fuzzylogician

First, I like the work of two of their semantics faculty. That's a lot for me, at most places I only really like one; Second, I like the location; Third, one of my recommenders specifically thought one of the NYU faculty, whom he knows well, would be a good advisor for me, personality-wise, as well as interest-wise. This is a *very* famous and experienced person and I value his opinion greatly. There are also some drawbacks to NYUs program that keep them from placing higher on my list, so I'm still unsure. It's a good thing I still have two months before I have to decide...

Thanks, I knew that site but it gave me some really weird lists that made me think it couldn't be trusted. Do you know what it bases its ratings on, except the NRC report? Phonologist: thanks, that helped! I wonder if 1995 rankings can really reflect the current situation. I am pretty sure not since some very good programs (at least according to my profs) aren't even mentioned or are ranked very low. I think it would be interesting if the people in this forum posted which programs they thought were the top 5/10 in their subfield. I imagine the list would vary quite a lot across subfields. My preferences going into this process were: 1. MIT , 2. UMass, 3. UCLA, 4. Rutgers, 5. NYU, but I am so confused right now I don't know anymore.

I was just wondering if you guys know of any (un)official rankings of linguistics departments either as a whole or by subfield. I haven't had luck finding much of anything online, except some vague rankings of "Humanities" as a whole which don't really help. When I was researching programs I used professors' advice and a whole lot of virtual leg-work (basically, I checked out the website of every department that appears the Linguist List's complete list of linguistics programs), but I'm still thinking it might just have been me missing something very basic, as I sometimes tend to do... So, which programs would you say make up the top 5/10/20 in the field? I know my professors had a very clear idea where the better places were, but what do you think? (Yes, I know it's tantamount to gossip and shouldn't factor into the decision where to go, but it's still interesting :-D).

Don't lose hope. I had one school send me an invitation to an Open House to the wrong email address. It took them about 10 days (according to the date on the original mail they forwarded me again, this time to my correct address) to notice that I didn't reply in any way! Since I knew the invitations were already sent out and I didn't get one, I thought for sure I was doomed. It turned out to be good news in the end, though.

Brown sent me an email late January that went: "We have begun the review process for our graduate program admissions, and based on a review of all applications, have selected a group of students that we would very much like to meet or speak with personally. We were quite impressed with your application, and would like to invite you to visit, or if this is not possible, to arrange for a telephone conversation with relevant faculty members..." and went on to invite me to an Open House on Friday, February 27th. I was just in touch with them a couple of days ago to let them know I won't be attending and got the impression that they were still reviewing some apps, but I'm not exactly sure if for the first time or just those that made the initial cut.

I can totally relate. I've received some really great offers I had thought for sure would make me *die* with excitement, but after the first few hours of joy, I'm back to feeling kind of depressed. I guess it's just the realization that it's really happening. I'm really going to leave my bf, move half way across the world and start all over again, alone and in a strange country. There are so many things I have to get done over the next 6 months, it's just overwhelming. Not to mention the change from I-don't-know-what-I'm-doing-next-year to the daunting My-life-for-the-next-5-to-7-years-is-pretty-much-set! I hear it's a natural process so I'm hoping to go back to feeling good and excited about my decision after it all sinks in.

To those who asked about my educational background: I did my BA in linguistics and knew right away I wanted to work on semantics, so I was able to specialize in it starting my second year. In my third year I also took some extra logic and math classes to have a more well-rounded education. I actually do straight up formal semantics, though my work almost always relies on logical tools. I just liked the oxymoron "fuzzy logic", hence the name. Right now I'm working on my master's (linguistics, concentration in semantics). (I hear) my recommendations from my MA were very strong, and from well-respected ppl in the field. I'm working on two projects this year as well. I had hoped that one of them would win me a trip to do some fieldwork and maybe get a publication out of it but sadly now I think it might not happen. Not enough time. Also at this pace I might not finish my master's thesis, but the nice thing about the american programs is that you don't actually need to have one, haha. dutchie: I wouldn't worry about the UMass website, mine still says they haven't received any of my transcripts and 2 of my LORs. I hope you hear good news from them!

Thanks! I almost wish MIT *won't* accept me, it'll make my decision incredibly difficult. I mean, how do you choose between such strong programs? I'm sure I'll open a "what would you do if you were me" thread if I'm somehow accepted.

For semantics you might want to try Heim&Kratzer's Semantics in Generative Grammar. It'll give you all the basics and I think is used as a textbooks in a lot of classes.

