fuzzylogician

Well some people hear early but usually most decisions are made in late January-early march (very roughly!). It seems a common way this process works is that first the strongest candidates are identified and get offered admission, and at the same(?) time the weakest candidates are identified and weeded out of the selection process. This then iterates a second/third/fourth time, etc. where in each cycle the applicant pool gets smaller, and there are fewer available slots. So, strong and weak applicants may hear very early, but the closer you are to the cutoff point the longer you have to wait. Some schools will have unofficial waitlists and will not notify people on them of their status until they get acceptance/rejection notifications from the stronger applicants they admitted in earlier cycles. To complicate matters, this year some schools delayed decisions even further because of difficulties estimating their budget. I assume this year could be just as bad in some places. I found that the best way to anticipate when decisions would be made by my schools was to find out when decisions were made in previous years. First of all it gave me a ballpark estimate, and it also turned out to be quite accurate. Check out the results page on thegradcafe - you should get a pretty good idea of what you're up against..

Are you sure you have to convert your grades at all? Usually schools have their own methods of converting grades from schools in different countries, and they're familiar with several kinds of grading methods. In particular, the percent method is well-known, and hopefully your school will be not too obscure for them never to have had applicants from there before - so they'll know where your 94.75 places you in relation to other applicants from your school. I do want to point out, though, that all of the schools I applied to last year said to put in my original GPA or leave that field blank, but none wanted me to convert on my own. If a university asks for that it must give clear instructions how to do it, otherwise there's just no way you can know. Contact the schools and ask them for their conversion table.

No one is going to be shocked that you're interested in two professors at the same department. Avoid sending both of them a message saying "you're the best fit for me" and you should be fine.

Well, it depends on when the deadline is - dec 15, jan 15 or something else. If it's a december deadline you might be late, for January you should be fine. In any case, schools are usually forgiving about late gre scores. If you want to retake, make sure you put the programs with the earliest deadlines among the 4 to receive your scores immediately. Maybe also ask the schools how bad it would be if the scores came a week or two late - worst case you could send your old scores out to make sure you have something on file by the deadline, and then ask to update your new scores. But I bet it wouldn't be too bad if your scores came late. Most schools I know of don't really get into the process of sorting and selecting applicants until after the Christmas vacation.

Don't cut down the number of schools you want to apply to just because of a recommender -- i don't think that's good advice! Also don't apply to "schools you don't really want to go to even if you were accepted" (really, why waste your time and money?). Choose schools that you can honestly say about each one of them that if they were the only place that accepted you, you'd be happy to attend. It seems to me that your recommender is simply too busy to mess around with each schools' individual forms. That's ok, as long as she is willing to write you a strong letter. Schools will normally understand it if the recommender attaches their own letter and not use the standardized form. If a school really insists, you can either ask your recommender to fill out that form just this once, or you can ask another recommender. But don't give up just because of the recommender! ETA: find out if the schools allow you to pick up the lor (in a signed, sealed envelope) and send it in with the rest of your application material. That way you'll save your recommender the trouble of having to deal with anything other than actually writing the letter. She might appreciate your being helpful so maybe that's another way of getting her to fill out a form if a school absolutely insists on it.

This. Also, mention in your SOP that you've studied with this professor and have stayed in touch with her since. If you make contact with the other professor, mention that too.

That's news to me! those cs ppl are crazy I've never heard of humanities programs selectively having only some of their applicants take the gre. Also, I would hate to restrict my choice of schools only to those that don't require it. Considering the alternatives, taking the gre is not as bad as not having a proper choice. Right now it's all hypothetical though. In two years, when the op is ready to apply to phd programs, then they can check what the schools they are interested in require and act accordingly. To the op: for now assume that you're likely to have to retake the test, but don't be too concerned. Why not worry about this if/when it becomes relevant, two years from now?

The common wisdom is that graduate schools factor the gre verbal score differently for international students and for native speakers (where it's usually less important for the internationals). That's especially true for fields in which the verbal score is less important for everyone (read: the sciences). You should definitely apply. Your toefl score is great. When looking at the gre scores, some schools take the last score you received, others take the highest score in each section; either a 1300 or a 1220 should be enough to get you past any initial cutoff. After that it comes down to the really important stuff - the sop, your lors, your research experience - to determine acceptance. Have your lor writers address your language skills, if they have knowledge of it, and make sure a native speaker proof reads your essays for grammar/spelling errors. But definitely apply.

I'm curious, is there anyone around here applying to linguistics programs for fall 2010?

