fuzzylogician

It's still early in the game for many fields. The best way for you to answer your question is to go on the Results survey and search for the schools you've applied to. If others have posted acceptances or interview invites and you haven't heard anything, that's probably not good news. If there haven't been any updates this year, then you are still in the running, and you have no reason to be anything but hopeful. You can also use the results survey to get a sense for when you might expect to hear news, based on updates from previous years. For me, at this stage of my own application season, in mid-February I had answers from probably about half of my schools, but not my top choice (which I also ended up attending). It's nerve-wracking, but these things take time.

You could ask about the possibility of waiving the requirement, given that your undergraduate degree is from an English-speaking university. That might be an option which you could (politely!) ask about. That said, I don't think you need to feel "put down" because of this requirement. It's probably an official requirement that comes from the university; clearly, it's nothing personal. Given your background, it shouldn't be any problem for you to take the test and get a 7.0 or higher, right? So why not just do it and not give it any more thought? This sounds like a school you are interested in. I don't think getting offended will do you any good.* *And more generally in life, getting offended is often a choice, even if you don't usually think of it that way. What do you have to gain from being offended here? No one is trying to hurt you. It's more productive to take action to get the outcome you want (negotiate to get the requirement lifted, or just take the exam) than to waste emotional energy on it.

It doesn't sound like you are ready to be thinking about graduate school just yet. You didn't tell us what field you are applying in, but in order to know what schools will be the best match for your interests, you need to sit down and seriously think about what your interests are. You also need to decide on what country you want to study in; not all schools require the GRE in the first place, so this decision should really precede any more studies. This is a personal decision and not one that anyone can make for you. Considerations that might be important: where do you want to live during your studies? where do you want to live after you graduate (pick a school that have a good placement record for the area you want to have a job in)? do you need funding (find a school that funds its students, or one with cheaper tuition/living costs if you don't expect to be fully funded)? Without any research experience, presentations, or publications, this might be a bit hard. You should also think about whether you can secure three strong letters of recommendation to support your application. If you are not at this stage just yet, a possible next step is to consider a MA at a local university, to get that extra experience that would help you define your interests and get some experience, as well as better recommendations. If you do plan to apply in the next cycle: you are most likely too late for Fall 2017 admissions. Deadlines are normally around December-January of the year before you plan to begin studying. So you would be submitting applications in about 10-11 months to start school in almost two years. You can take the GRE any time before the deadlines, but preferably at least a few weeks in advance so the results can be submitted in time. Since you have plenty of time, I'd suggest aiming for a summer test date -- maybe in July or August, so you can then put it behind you and concentrate on other parts of the application, or retake the exam if necessary.

This is why I say you also need to ask another person to be your backup, and the sooner the better. Explain the situation to them. Then all you can do is wait until you feel like you can't wait any longer, and submit with your backup, if letter-writer 2 doesn't reply. Also let letter-writer 1 know you're doing this, so they know they won't have too long to submit the letter on their end (ask them both what timeframe they would be comfortable with). And, of course, whatever happens, find a way to show your backup your gratitude, regardless of whether they actually submit a letter for you or not.

Any chance you had 3 LOR writers for at least some of your grad school applications? You've already put in the work (as has your other recommender), and it'd be a shame to just let this fellowship go without trying. At this point, I think you need to do the following: 1. Do everything you can to get in touch with letter-writer 2; This might include emailing again, calling, stopping by their office, AND enlisting other people's help. You might need to talk to your other recommender, in case they know letter-writer 2. Maybe an email from them will get a more prompt response (and actually generally, if you trust them and have a good relationship with them, you might want to get their advice about what to do at this point). Or maybe you need to write the secretary or chair or someone else higher up the food chain. Your goal is not to blame anyone of anything but simply to say "I emailed prof X a while back, tried to follow up, and never received a response; I have an important deadline coming up and could really use some help contacting the prof because my application depends on it." Some absent-minded professors become much more responsive when someone else is watching. 2. Ask someone else. Regardless of what happens with letter-writer 2, you can't wait any longer. Find someone who can write a decent letter (maybe your third LOR writer?), apologize profusely for the short notice, briefly explain why you're only reaching out so late, and ask for a letter. Be very thankful. They might say no, but they might take pity. As long as you're polite and apologetic, I think you have nothing to lose.

