fuzzylogician

I honestly don't think I could fake the kind of enthusiasm I feel after getting admitted somewhere. I also don't imagine I'd like to fake such happiness after just being rejected from my top choice. Aside from that, I'd hate to have to keep making up excuses for why I didn't end up going to Top Choice, since I've already told everyone which it was. It'd be a lie that's told often by friends and family and I am sure that if I don't get in I would not want to hear Top Choice's name for a while at least.

That's probably a good idea at this point. If you could get a secretary to help you that'll move the process along tremendously. Assuming the letter is written and only needs to be found on his computer and resent, that's not an impossibility. Or get an alternative letter writer, if you can think of someone who can help you out short notice.

(It's the semester break here so I have a lot of free time on my hands). This was today's schedule: Wake up. Check my email. Check posts on thegradcafe. Drink coffee. Refresh inbox. Prepare breakfast. Refresh inbox. Eat breakfast. Refresh inbox. Finish grading students' exams, check email intermittantly. Input grades into computer and calculate final scores. Refresh inbox. Cook and eat lunch. Check email and gradcafe postings. Randomly post something on some forum. Work on thesis, keep inbox open and check it every so often. Get frustrated with thesis and surf aimlessly for a while. Go out for a walk in the neighborhood, get some fruit at the supermarket. Worry about not checking email for an hour. Go back home and check email. Be disappointed that there are no news. Meet friends for drinks/dinner. Yearn to check email. Get back home, check email and gradcafe postings. Be disappointed again. Watch some TV. Check one last time for good news, get none. Go to bed hoping that tomorrow there will be news. Never mind that it's saturday and there won't likely be any news.

Thanks! I spent *a lot* of time working on my SOPs. If you were one of the people who commented on my drafts on LJ -- thank you, the comments were very helpful.

None of them had a page but there's one I thought *might* have one. The others, not so much :roll:.

I never contacted professors before my interviews. I have stayed in touch with several professors after my interview though, despite the fact that I've since rescinded my application to their programs. I have to say that all the people I've been in touch with have been so incredibly nice it's made me feel bad about withdrawing (but they were so supportive in saying I had made the right choice, etc...ugh, I bet my potential advisor will be mean, they can't all be nice! ok, done complaining). I can't be sure but I think two things made my application stand out - my recommendations and my SOP. I've never seen my letters but several people mentioned I had "very good recs", I think one of them called around to tell his friends about my app and another one wrote specialized recs telling each dept why I suited their program. I'm sure that helped a lot. Usually interviewers wanted to know the results of past/present projects and the conclusions from my thesis ("uh, none yet, I have to write it first"). No one cared about courses I took nor about the ones I teach. I think the fact that profs could look at my SOP and say "I see you work on XXX -- I've studied XXX for 20 years" is what clinched it. I spent extra time choosing what research interests to talk about in each SOP to make sure every relevant prof could relate to at least one thing. Of course, I could be entirely wrong :wink: .

I've been having similar thoughts. I think I'd like to use all kinds of methods in my work to test the likelihood of my theories, starting with the simple rule of "there *are* other languages besides English"; I'd also like to know more about things like MRIs, eye-tracking experiments and computer models that can test a theory's feasibility on a computational level. But, for me these are all just tools for doing semantic research, they're not the goal of my research.

Sort of, I contacted UPenn a few days after the interview to let them know I had better offers, so 'no thanks'. In fact, all of the schools I had interviews with are ones I have already decided not to attend, so I've contacted them all to rescind my application (so I don't really know if/when they're making their decisions).

Eh. That really isn't all that great. Sorry about that. Your application might be stellar but not even looked at if a school has a score cutoff to weed out the initial applicant pool. I hear it's common in fields that have lots and lots of applicants, but I wonder if they'd do that in linguistics seeing as programs don't usually even get 150 applications overall. That score would be an obvious candidate for improvement if you don't get in, though. *trying to see the silver lining*

I doubt 1350 is really considered mid-range. The way I see it, the GRE score can only ever keep you out of a program, not get you into it. So unless you scored abysmally, I'd say you're fine.