There are two approaches to this issue, and the answer that best suits you also partly depends on your specific situation. Personally, I am against "making excuses". If you simply had a bad semester for no special reason, as happens to a great many of us, I wouldn't try to explain it (there's no good reason, right?). Let you record speak for itself - the adcom should be able to see that it was a one-time thing and your record has subsequently improved. Why draw attention to one bad semester and let it overshadow an otherwise good transcript? Now, this is not to say that if you have a legitimate reason for doing badly a semester or two (or three), you shouldn't put it in your sop. A serious illness, death of a loved one, having to work two jobs - those are all valid reasons for not being able to focus solely on your studies. Same goes for deciding to change majors and not doing well in the previous one. You can mention all of these, BUT a)do it briefly - no more than 1-2 sentences do it positively - by focusing on how you've overcome the difficulty and are doing well now/how you've grown and learned from the experience, etc., c) only mention a problem if it's now resolved, and d) make sure there's a discernible upward trend in your grades since the problem has been resolved. Otherwise how is the adcom to know that there's really no more reason for you not to be able to fully focus on your studies? You don't want to hand the adcom flaws to hold against you!

Yes, you'll have to retake the GRE. The only exception would be if you continued in the same program you did your MA in, or if a program generally doesn't require the GRE from anyone (a growing trend in my field, at least). It suck, but there's not much you can do about it. I've never heard of a Masters degree replacing the need to take the exam - it's either a requirement of everyone, or not at all. On the up side, it's always easier to take the test the second time around than it was the first time.

I don't know anything specific about neuroscience but with those credentials and a strong sop and lors, I'm willing to bet you'll be one of the stronger candidates in your field this year. Re: reach schools: this isn't college. The concepts of safety and reach don't apply here as they did before. Schools choose candidates that are a good fit, so you will often find people rejected from lower-ranked "safeties" and accepted to top ranked "reach" programs -- simply because that's where they fit best. Similarly, you'll find candidates with 4.0 GPAs/1600 GREs/3 publications rejected from those programs - because there's no one suitable there to advise them. Do your research and apply to those programs that you're passionate about attending. Ask yourself - would I go here if it were the only place that accepted me? If there answer is no, save yourself the time and money and don't even try. on the flip side, regardless of whether you think a certain school is out of reach for you or not, it's always advisable to apply if you see yourself working there. You'd much rather be pleasantly surprised than always have those "what if" thoughts.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1047. Yes. It's very common for students to spend time writing and rewriting emails to their professors. There's really no need to. Think of it this way - most professors I know are too busy to remember what you wrote word-for-word anyway. You'll do good if they remember the gist of what your were saying.

Focus on your research and career interests. Don't talk about all these unrelated past stories in your sop (I don't even know that I'd put them on a resume). The sop is a statement of PURPOSE, it's about what you want to study in grad school and why, and (to a lesser extent) what prepares you to do that. Unless having lived a few years in England is relevant to what you want to research in grad school, it has no place in your statement. Regarding the bad semester 12 years ago, opinions differ. I don't think I would mention it at all, but if you do - do it in no more than a sentence, and put a positive spin on it by comparing it to your current good grades and strong motivation.

Eh. Applying two years in a row and doing grad work in between must be a real pain in the neck...but better spend an extra three years in grad school than get a degree in something that doesn't excite you! I've heard some programs give you an MA after the first year, have you looked into that possibly being recognized by the ling departments? I know at least here at MIT, and at a few other places in the US I applied to last year, admitted applicants had all sorts of backgrounds - including some with little-to-no prior formal education in linguistics. I'm less familiar with Canadian schools but that might be an option worth considering. Anyway, good luck!!

Glad to see I'm not the only one confused by the "public ivy". Yes, you'll be fine. I wouldn't worry about a bad decision made 12 years ago.

I guess it could be very good, or very bad. I know of several professors who married students they had supervised. It could potentially be very bad if you're not interested, though. I can't give you advice, but you have my sympathy.

This may differ from field to field, but I didn't cite, for the simple reason that I thought the sop should concentrate on me and my plans, not on anyone else's cool research (however cool it may be). This is not to say that you can't explain in detail how said cool research fits nicely with your interests in XYZ and how working with the cool prof can further your skills or knowledge of the topic -- how is that flaunting? Personally citing feels a little like name-dropping to me. I'd much rather discuss details of work than directly cite from it. But this is really just an opinion.

Best thing would be to contact each school and ask. Some might want you to calculate the grades from all your courses, others only the relevant degree. I doubt anyone here can give you general advice. If you want to do the safest thing - calculate everything, send everything in. Let the schools sort things out themselves. Re: transcripts: some schools care about this much more than others. My guess would, most won't care about the course you took in high school. And assuming the 2 credits you took to complete your bachelors degree appear on that transcript as well, most will agree for you to not to send that transcript either. But again, why not ask and possibly save yourself some trouble?