I would run some of those questions by your prospective supervisors. I think it makes a lot of sense to make initial contact to verify that they are accepting students and are generally interested in your application. Everything having to do with scope, length, how much background you can assume vs. have to spell out, methods, etc is fair game, in my opinion. I am not sure I would ask about feasibility per se, but you could ask something like "does such and such question studied at such and such site seem appropriate to you?". Hopefully this interaction will also teach you something about how likely this person is to read a full draft and comment on it.

Now it sounds not only like you're asking for help with your homework (which this forum is not for) but also that someone actually do your homework for you, which I am sure you understand is out of line. You've been offered resources. Part of your education is learning to teach yourself and find the answers. It shouldn't be that hard to paraphrase two sentences (and not copy them directly from another text!) and read online about how to cite your source. We would not be helping you if we just gave you the answer. You need to learn to help yourself.

Kai von Fintel just posted this link on Facebook: he got into UMass off the waitlist, notified by telegram on April 12. So, there is always hope! http://kaivonfintel.org/2014/04/28/telegram/

Yes, it does happen some years. (Not very often but not never.) I can definitely think of people who chose e.g. Harvard, NYU, UCSC, and UCLA over MIT. They had all kinds of considerations and in all cases I know of, these people were happy with their choice (and I am sure they would have been happy at MIT, too. At that point you're choosing between two very good options!).

Second hand experience, and not in the sciences, so take it as you will: It is most definitely doable to do a PhD and have a family, although it's not easy. There are two kinds of difficulties I see my friends facing. One has to do with institutional support and the other with finances. The financial aspect seems relatively straightforward: having a child is expensive. Childcare can cost a fortune, medical expenses rise, and your spouse might want to work less. Having subsidized daycare or last-minute babysitting services at your university can make a big difference. Similarly, babysitting services at conferences can make a big difference for parents. These are things that you can ask about at prospective schools. I think one very important thing you can do is ask to be put in touch with student-parents at prospective departments and get their perspective and advice as it relates to their particular department. Usually they will be very forthcoming and helpful. You can ask about the proportion of students who've had children in the past 5-10 years. If there hasn't been anyone, that's a red flag. Which brings me to the issue of institutional support. As a young parent, you need to learn to adjust your priorities. Your time isn't your own. Your child might get sick or keep you up all night, so it can be hard to make deadlines or you might have to cancel or reschedule appointments. Some advisors will be very understanding, but you might also run into advisors who are really not. If you are a female student, you might perceive a change in how you are treated once you become pregnant (= you get "mommy-tracked": people stop taking you seriously because they just assume that now you won't invest the time/energy necessary to be successful, so you are not worth their time anymore; this is sad but a real thing that happens). If you are a man, you might face the opposite problem: you will still be expected to show up and do all the things you did before, because the baby's mother will be expected to do all the childcare, even though you might want to take time off to be with your child. Again, this is where talking to other parents is important. They can help you identify more and less supportive advisors. You might also want to ask about departmental policies: if you need an extension on a deadline, can you get one? If you are stuck last minute without an arrangement for your child, are there babysitting services on campus? what happens if you have to miss class because of a sick child? But since you're a man (guessing based on the post), the short version of the answer is that having a child is not only doable, but actually good for your career: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/upshot/a-child-helps-your-career-if-youre-a-man.html?_r=0

Hi Frozeal, I moved your post from where you had it before to the linguistics subforum, where it's more appropriate. On paper your credentials sound good, both in terms of grades and in terms of prior research experience.* Your expected GRE scores sound on the low side for Q and AW so that might be something concrete to work on. The main thing that I am missing in your story is: why linguistics? Your BA and MA are in philosophy, and it sounds like that is where your teaching and other experiences are, too. So, it sounds like you'll be applying to PhD programs in linguistics with basically no background in linguistics at all; maybe that's wrong and you just didn't mention it. But if you really have only minimal exposure to the kinds of courses that you'll have to take as a graduate student (e.g. phonology, syntax, and in some schools, semantics), the adcoms will have questions about your commitment to the field. How could you know you want to do a PhD in linguistics, if you have no background in it? An important component of an application is the SOP, which is where you'd spell out the narrative of what has led you to decide on this course of study. I'd spend time making sure it's very clear and compelling, and if you can, make sure you have at least some basic courses in linguistics on your transcript, to show that you really know what you're getting yourself into. In terms of what schools you should apply for, I would strongly recommend choosing based on research fit and not based on prestige. You are much likelier to get accepted to a school where you can demonstrate that your research interests and methodology really fit well with the department and to be rejected from a school where it's not clear who you'd work with regardless of ranking. In grad school apps, it is not uncommon to be accepted to better ranked schools and rejected from lower ranked ones, because it's really not about rankings in the first place. * The fact that you have a friend with similar/better grades who got rejected doesn't mean very much. Grades aren't terribly important in admissions decisions. The SOP, LORs, and writing samples, are all more important, as are prior research/teaching experience, presentations, publications, etc.

