fuzzylogician

Does this mean you can't get anyone to be your main advisor? It'd be hard to write a thesis without the support of at least one faculty member. Honestly, I've found it's more important to have a good advisor than to insist on a topic that doesn't excite anyone in your department (at least to some extent, it doesn't have to be their main passion). It sounds like people are flat out telling you they don't want to work with you on the topic you suggested, and that's a big problem. I'm telling you this as the person who chose the topic over the advisor - I think I made the wrong choice. In hindsight I wish I had gone with the supportive professor whose interests were less of a match to mine than the one I ended up with who also didn't really like my topic but agreed to work with me on it. She was the biggest hindrance I had to overcome in the course of writing my thesis, and it was absolutely not worth it. I would have written a better paper faster with the other professor, and honestly I believe the professor's enthusiasm would have rubbed off on me even if the topic I would have had to work on wasn't really my favorite. Working with someone who doesn't care is very demoralizing, and in the end the product of such work won't be what it could have been in more favorable setting. Sometimes you have to choose wisely, using cold reason, not your emotions.

http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/12/a_guide_to_grad.html

Try looking at the results page for last year's updates. People usually update interviews and admissions processes usually stay the same across years, so you'll have a good idea if and when programs have interviews. FWIW some of my programs wanted interviews but none said anything about it on their websites.

Check the programs' websites. Some will explicitly tell you to send exactly what they ask for, and then it might not be a good idea to send the extra letter. Others might not say anything, and in that case you can either choose to ask if it's OK, or just go ahead and send the letter. You should only send 4 letters if you're sure they're all strong though. Don't send a "did well in class" letter if you can avoid it. You probably won't be penalized in the sense that it won't get your app thrown out. The only "penalty" I think is likely is that the adcom will randomly choose 3 of your 4 letters and disregard the last one. You have to decide if your letters are equally strong and you can risk any one of them being thrown out, or if there is one/two letters you absolutely want the adcom to read.

You can save it now?? When I filled out my UMass app last year it was the only one that didn't have a username/password, and didn't allow you to save anything. You had to fill out the entire form in one session. Of course I only figured that out after I started working on the app a few weeks before the deadline and filled out everything except the SOP. Then I get to the bottom of the page--did I mention that the entire app was on this one very long page?--and there's no save button. That was even moreso annoying because I had spent the time figuring out how to condense all of my information into their ridiculously small boxes. And then there's no way to print it out except for print screen. Ugh.

You're generally right, but don't constrain yourself too much. Generally: Research experience in your intended subfield (I assume that's what you mean by "something you're actually interested in researching"[1]) trumps Research experience in your general field majorly trumps No research experience. What you mainly want to get from an RA position is hands-on experience in doing research in something similar to what you'd be doing in grad school, in order to show that you have the skills to do the projects you propose in your SOP; and preferably to get a strong LOR from your supervisor. If you can't find a position with a researcher who does exactly what you're interested in, you should definitely expand your search to other researchers and projects that will give you the experience you need. [1] If you really mean a specific project, then you're aiming *way* too high.

Congrats on the interview! Basically you should be ready to answer the questions: - Tell me about yourself. - Why do you want to study [field]? - Tell me about [past project/thesis/specific interest/anything else you mentioned in your app]. - Why this school? You should also be prepared to ask some questions yourself when you get a chance - e.g. about current work done in the department, the social atmosphere, courses, funding, the town, your responsibilities as a student, the usual student-mentor relationship, etc. Also, these threads might help:

It is in fact lambda calculus.

The short answer to how I got to study linguistics is: by accident.

Congrats LateAntique Personally, I am glad to have dropped to the bottom of the top 10. Next goal: leave the list altogether! [1] [1] implicit assumption: all (some of?) this extra time will be used for productive things like homework and papers.[2] [2] HA!

I always said zero or something close to that because obviously I could never support myself at a place that didn't give me full funding. Taking out loans to go to grad school was never an option.

Maybe pick whatever is most representative and fits the box, and end with "see attached CV for details" or some such?

Thanks My laptop is my only computer and it's where I do all of my work. I need a good sized memory for all my research files, not to mention my music and dvds. This is what I use at the office for work and at home for recreation, and I don't think you can rely on a netbook as your only computer. Actually, I take good care of my laptops - I remove bloatware and disable unneeded startup processes, I occasionally clear out my temp files and cookies, I defragment my disc every so often, I don't eat or drink near the computer, I uninstall and reinstall software I think might be taking up too much memory. With the old computer, what slowed the computer down ended up being firefox - version 2 had a big memory leak and version 3 for some reason couldn't run on my computer. I ended up downloading chrome. It helped but it still didn't work as fast as I would have liked so I finally decided 5 years was enough for a computer and it was time to get a new one. It was still taking the computer a good 5 minutes to warm up and it's not like I could ask my professors to wait.. My mom was looking to buy a netbook so I just gave her my computer. The university gives students discounts and US prices are pretty cheap (at least compared to what I'm used to) so I though it was a good deal all around. But yeah, the new computer came with a shitload of preinstalled crap; it took a while to clean it up.

