fuzzylogician

This is my third application season on TGC. I find that I'm busier all the time and although I try to keep track of what's going on, I don't have as much time to post as I did in the past. Occasionally, however, I do take some breaks and then I'm back to posting as usual. I do hope that the Officially Grads forum could expand and be a real venue for those of us who been here longer to interact. I still always use another username for serious personal questions (otherwise I'm too recognizable) but in general I enjoy having the same username as I did as an applicant and I wish more parts of the forum were relevant to me.

1. Start the process as early as possible. Seriously. It's never too early to start. 2. Spend time researching the programs you are considering applying to - read their website, as well as potential advisors' websites. Read about the location, the weather, the current funding situation. Ask your professors about each school. 3. Don't apply to "safety schools", there is no such thing. Also don't apply to schools in locations you absolutely don't see yourself living in. Don't make choices that will make you unhappy before you even start. 4. Write an early SOP draft and put it aside for at least a few weeks. You may find while writing the draft that you struggle to define your interests. Spend some time thinking about that; it can be a real soul-searching process and you should not apply before you've gone through it and are confident in your chosen field(s). 5. Think ahead. One of the papers you write for a class this year will likely turn into your writing sample next year; get good feedback and revise accordingly. One or more of the professors you are taking classes with this year will be recommenders next year. Go to office hours, make yourself known to them. Seek feedback from them on your work, maybe even on papers for other classes if they are interested. 6. Use the summer wisely. A small RAship or an independent study could go a long way towards getting you some much needed research experience, maybe also a LOR and/or a writing sample. Not to mention how much it'll help you to better define your interests for your SOP. 7. Find out if it's customary to contact potential advisors ahead of time in your field. If so, do it a few weeks before or a few weeks after the new term starts. Don't wait, this can affect your choice where to apply. 8. Don't stress overmuch about grades. For one, there's little you can do to change the ones you already have. Further, the "intangible" parts of the application are so much more important. 9. Revise, revise, and revise some more. Let professors and friends read your SOP for content and for style. Let someone read your writing sample as well. Go through multiple versions, take your time. These things are hard to write. 10. Be on top of things, part 1. I suggest a chart with the following info for each school: (a) deadline, (b ) app fee, (c ) link to app website, (d) username, password for website, (e) requirements (how many transcripts, GRE/subject GRE score, TOEFL score, LORs, SOP prompt, writing sample length, other - diversity statement, personal statement, letter of intent, etc.), (f) potential advisors, links to websites 11. Be on top of things, part 2. Have a time line: deadlines for each school, when to order transcripts (how many), when to send out application packets, when to contact recommenders, when to send reminders. If you're international, look up American holidays around when you expect to send your app so you're not surprised by the (lack of) operating times of the post office and the schools. 12. Be on top of things, part 3. Get in touch with your recommenders early. Prepare a packet for each of them with your transcript, a paper you wrote for their class, a draft of your SOP, a list of the schools you're applying to with their deadline. Ask them if/when they would like you to send them reminders. Consider having a backup plan for flaky recommenders - in particular ones that will be away and will be hard to track down if they disappear.

Yep, thank you, I should have been more accurate. It can take up to three months to get the permit, although I do know lucky people for whom it took much less. If you file in September along with everybody else who just arrived in the US it'll probably take the full three months. Another thing to keep in mind is that it's not advisable to start looking for a job before you have the permit, or you risk alienating potential employers. And, of course, even with a permit finding a job isn't very easy, although it is much better than needing your employer to take care of a visa for you.

I imagine some profs give everyone the top list and others suggest schools that are a better match for the particular student who is consulting with them. It also depends on what you asked for, exactly. If you want to know what your professors meant when you talked to them, ask them about your chances at each of those schools and how well they think those schools match your interests. It'd be so much easier and more reliable than us speculating on the forum.

Whether or not the two-year home residency requirement is enforced depends a lot on the source of funding for the J-1 visa. It's almost impossible to get out of it if the funding comes from Fulbright, but it seems that if it comes from the university itself often no one cares about it. OP: you're right, your wife can't work on an F-2 visa. The first thing to do is to inquire about the possibility of getting a J-1 visa from your university, as suggested above. Your wife would get a J-2 visa; she could then get a work permit within a few weeks of arriving in the US, and find a job. If you've already accepted the F-1 visa, you have less options. To work, your wife will have to find someone who will be willing to issue her a work visa. That's not trivial at all and is time consuming. Another thing to look at is have her apply to a local college or university so she can get her own F-1 visa (in case she is interested in studying, of course). You should plan to have something for her to do, otherwise it could be a huge strain on your marriage.