I understand completely. I have a friend who I run these kinds of emails by. I do the same for them, too. Turns out it's much easier to be objective when you're removed from the situation (surprise!) so we've both helped each other through similar correspondences multiple times. I highly recommend finding such a person, it's a low-stakes way to get good feedback and avoid trouble. In your current situation, I would probably talk to my friend about what I would say if I ran into my former advisor, and they can tell me if it sounds good or if it could be misinterpreted.

I don't think it has to be awkward. I don't think switching departments within the same school is as uncommon as you might think; if a student's interests shift, the best way to accommodate that is to find someone within the same school, possibly in another department, who could serve as their advisor. I know several students who've made such a lateral move. It's up to you whether or not your want to maintain any ties with your old department but I would tend to think it'd be good for you to do that. Say hi once in a while, definitely smile and be very friendly if you run into your old advisor or other professors/students from your old department, even come to any public talks that might be relevant. This is a professional move you're making to further your career, and if you treat it like that, there is no reason to feel awkward toward your old department. If you can maintain friendly ties there, it could turn out to be greatly beneficial.

Your main priority should be your career and education. You want to be respectful and thankful when you leave, but you most certainly won't ruin your advisor's life by leaving. You don't owe him anything -- you started your program in good faith and you did your best, that's all he could have ever expected. Now you're moving in a different direction, and if he is a good and supportive advisor, then he will want you to succeed, whatever that means for you, even if it means that you move to another program. Having one student switch to another program won't 'hurt' his rep, especially not if you're happy and successful there. If there are lots of other students who've left, then that's indicative of a larger problem, and again it's not your fault. I think the best way to have these conversations is to keep it about you and your research interests and/or feelings. If you say "I've felt such and such way" or "my interests have shifted and are more aligned with program B now", no one can tell you you're wrong and no one can disagree. Your feelings are your own. I wouldn't necessarily say anything bad about program A, even if you have things you'd want to say. Just say how much you appreciate all that your advisor has done and say you hope to come back and visit once in a while to update him on what you're up to. (Whether or not you actually do that is another question and is totally up to you.)

All the grad students in know in the city live off-campus. Montreal is a very affordable city. You should be able to afford an apartment off-campus, with or sometimes even without roommates (depending on location and how much you are willing to spend). The most important thing to know is that most leases start July 1, though you can also find decent apartments later in the summer.

I am not sure what going to the DGS will do for you at this point. If you do go, I think there are parts of this story that you should rethink if and how you mention, because they will probably not be interpreted as you'd like. Asking you to come to office hours isn't all that unusual, as rising_star explains, and for the department chair to be busy right after a job talk and not have time to discuss something with a student sounds entirely expected. In general, you can't expect someone to be able to talk to you at any random time that you walk up to them. Your grad school application deadlines are most likely something that was a pressing matter for you, but your advisor wasn't keeping track of at all. Beyond that, your deadlines really aren't something that he needs to accommodate, your job is to be a student there, and he should be able to give you a task to do for the following week. Reading your SOP isn't part of his job description, so you get to complain that he didn't help enough. The main problem you seem to be having is with the frequency of meetings and amount/form of feedback you want to get on your work. Before you take this matter to someone else, I think you really need to try and bring it up with your advisor. You need to have concrete things that you want/need. Weekly meetings and drafts seem like too much for him (and frankly, that's not a big surprise, that's a lot to read on a weekly basis, even for someone who isn't the chair; I bet often drafts didn't change that much, and that's why he told you he wasn't sure what you wanted him to do with them). Maybe you can establish a routine that works better for both of you -- bi-weekly meetings? you'll send him drafts of chapters when they are close to done? You need to come to an understanding with him. Dropping off the face of the earth for a few months and then suddenly having an urgent request isn't a good way to handle someone busy. If he can't meet on a regular basis, maybe you can set up a weekly/bi-weekly email update system, with meetings with some lower frequency to catch up. This is a one-year masters, after all, so hopefully this relationship isn't too far gone to get you through the rest of the semester. It's all about adjusting expectations.