I actually felt much better I after I sent those 'no thanks' emails to the 3 departments I knew I wouldn't go to. Sure, they're options I don't have anymore, but they're not ones I was going to take advantage of anyway. I got very positive responses from those departments, plus the knowledge that I'm not keeping anybody from being offered admissions who will actually go. Plus, it shortens my pro/con list, which is a good thing 8)

YES. This. I've known I wanted to get a PhD in linguistics and be a researcher since the start of undergrad but I still spent last year applying for scholarships and doing an exchange program because I *knew* I'd never get into a good program straight out of undergrad. Spending one extra year strengthening your qualifications is totally worth it.

I have a BA in linguistics, plus one year as an exchange student where I basically took grad level courses which for bureaucratic reasons don't officially count toward my masters. Officially I'm now in the first year of a masters program that I'll very likely not finish when I start a PhD program next year (I'll have enough courses but my thesis might not be done). I also worked last year and this year as an RA on 4 projects overall, which I think was much more instrumental to my admissions (experience+recommendations wise) than the grad level courses I took.

I should add that I only had to do this once b/c my recommenders were usually very punctual and would send me emails on their on to let me know that they've sent everything out, so it's not like I constantly pestered them.

I also had recommenders far far away (read: on a different continent as I). The solution that time: express send them stamped and addressed envelopes for the schools that didn't have online submission, then phone them up and ask them if they would print the letter and send it while I'm on the phone so I know exactly when it was sent. Of course, that's after they've written the letter. They were all very understanding about my need to know that (and when) the letter was sent.

At least four, maybe five. I'll visit every place I'm still unsure about. I'll go even if I don't get offered funding for a visit b/c I think it's an important enough decision that I need all the information I can get.

That's very interesting. I always thought morphology went hand-in-hand with phonology. I can think of more phonologists who have published about morphology than syntacticians, and intro to phonology courses at my university always devote several weeks to morphology. Syntax classes touched on morphology but with an entirely different aim in mind.

I think Peter Lasersohn's research is great and focuses on some very popular subjects nowadays like events and plurality. I've read some of his work for one of my projects and enjoyed it very much. I'm sure you'd get a great education taking his semantics courses. The only problem is that I don't recognize any other name on the UIUC website and it can be a bit limiting only getting one perspective on a subject. But if it's only 1-2 courses, it should be fine.

Yep, I thought I'd post the response b/c I know the wait can drive us all crazy. At least now I know not to expect anything from MIT for at least another week (not that that'll make me stop refreshing my inbox every two minutes..). Thanks! I've been decidedly more successful than I anticipated. When I started this process my advisor, who has known me for 5 years now, told me something along the lines of--"you might not get in at the top places but I am sure some school will take you". Needless to say I was mortified and had a small nervous breakdown. It's a good thing I didn't listen to her...I hope I don't ever lose my sensitivity and say anything like that to a student!

I have found it *very helpful* to come to office hours and actually watch the prof. put the letter in the envelope, then take it and express send it wherever. Of course, you'd have to coordinate the visit in advance so the letter is ready but assuming it's already written that shouldn't be a big problem. Say you'd like to pick it up and send it yourself--that way at least you know it's in the mail.

I emailed one school that hasn't gotten back to me to ask about my status. I'm planning a trip to the states to visit the schools I've been accepted to and I needed to know if I'm still in the running and when a decision is likely to be made. I figured it couldn't hurt because it's a legitimate concern. If I don't get in I guess can always blame it on the email :roll:

It depends on the kind of semantics you want to do. For formal semantics I guess the Massachusetts schools - both MIT and UMass - have been very productive in the last decade or more. I haven't found one place that had more than 3 people who do (what I consider) interesting work, and I applied to almost all of the places that had 2. At UCLA I'd probably work with either Daniel B

I chose semantics, which is my main focus, but I'm also interested in its interface with syntax and pragmatics (which btw isn't on the list at all).

I'm planning a trip to the US to check out the schools that have admitted me. I contacted MIT to ask when they might be making their decisions so I'll know if I should include them in my plans. Got this response: "MIT linguistics admission decisions will be made at the end of February (end of next week)."

or both