I just got myself a new laptop for the start of grad school. I fooled around with a Mac but decided it wasn't worth the money so I got a PC. Friends also tell me that Macs don't support all of the foreign languages I need, so it can be annoying to get everything to work. I had another PC before that that lasted me 5 years through my BA and MA, it never crashed or lost data or anything like that. I gave it to my mother and she uses it on a daily basis; it still works pretty well. The only thing is that the battery doesn't last for very long, it takes a while to load when I open it, and after 5 years I wanted better specs. But really, for a user like myself who only needs text setting software and a web browser, I don't think it's worth it to spend so much money on a computer that has fancy features I don't even need.

Linguistics. Specifically, formal semantics. I think languages are a fascinating aspect of human nature. I enjoy studying them individually, but even more so I enjoy finding commonalities in them and also pinpointing what makes them unique. I think it's one of the most diverse fields out there, that requires a synthesis of the kinds of skills that are usually attributed to exact scientists and those that are usually attributed to social scientists. I like it that people who talk to me know that I care both about what they say, and how they say it *grins*. I like being able to use formal tools like logic and various calculi to convey meaning patterns. And I like being able to write papers that use sentences like these: "John often runs around naked", "John ate the fish raw naked", and, best of all, "John pounded the meat flat raw naked."

Currently: doing a PhD in linguistics. In a parallel universe: I'd probably add a degree in mathematics. Logic, specifically. Unfortunately I only got to take high level courses in math and computer science in my last year of undergrad when it was too late to turn in into a major without losing a year or two. On the bright side: next year I can choose to join a program that will have me taking mathematical logic, modal logic and 1-2 other fun courses like that, and it'll only take me one extra year to finish my degree.

I sent it to all the schools I applied to unless they explicitly said not to send anything unsolicited.

there was a similar thread a while ago:

I knew I wouldn't be able to visit again before the start of the semester. What with the wonderful visa regulations I couldn't enter the country more than 30 days before the start of the program, and I was working until late August anyway. Airfare is also obscenely expensive, to the tune of more than $1000. Not to mention that moving from overseas meant that I had to buy everything new, so it's not like I had extra money to spend. Given that, I took the time to get familiar with the neighborhoods I thought I wanted to live in at every place I visited in March. I walked up and down the streets and asked about housing prices. After I made my decision, I sent an email to the MIT grad student mailing list and asked for housing tips and if anyone knew of a vacancy in an apartment. One current grad who had just signed a lease for a 2 bedroom contacted me about becoming her roommate. We talked on the phone a few times and wrote some emails, and decided it would work. I signed the lease without ever seeing the apartment (thank goodness for google maps!). It worked out, thank god. I left home with exactly 2 suitcases of my stuff. I moved into an empty apartment on Sept 1, and basically bought/got everything I needed in the next two weeks. It wasn't fun, but it's possible, with the help of some friends. Some other students also answered my original email and gave me good advice about locations, prices and lists to look at (craigslist and an MIT internal list). From what I gather it should be possible to find an apartment in Cambridge in 2 weeks at the end of August, though it might mean making some compromises. If I were you I would go out and look at the places in person, since you're already in the States. It's definitely worth the money, if you can afford it.

To the best of my knowledge that is true. Unfortunately, linguistics is not offered as an independent degree at a lot of universities both in and out of the US. Nevertheless, people from those institutions, who do the best they can with the resources they have at their disposal, are routinely accepted to top programs. That means, for example, that people usually have some knowledge of syntax and maybe phonology, but little to no knowledge in semantics. It happened to about half of the people in my year, and they had a hard time in semantics class, but they got the support they needed and finished in style. All the schools except for Brown invited me for a visit after they had made their admissions decisions, so it was more like a sales opportunity for them than an interview opportunity for me. You're not expected to show up, but they offer funding so why not? I got someone to cover my TA sessions for two weeks and jumped on the opportunity. Seeing the places, meeting the potential advisors and grad students, getting to know the city, rent rates, transportation, etc. were all very helpful. I was having a very hard time choosing between UMass and MIT before the trip, but I had no more doubts after the trip. I also got to meet other people who were doing the visiting thing at some of the same schools at the same time, which was nice because we stayed in touch throughout the spring and summer and some became my colleagues later. Re housing, do you mean during the spring visits? The schools arranged for grad student hosts at all of the places. I never had to pay for housing. They also picked me up from airports, got me tickets for the local transportation system and bought me lunch and dinner. Basically they payed for everything. I don't imagine it's a big factor but some schools do like to diversify their student body (=e.g., have people speaking and working on languages that are not English). It definitely doesn't hurt, if nothing else.