In a sense that's something you should worry about when you choose where to apply and when you're choosing between offers. Once you've accepted an offer and you're committed to a school, it's beyond your control. I guess I'm one of those people who doesn't see the logic behind worrying about things I can't change so I don't spend time thinking about those things. But that's part of human nature, I know some people can't help but worry. If you anticipate budget cuts or that some professor might leave, take that class with them now, not later. Even if there are no cuts, a professor might become ill or accept a job elsewhere or just not offer the class you're interested in next term. If there's ever a class you have to take, get it done as soon as possible. But normally there will be more than one way to satisfy a requirement and the department will not punish students for things that are beyond their control. In general, though, I think it's better to worry about things you can change, not things you can't.

In my program we don't have any of the above - we have "generals papers"; other programs in my field have "qualifying papers". The requirements change from program to program so that's something to read on each department's website. The general idea is probably similar in all cases, though: demonstrating familiarity with one's chosen field - either by passing exams or by writing papers that show enough knowledge and/or originality and/or ability to produce publishable work - all of which is design to make sure that the student has received sufficient training, and is capable of launching his/her dissertation research and eventually producing a compelling final result.

In a word, YES. You and your advisor should both feel comfortable working with each other. What you describe does not sound like a normal mentor-mentee relationship. Have you taken steps to try and fix this? Communication is key; we can sometimes come across very different than how we feel. If you haven't already, you need to talk with your advisor and let her know that you are uncomfortable with the way things have been going. You need to make this about your feelings and what style of advising works for you, not about accusing her for her past behavior. It's important to be clear about the changes you want made and exactly what is not working. If you've done all this and have given her chances to fit her advising style to your working stye, you may be at a point where you need to start considering changing advisors. But don't continue on in the present situation, it sounds very unhealthy.

It's enough that one referee mentions your grades in their letter, you don't need everyone to explain them. You may not to have them explained at all, in fact, but you seem to think that your grades could harm your application. Choose the referee you're closest to and explain your situation; you can't know what they write in the end, but if they are willing to help, they should agree to mention the upward trend in your grades once you started college compared to the classes you took in highschool, and especially the upward trend since you were diagnosed with ADD. Grades aren't all that important in an application to begin with, compared to research experience, fit, and the other written components (SOP, LORs, writing sample) but if you feel that there are legitimate reasons for lower grades that you want the adcom to know about, having the explanation come from an authoritative figure - a mentor - is better than just writing it in the SOP (or in an addendum, if one is allowed). A helpful LOR will include information about the writer - including where they teach, how much experience they've had placing students in graduate programs, and information about their department, if it's not well-known. Again, unless you get to see the letter you'll never be sure that they included all the information that they should, but experienced professors will have written and read enough rec letters to know what helpful information they should include in theirs.

Honestly, this doesn't sound like a "horrible mistake" nor like that much of a risk-taking behavior. More like curiosity, intellect and drive at a young age. It's nothing to worry about, and I wouldn't even address it in the SOP, if I were you. No reasonable adcom will hold over your head a low grade from a class you took when you were 16, when your college career has been nothing but solid. At most, you could include a one-liner "I experimented with classes when I was younger, but have since matured and have been consistently successful throughout my college career". I really wouldn't even do that. Maybe just have a referee address your earlier experiences.

Personally I'd choose lab 2. It's hard to do research in a lab that makes you unhappy, and if you already know that the prof in lab 1 is not the kind of person you want as your advisor, don't put yourself in that situation to begin with? As LJK suggests, it may be possible to start some kind of collaboration with prof 1 or his lab, which would get you the publication you need without the added stress of having him as your direct supervisor. Otherwise, still, I would choose the place where I thought I fit better.

Money should not be everything. Especially once you know that you'll be making enough to get by, other factors can enter the picture and sway your decision. Location, job opportunities for your partner, weather, options for going out, general 'compatibility' with a place - these are all important, and you should consider them together with your partner when you decide where to go. It really would be advisable to visit both schools/cities before you decide, but in general if you feel like one place will make you happier than the other, choose it.

