OP is to keep quiet and let others help. Open a new thread if you want to discuss general culture.

Get out now. Find out how the others did it, and follow in their footsteps. If you are afraid that she is manipulating data, there must be others outside of your lab who worry, too. This is not the kind of thing you can hide for ever; people talk, if only in hushed voices behind a person's back. You don't want your name or your work associated with that kind of reputation. It could sink your career before it even starts.

Now that you're in a grad program and you see how much good programs invest in their students, I think you're able to understand the considerations that go into choosing which students to admit. Can you convince yet another new program that you're worth the investment and won't run away again as soon as the going gets tough? I think you need to try and be more objective about your program. You've listed all the bad things; now step back and enumerate the good things. You've done more math than you'd like to; has this hurt you or will these skills be useful in the future? Can you also get the practical training you are interested in in your program, in addition to the theoretical training? Are there advisors who you enjoy working with? Are there labs you could join that do the kind of work you want to do? Surely there were good reasons for your joining the program in the first place. You sound like you're having some mental difficulties, more than academic ones. I think it might be good for you to try and seek out someone to help you work through your thoughts. I think you need to have a more balanced evaluation of your status in the program before you make any decisions. It's already a little bit late to reapply, though not completely so, but you should take the time to make an informed decision even if it takes another year. In the grand scheme of life and your career, one year isn't going to make all that much of a difference. Consider staying at least until you get the MS; think about what you've already done vs. what you'll do later in the program - there will be more coursework, yes, but how much? Of that coursework, how much can you take that is related to your work? And beyond courses, there are three years of research - what kind of work would you do then? We all end up taking courses we aren't interested in - the question is what other positives can attract and keep you in the program, and those mostly have to do with advising and other resources.

Check the results board for when this program sent out acceptance notifications in previous years. That should give you a good indication for when the admissions committee might be meeting to make decisions this year. Of course, there's no guarantee that they'll be working on the same schedule this year as they did last year, but departments usually have set procedures with pretty much set dates so it's a good place to start.

Honestly if you know already that you don't want a PhD then I don't see why you would stay. If you leave with an MA, you could be joining the workforce, gaining practical experience and starting to earn real money much sooner than if you stay for a PhD. Not to mention that earning a PhD might also make you overqualified for some positions. I understand the sentiment of not wanting to give away the funding you won, but I don't think it's worth three years of your life where you'd be doing something you don't want to do. Re: telling your advisor - that depends on your relationship with him. If you're comfortable confiding in him, why not tell him. Additionally, if your advisor will need to recruit someone to fill in your position, he'd probably appreciate it if you told him sooner rather than later so he can find someone during the upcoming application cycle. The main reason to hold back is if you think his behavior toward you will change if he knew you're not continuing for the PhD. In that case, you should do what's good for you and not what'd be good for your advisor.

My opinion:

This sounds pretty standard. Regardless of this prompt, you should be spending most of your SOP on your interests, goals and persons of interests (as a general response to the "fit" question) anyway.

Sounds like you need to get your two program coordinators together in a room and discuss how to tailor a program that fits your needs and that is sufficiently rigorous to award you a degree from both your programs. Trying to do the two programs disjointly at the same time without having any adjustments from either program sounds absolutely insane to me. The first year in most programs is designed to be extra-rigorous and usually tries to get students up to speed in their field within one or two years, starting from some basic notions but racing through much of the current literature in numerous subfields. It's hard enough to do just one program if you spend all your time just on that. Doing two is frankly borderline crazy or at least highly ambitious. I think that slowing down is a good idea but I think the logical thing to do is have an official study plan with your two programs that amounts to a reasonable workload, even if it's somewhat higher than what just one program would be. But doing twice the amount of work as everyone else will get you precisely where you're heading - doing a mediocre job at many things, or else completely dropping the ball on some. As mentioned above, there may also be ways you can improve your efficiency in both teaching and studying. Indeed, you shouldn't be spending a lot of time on TAing and you shouldn't be giving in to your students' demands just because they are pre-med. You need to have firm policies about grading and about when you are accessible. For example, setting up a discussion forum, as suggested. Or, answering questions only once or twice a week, or during office hours, etc. Similarly - you should only answer email during office hours (=no nights or weekends). Students will take for granted whatever you give them. Be more considerate of yourself, and they will do the same.

As a linguist, I have about as much of an opinion about this as a mathematician or a chemist would. As a competent writer of English, I think that using first person pronouns in a statement of purpose is completely warranted and should lead to a better stronger statement. If you're worried that all your sentences start with "my this" and "my that" then you could rephrase some of them to say maybe "the idea that I'll put forth" or "the interests I will discuss" or some such. But just as a concept, I don't think there's anything wrong with having more first person pronouns in your essay than you may have, for example, in your writing sample.

It depends and probably varies from professor to professor. Why don't you ask whoever you'd like to work with? (or for general advice, try people like the DGS, your advisor, any other students who have done a similar independent study, or the admin assistant for your program.)

You noticed...how? does it stand out as inappropriate or were you doing weird statistics on your SOP? I wouldn't worry about it unless the wording calls attention to anything unwanted, in which case I'd advise rewording. This is my general advice, though; it has with the use of 'my' in particular.

It might depend on the system but I've never heard of one where profs can't upload a letter after you submit the app. There are systems where profs can't upload their letter until you submit, on the other hand. There are also systems that don't have a status update page -- so if you're not sure you should ask your recommenders to notify you when they upload their letters.

I'd suggest reposting this question in a different forum to get better exposure. Furthermore, most students on thegradcafe are only now applying to schools so they can't really give you advice with any perspective. Try reading some of the general advice threads in the Applications forum for that. My answer: The strongest part of my application was my letters of recommendation. It's the one thing that everyone mentioned when I visited schools. I also had a good research record and some teaching experience, though no real publication or serious conference presentation.

Put it under "presentations" or some similar heading. The abstract does not count as a publication.