No problem. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions! BA in linguistics: GPA 97 (out of 100) MA in linguistics: 1 year abroad, GPA 1.15; second year back at BA institution, didn't have any grades yet at time of application. GRE: 670V/740Q/4.5AW TOEFL: 120 Worked on 4 projects as research assistant over the course of 2 years: 2 months; 6 months; 1 year; 1 year. Got some mentions in acknowledgments but no publications. At the time of application I hadn't worked on any of the projects for longer than 6 months. 1 smallish intl conference presentation + proceedings publication. 4 LORs. Only got the fourth because one of the original writes flaked and at some point said she wouldn't be able to write me the letter. 1 year TA experience: undergraduate Intro to Semantics, Advanced Semantics. 6 months experience working for a start up company as a "linguistics consultant." 5 languages (1 native, 2 fluent, 2 advanced). basic classroom/research knowledge of 7 other languages. Several merit awards during undergrad; one came with money, the rest were just honorable mentions. Scholarship for year abroad, fellowship for second year of MA program. Writing sample (formal semantics, not my publication). I think the paper was about 20 pages long, maybe a bit shorter. I know for a fact that my recommenders talked about at least 2 other papers in their letters and that some potential advisors went on my website and read some of the other papers I uploaded there (though they might have only done that after I was admitted). I hope this helps you guys.

Just to add my 2 cents, here's my timeline*. AFAIK it was the same for all admitted applicants; waitlisted and rejected applicants heard later. - Jan 13: interview request, UCSC. Had phone interview with PI, later withdrew my application. - Jan 23: interview request, UPenn. Had crazy conference call interview with two PIs, later withdrew my application. - Feb 4, 10, 12: interview request, Brown. Contacted by three different faculty members regarding phone interviews; invited to attend open house (on Feb 28), eventually declined and withdrew my application. (I withdrew my applications after I had been accepted by schools higher on my list. I thought I'd leave the competition in favor of other people who would be likelier to actually go to the other schools). - Feb 6: accepted, UCLA. Open house: March 2-3. - Feb 9: accepted, NYU. Open house: March 12-13. - Feb 12: accepted, UMass. No open house. - Feb 20: accepted, Rutgers. No open house. - Feb 26: accepted, MIT. No open house. (I'm pretty sure Berkley also had an open house some time between UCLA and NYU, which my friend attended) Pretty much all of the departments notified admitted applicants before March, so they would have time to make travel arrangements. During the first two weeks of March a group of a 1-2 dozen admitted applicants were traveling around the country visiting the different schools. The schools that didn't have an open house just let you come whenever. They arranged for hosts and schedules at the respective departments, they all even had lunch/dinner/subway funding for everyone. All of the schools, except UMass, contributed towards travel expenses and together it was enough to cover cross-Atlantic and cross-US flights as well as other trip-related expenses for me. * according to my email inbox.

You should submit everything on time! If you won't have the new transcripts before the deadlines, submit what you have now. If there's a good reason to update the adcoms - e.g. your new GPA is substantially higher or you took an important course you want the adcoms to know about - then contact the schools about submitting updated transcripts. If it's only a small change, I wouldn't bother.

I have two deadlines for publication submissions during and 4 weeks after the break, but no deadlines for any school-related work. We had to get everything done before the break, which is very different from what I'm used to, but also very nice in a way. At least once I got everything done *sighs*. My colleagues are all using the time for a much needed break and we're not expected to do any work. I think the same is true for the first summer break--there's not too much work to be done. As you progress in the program, you have more and more things to do over breaks, like generals papers and ongoing projects. I'm hoping to finish a project I was working on at my MA institution, if they get the funding to hire me again, so completely unrelated to my current projects (but it's field work so hopefully I'll be able to use the data I gather for that as well).

Put your name on everything inside the packet and include a short cover letter that lists what is in the envelope. There's no need for elaborate job-application-type letters. If you do contact the schools to confirm that your packets arrived (which btw I never did) give them enough time to process everything first.