Yes, it sounds like you have a lot to write in a diversity statement. Diversity isn't just about race; you have several experiences that would contribute to the diversity of a "normal" science department and to the university. You don't lose anything by writing the statement, so why not do it?

I'm not sure why you're being voted down.. Craigslist and your department are good options; however, I think it's not advisable to sign a lease without seeing the apartment and meeting the roommates. I'd advise you to change your travel plans so you'll have some time at the end of the summer to come to Boston and search for apartments yourself. If it's really impossible for you to do that, consider taking a dorm. At least that way you'll know you're not being scammed, and you could always move out at the end of the year if you don't like the place.

Are any of the offers funded? Where would you prefer to live/study? What are your career goals - do you want to get a MA or a PhD?

Pros: You help your colleagues and/or professors out. You learn more about all the technical issues that are involved in organizing a conference (and there are many of them). You get to meet and talk to people who attend the conference. You may get free food, a conference mug/t-shirt, invitation to a dinner with conference guests, other free gifts, etc. You may have your registration fee waived. You work together with profs from your department and get to know them better Mostly, you'll just get the satisfaction of having helped, really. Cons: You may have to miss some talks. If you're chairing, you may be concentrating more on keeping track of the time than listening to the speakers. It can be very tiring; you may be sent out on errands, asked to come early, stay late, lug equipment around, help with all kinds of things. You may be too busy to mingle with conference guests. Depending on what your duties will be, a lot of work happens before the conference begins that may be time-consuming. Those are the main things that come to mind from my own experience. It can be a lot of work, but it's very educational and it can be a good way to get to know people. The organizers will certainly appreciate your help. If the conference is well organized then you will not be 'on duty' all of the and there will be enough opportunities for you to mingle and talk to interesting people who attend the conference. You should have the opportunity to attend the talks that interest you -- but be sure to look at the program in advance and let the organizers know which talks you want to attend no matter what.

As newms suggests, you could write them and ask if they need any additional materials from you. In that same email, if you feel comfortable doing so, you could just ask if/how often they would like you to send them reminders. Some need more reminders than others and many are likely to write the letter at the last minute regardless of how many reminders you send. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, sending a reminder 2 weeks before the deadline, and then again 4-5 days before the deadline would be reasonable.

The general wisdom seems to be that it is possible to overcome a (serious) weakness in the application and still be admitted to graduate school. As weaknesses go, lack of research experience, weak LORs and an unfocused/weak SOP are much more difficult to recover from than a low GPA. That's especially true if you're not applying straight out of undergrad but rather have other kinds of experiences that you gathered along the way, and even more so if you can show that you did well in your masters program. If your background, SOP and LORs are otherwise strong, it should be possible for you to convince an adcom to admit you. This, however, is only provided you get past initial sweeping cutoffs. If the adcom doesn't ever get to see your application, it'll be impossible for you to convince them that you are a strong talented applicant. So it'll be important for you to research the schools that you are interested in and inquire about cutoffs, and maybe also contact faculty there beforehand to secure more interest in your application -- you'll need to make sure your application does not get tossed automatically by some general cutoff.

What are your areas of interest? Some background in semantics (along with syntax and phonology) will be useful regardless of concentration, but you may not need phonetics if you're not interested in phonology/phonetics. More classes will not hurt, but what will probably be more helpful would be to acquire more research experience. Is any of the work you did in your independent study or in your thesis (potentially) publishable? Working closely with a faculty member and presenting/publishing somewhere will be a great boost for your application, and will also get you a strong LOR in the process. Likewise a new project with a new prof will have a similar effect. Part of what adcoms like to see is that you have a coherent concentration or interest in some subfield and that you've spend some time familiarizing yourself with that field and the main topics in it. Research experience will also help you make your SOP more focused and convincing. More classes will not hurt, but as you transition from being an undergrad who mostly takes classes to a grad student who mostly concentrates on research, taking the latter direction more seriously will help show the adcoms that you know what you are getting yourself into and that you have the skills it takes to make it through a graduate program.

I was in a similar situation and chose School A. No regrets here. Both options are good academically. At this point, it makes perfect sense to decide based on location, and this is an easy one. Choose the school that's located in the place you want to live in.