This is going to be about getting organized: I found it useful to compile a large excel table to keep me organized. I then printed it and hung it above my desk at home, with the deadlines printed LARGE and in red. It's annoying to compile, but once its done I found it very pleasing to cross out individual requirements and put a BIG check mark next to completed applications I tried to keep all possible relevant information in my table, so I'll have everything I need in one place: - school name, - application fee, - deadline, - details of application requirements (+ link to the site that lists these. periodically check to see that nothing has changed(!) ): - length of SOP; SOP prompt. - nr of recs; submit online/via post ? - writing sample (needed? length?) - nr of transcripts; send directly from school or yourself? sealed, signed envelopes? - GRE/TOEFL required? - any other req mentioned on the website (personal statement, financial statement, cv, whatever). - link to online application website. - username & password for the online app. - names of interesting faculty, links to their webpages, - program website, tentative list of "special" things about the department that it might be wise to mention in an SOP, - address for shipment of transcripts, - address for shipment of writing sample (sometimes different!). After finding out what the reqs were for each school, I got right around to compiling kits for my LoR writers. I set up a "reminder system" with each of them and also put that in the table, so I would know when to drop by their office or send an email to see if they still remembered I existed.. Also, I ordered the transcripts as early as possible (right after calculating exactly how many I needed + 3 extras just in case). I alternated working on my SOP and writing sample. I found I needed a few days between writing on a new draft and being able to critically reread it, so in the meanwhile I worked on the other essay, or studied for the tests. Or, you know, went out for a beer. Once you've got a finalized version of the SOP for one school, it's not that difficult to change it to fit another - so first worry about having a general working version and then add the "fit paragraph". Try to do as much as possible as early as possible, so you're not stuck at the last second with technical problems (you'll see posts on e.g. december 31, 11:56pm that start "the server at X university crashed and I can't submit my app .. what do I do??"). At the same time though, I found it pretty much a waste of time to first fill out the details in all of my apps, then later finalize and send each of them - I just ended up doing everything twice because I rechecked and reread what each site required. It might be wiser to work and complete one application at a time. Hope this helps. Good luck!

When I started my MA I had exactly zero publications, presented in zero conferences, worked on zero research projects, and went on zero trips to feed starving kids in Africa. Don't worry, I'm sure this is the case for most applicants. Part of why you get an MA is to have the chance to do all those things (well, except the Africa thing maybe). A good SOP that explains why you're interested in your field, and talks about the need to gain experience and refine those interests can be convincing all on its own. Really, you have to start somewhere.

I think it'll all come down to how you present the situation. Yes, having dropped out will hurt (or at least, can't help) you. But if you give a convincing rationale (="my interests shifted") and show passion for your new interest (="I'm getting an MA from an Ivy to help refine said interest") then there's no reason for schools to flat out exclude you from consideration. A lot will depend on the rec letters you'll get from your former school. IMO If they still support you and present your leaving in a favorable light, you should be fine.

Psycholinguistics is such an exciting field! Their experiments sound like so much fun, I'm sure they're going to make a lot of progress there in the next 5-10 years. Glad to hear you've made a decision (but why an extra three years?). Good luck!!

Well if you don't think you can improve, and you also meet your potential schools' cutoffs, than no - don't retake the GRE. In most cases all you want to do is get past the initial cutoff and be considered by the department--because as the saying goes, test scores can only keep you out of school, not get you in. There is one caveat though: some schools determine funding on the basis of test scores, and then you would be at a disadvantage. So you might want to find out how funding is decided on at your schools. But again, if you don't feel like you can make a significant improvement, there's really no point in sending another set of not-so-great scores.

This. Moreover, most schools I applied to did not update whether or not they had received my GRE scores, TOEFL scores, transcripts, LoRs (basically, everything that had to be sent to the school via post) until well after the application deadline (or ever, in some cases). Depending on the info that's posted on the school's site, you basically need to either contact the administrators at each school and have them look, or go on faith and hope that they will contact you if anything is missing. Some schools explicitly say "don't call us, we'll call you." Anyway, updating these documents happens regardless of your opening an account on the application website. I would think that the app you complete online later becomes part of your "application file," which would also contain other administrative parts that are invisible to you. At some point after you submit your app, it is* associated with your administrative file - the one with the scores, transcripts, etc - and then your file is considered complete and is forwarded to the department for consideration. * or at least, it should be. Come January-February there will be a bunch of posts that start "school A has lost my (GRE/transcripts/...)". Usually, though, it all happens rather smoothly.