I am in a different field and this is really a question for the person who gave you the assignment, if you're unsure, but my guess is that if the task is to summarize the paper then that would include all parts of the paper, including both the case study and the commentary.

This process changes depending on the school and department. I suggest you write back to whoever sent you the admissions email (assuming it's someone in your prospective department) to ask about funding options. You can explicitly ask whether there are any RA or TA positions that might be available to MS students and what the application process would entail.

A bit different, but toward the end of my dissertation writing stage I was getting all kinds of conflicting advice from my advisors. When I told one of them I didn't know what to do, he said this is very good news: if everyone is telling you that X is missing or wrong, then you know that X is missing or wrong. By the time that one person says X, another says Y, and a third says definitely not X nor Y, you're down to personal opinions and there isn't just one correct way to go. Do whatever you want.

It's expensive to fly people out. They wouldn't do that unless they had a very serious interest in you, and you can be pretty sure there aren't too many other students who will also be flown out. Usually if this happens pre-acceptance, you'll be accepted after the visit if nothing goes horribly wrong. There is still some chance of getting rejected, especially if this was explained to you as more of an interview situation. But this is a very good sign, and the odds are in your favor.

Alright, good, then it sounds like you already understood the assignment just fine before posting this question. I think you should start by reading the paper and forming your own opinions. It doesn't sound like the instructions for this writing assignment include an "opinion" part, so I'm not clear on what you'd use these other sources for. It's a summary piece. (But then, you're in a totally different field with possibly different norms). That said, if, after you're done reading, you do feel like you need to use extra sources, be sure you cite everything that you use. Same for if it's just during the interview: presenting the ideas of others as your own would be considered plagiarism, and you should do everything in your power to avoid the appearance of it (and, of course, doing it!).

That's awesome, congratulations!!

Presumably they want to know if you can read a research paper, synthesize the main data points and arguments that it makes, and summarize it in a paper. This would test both your ability to read the scientific literature and write about it. Given the time constraints and nature of the task, it's probably a better indication of your abilities than your carefully crafted writing sample (if you submitted one), which you could have worked on for months and years and gotten lots of help with. I would also assume that this might come up in your interview, but that if you do a good job at it, you'd have nothing to worry about because you'd already know everything that you'd need to about this paper. Since you don't give us a field or anything else to go by, it's a bit hard to say anything more than that. I can't say I've ever heard of this kind of requirement before, but I also don't necessarily think it's a bad one (from the school's perspective; it's obvious that it's quite burdensome for the students).

If you have the time and you can afford it (or you're getting sufficiently reimbursed), you should visit every school that invites you. Even if you don't end up going there, you'll get a chance to meet your POIs in person, as well as students, and those are important connections for the future. Those already attending tend to remember everyone who visits, including students who went to other schools; you'll later see those people again at conferences, and it's always nice to have familiar faces around. It's how you begin to build your network. If you can't go to all the schools (too expensive, too much time off work, etc), then you should make an effort to visit every school that you are seriously considering. Visits can have a serious impact on final decisions; you might discover you actually don't really get along with a POI or a school gives off a bad vibe, or that it turns out you really like the town/environment of a school you weren't seriously considering before (some of those things happened to me, for example). The important thing is to treat each visit seriously, even if you think you've already made up your mind. As long as you are open-minded and excited about your visit, no one will be offended later if you choose to accept another offer.

Make sure that you are actually required to do this. In the vast majority of cases I know, international students aren't required to provide an American-style GPA, because they come from a different educational system. They provide their transcripts, and the university will know how to deal with it. In a very small number of cases, universities might ask for an external evaluation of the degree by a company that will also know how to convert the foreign GPA into a US one. Otherwise, you run exactly into this kind of trouble -- it's really not clear how you're supposed to do the conversion, because it's not one-to-one with the American system.