You are living in an unhealthy situation and you need to extricate yourself from it. You'll have to take active measures and get help from real people to do this. Given the state that you are in, I think that it's unrealistic to expect you to be able to leave home right this second -- you seem to be too dependent on your mother. As an important first step, it's good that you started seeking help online. The next step, however, is to also get help from people in your community, for starters from the counseling office at your school. There is good advice in this thread about how to get in touch with them. Start talking to someone, I can't stress enough how important it is to get someone else's perspective on the situation. I think that you are in many ways lost; you need to learn how to live as an independent adult. Start making a plan for yourself for what you'll do when you move out and how you'll live. This is something that you can research online - there are many resources out there: forums, blogs, advice columns, etc. that you can read so you can start assembling a picture of what it'll be like and what you need to know. Your plan should include things like moving out (deciding where to go to, researching areas you would want to live in - neighborhoods, rent, cost of living.. are there friends or other family members who you could move in with while you get your life together? ), getting a job, thinking about means of transportation, learning to do the cooking, cleaning, etc.; it's important to have an idea of what factors are important once you move away. You should get help from others when thinking about all these things, but this is something that you can start doing right now at home. Please remember that it is entirely within your power to do this. Every healthy adult moves out and becomes independent at some point in their lives, and you can do it too. Don't worry about what your mom will say or do; you need to take care of yourself, and right now the situation you are in is destructive. Starting to create change is often the hardest part, as LJK says, but you've already started! Now don't stop - instead move on to the next step. Do what you need to do so you can get out as soon as you can.

Hi labiodental plosive, the MIT ling department has made all of its decisions several weeks ago. If you haven't heard anything, you should email the department -- there must have been some problem with the notification system. Good luck! also -- congrats to everyone on your acceptances!!

Congratulations on the conference! Some basic tips for your own presentation include to practice giving it until you feel comfortable and confident. Try to give a formal practice talk in front of your research group, if possible, but also find friends who will be willing to sit and listen to you talk. Get comments on your slides and talk for clarity, and time yourself so you know what time each slide should come at. It's a good idea to have in mind places that you could skip or shorten in case you see that you are falling behind. I assume that you'll be working on the content of the presentation with your professor, but if not then definitely get him/her to comment on the content too. Make sure you stay within your allotted time. There's nothing worse than a speaker who can't finish their talk on time. At the conference - technically you're supposed to be there and attend the talks. In practice, if you want to go explore the city (and you totally should!) I think that's perfectly acceptable. Conferences are a great place to make connections, but you don't need to be there the whole time to do that. For your own session - you should be present for the entire session, out of respect for the other speakers. Dress codes can vary by field and location so ask professors or more experienced students in your department. Make sure that you feel comfortable in your clothes, though, it's important for your confidence. As for not being intimidated, well, I don't expect anyone will be trying to do that on purpose. If your work is engaging then people will want to talk to you after the talk, but that's a good thing. During the questions period, expect to be surprised. There will always be that one question that you absolutely did not expect. It's perfectly ok to reply 'that's an excellent question, I don't know the answer right now. Thank you for asking,' or some such. I would even say that if no one manages to challenge you and your research, you're missing one of the key points of presenting to peers, namely getting fresh perspective on the work. Make friends with other students. Many will be there alone and kind of lost, that's part of the nature of these gatherings. On the other hand, that makes it easier to meet people. Maybe you could even go with some of the people you meet out on the town lastly and most importantly - enjoy yourself! It's a great opportunity and you're going to a great city.

I'm not in the Humanities and my research does require access to on-campus labs and specialized software, but still most of the time I can do without those things and work from just about anywhere. I take two 3-week-long trips home every year - in the summer and in the winter - and spend the rest of my time in the US. Although there is no strict requirement to be in the department over the summer, as one progresses in the program, there are more things to do and so one starts needing to be there more often to get everything done. Personally I work best in my office so I come every day, but others prefer to work in coffeeshops or the library and that's fine too. There is an expectation to get work done in a timely fashion, not to clock in at the office. I could never afford to take a whole summer off -- I would never be able to get my work done. The summer is really the best time to write and to do research; the rest of the year you'll be distracted by classes and teaching. But if you can achieve in 9 months what others achieve in 12, and your professors are happy with your progress - more power to you.

What does your funding offer say? I can't tell you. If you don't know, ask someone in the respective departments. In any event, department culture and what is an acceptable absence will change from place to place so again - ask someone there.