Hello fellow linguists!! congrats on the new forum, it's much needed to reduce (at least my) anxiety. I mostly do formal semantics and am also interested in its interface with syntax and pragmatics. My interim results: Accepted to -- UCLA, NYU, UMass (just heard a couple of hours ago, yay!!) Interviews with -- UPenn, UCSC, Brown. Those three are probably my worst fits so I've contacted all three schools to let them know I have received better offers so they can stop considering me. I'm guessing from the interviews that UCSC planned on admitting me, UPenn and Brown maybe not so much... Still waiting -- MIT, Rutgers. I'm hoping to attend the Open House at UCLA and NYU so maybe I'll meet some of you there!

*waves* hello fellow linguists! I didn't know there were so many of us on thegradcafe. Any semanticists around? Here's a twist that only works for Hebrew (my native language): the word for linguistics and the word for detective-work are very similar, so when you tell people you study linguistics they will sometimes reply--oh, so you want to work for the police after you graduate? At this point I actually prefer the how-many-languages-do-you-speak response, I sound a lot less cynical answering it

Totally. I can't read things I've written before some time has passed, usually at least a few weeks. But even now that more than a month has passed since I submitted my last app, I choose not to obsess over my app. I obsess over the results page instead

So I'm an international student and am worried that I'm missing important details when reading my funding offers. - First off, what difference does is make if my stipend is payed over 9 months or over the entire year? What do ppl usually do if it's only over 9 months--do they get a job over the summer? save? What do foreign students do (since visa restrictions make work in the US more difficult)? - Second, how do I know if my stipend is livable--that I'll be able to afford to rent a room/small apt and eat (not just Ramen), etc? More to the point, can a person live off 20-22K in the big cities (NYC, LA, Boston..)? - Health insurance: I know it's a big issue in the US; is the insurance the university offers usually good enough? - Other fees: what are those? If it's not mentioned in a certain package, am I to assume I'll be paying some undisclosed amount myself? - Anything else I'm missing? Thanks in advance!

I'm in linguistics and had always heard the process doesn't include interviews -- but I've had 3 interviews already. One interview was purely about the money (with a UC school, apparently funding is a big issue for international applicants this year); the other two interviews were with my two worst fits, both basically wanted to know why I wanted to attend their school. I haven't heard back from either, but I'd actually be a bit surprised if they both accepted me. All of my interviews were with potential advisors, so maybe it just depends on the faculty members you want to work with.

To address the first question, I'll be in my mid-20s when I will (hopefully) begin my PhD and don't think I'm old or "not normal" in any way. In fact, I don't really know what a "normal" grad student looks like. A lot of people change their course of study midway through undergrad, take years off to work or travel, get a MA, get married and have kids and whatnot before enrolling in a PhD program. I very much doubt it that everyone in any program will be 22 and will have had their hearts set on their subfield from the get go without change. Regarding your PGA, I am sure that if you keep your grades up and do well in your upper division classes, you will not be kept out of grad school. GPA is by far not the most important factor in admissions. You can address the one F you had a while back in your SOP and show that you have been successful ever since.

I've had two phone interviews thus far. Both lasted about 25 minutes, one of them was a conference call with two profs (all interviewers were in my specific subfield). The first question everyone asked: why do you want to go to our school? Then they wanted me to describe my thesis and current projects, though one only wanted the headlines and one asked for details and any new conclusions from the ongoing work. They all wanted to know what kind of work I'd be interested in continuing doing in the future, which of the 4 projects I've worked on I liked most, etc. After about 5-10 minutes of this, they described their program and current research done at the dept (I tried to sound really excited and to comment every time I thought I'd be interested in collaborating with someone). Finally they asked me if I had any questions -- I had prepared a bunch of questions and was very glad I asked each and every one of them, even ones that were discussed on the website (mostly about funding), since I always got more info than was posted online. All in all it felt like a two-way interview with them trying to impress me as much as I was trying to impress them. I eventually left both interviews feeling better about my match with the departments than I had beforehand. I can now say that I was overly stressed about the whole thing when in reality the conversation flowed naturally with everyone accommodating my occasional stutters and "sorry, could you repeat that please"s.. heh.

Actually, now that I'm done with my apps I think that at least one of the schools I applied to is NOT a good match to my interests and another is only a "maybe". It might have been better not to apply to those schools and spend more time refining my apps for the other schools - 6 in total.

I can't add anything new but can commiserate. I've had one phone interview about two weeks ago and will have another one this Friday. I hear that interviews are not all that common in my field and I've been racking my brains trying to figure out if something is unclear in my SOP or some such -- why do they need to talk to me again and can't make a decision with the info they've got?? Ugh. Anyway, I'm keeping a positive attitude and assuming they wouldn't take the time to talk to me if they weren't at least *somewhat* interested.

I recently had an interview with the DGS of my prospective dept at UCSC, who told me that they can only afford to admit *one foreign student* with funding, and basically wanted to know - if they accept me, would I attend. Apparently they are not able to offer admission to someone else if the person originally offered admission declines, and they would rather not have an all-American cohort, despite the costs.