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pearls

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Everything posted by pearls

  1. Thanks, Zouzax Hope your interview went well! Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of that when applying. Thanks Dilly-dallier and Psycholinguist; I really like their program. The research they do sounds great. The bad reputation of College Park worries me, though.
  2. Ok, it seems this app season is over for me. I'm still expecting the official rejection from UCSC, but it's completely safe to assume they'd rejected me some time ago as they had their Open House last Friday-Saturday. I was accepted by Maryland today, so I've come here to beg for any advice on UConn vs. UMich vs. UMd. As you know, I'm a pretty clueless international applicant, so any help is appreciated... (primary interest: theoretical syntax; secondary: child acquisition, sentence processing)
  3. That's what I've been hoping! Btw, if anybody's willing to offer any advice on UConn vs. UMich for syntax, I'm more than willing to hear it!
  4. Well, I liked the visit more than I thought I could like any interview-related event. Both the faculty and the students were super nice. The atmosphere in the department is in general very friendly and not competitive at all, or at least that was my impression. On the other hand, we were constantly busy (I had six interviews) and the stress level was pretty high. And, sure, I occasionally acted out of character and might have said quite a few really stupid things (though I wasn't as talkative as usual), but - all in all - I'm really glad I had that experience. The only downside is that the visit has made my decision-making uber-difficult. (Btw, I think Typologaster mentioned a friend who goes there, and I think I met him.)
  5. Thanks No, I'm still torn between Connecticut and Michigan. (Any advice, anyone?) Btw, I asked my potential advisor about the workload and he said that first-year students mostly just do stuff like xeroxing (lol; I don't even know how to do that) and some grading. This. Itaal, congrats on your acceptances! (I can't give you any advice, though...)
  6. Gradschoolplease, good luck! Dilly-dallier, do you think you'll be going to UConn? I've been accepted there too, so we might end up in the same program. Zouzax, best of luck with your interview! (It's great you found a one-year program in Europe, most of them last two years.)
  7. I cannot believe something that terrible could have happened. I was speechless when I first read Avitamin's post, and I still do not know what to say.
  8. Can I just sign this? Seriously. This whole application/waiting thing is driving me crazy and I'm beginning to wonder how I'm going to survive grad school (supposing someone accepts me) if I'm so stressed out just waiting on the results.
  9. Congrats Hopeful, Spitz and Vaaarr!! Hopeful, this is "a new approach to the architecture of grammar." To be honest, I don't know too much about it (I've been planning to catch up once my apps are sent, but I can't concentrate on anything (including a project due Feb 12) and I don't want to spend too much time online because then I check my inbox every two seconds). I think syntacticians on Grad Cafe might find it interesting. I'm working on a plan B, too. But I'm still telling myself it's still early... One of my schools is traditionally sending decisions on Feb 9, at least according to Grad Cafe. Still, I don't want Wednesday to come too soon because that would mean that the dreaded interview with Md is close, too... I profoundly hate this application season. (The only good thing is that I've been in touch with a prof. from one of the schools who turned to be really great.) And to quote Spitz, "May God bless every linguistic student here!"
  10. Thanks for the jet lag tip! I've never left good ol' Europe so far. I just know I'll be too nervous to think straight during the interview. I can only hope I'll sound semi-dumb and not totally dumb... Oops, you're right; I should be more careful with terms/labels. Due to the situation in my department, I often say "syntactician" when I mean "syntactician working within the Minimalist framework." Anyway, I just read that Hopeful is a DM fan, so never mind... I'm a Minimalist through and through, though, so admit me, Maryland! Admit me, anyone! Pretty please? Yeah, this whole application thing is making me crazy and I'm procrastinating more than ever. I wish I could fall asleep and wake up on April 15 (and have at least a half of my MA thesis written and all my exams passed by that time). Yeah, I know I'll have to wait. I just can see myself obsessing over the interview until I hear from them two months afterwards. lol Congrats again! Those are some great acceptances! I don't think you've been rejected by Maryland. It's still early. I suppose you withdrew your app from UMich because of all the acceptances you received. Btw, if I'd had more money, I would have applied to more places, too. I still think all this is tough.
  11. Bureaucracy is one of my biggest nightmares. And next week I'll have to wait at least an hour to get something stamped at school... Hey, there's still chance for UCLA. I wish you luck with Santa Cruz and I do think you're pretty high on their list as you had an interview a few weeks ago! I crossed them off my list - even though I love their program, I shouldn't have applied. I wish I had known about their financial issues before applying. I don't think they'd admit me anyway - judging from Grad Cafe, who knows how many applications they received if Maryland got 140. Anyway, best of luck at San Diego, too! Thanks for all the info on your Maryland interviews! I thought you were a syntactician. Is Maryland really such a bad fit? (Ok, stupid question - it obviously is if you withdrew your application.) Lasnik is going to interview me next week and I'm incredibly nervous. Had I known there were going to be (phone) interviews, I might have never applied...
  12. A lot has happened here since I last visited... First, thanks again for all the info regarding US visas, Dilly-dallier and Billy! My visa was approved a couple of days ago. Billy, was the campus visit really packed with events? I'm afraid that my jet lag is going to be really awful and combined with the interview stress... I don't even want to think much about it. Dilly-dallier and Jason, congrats on your acceptances!! Also congrats to the people who posted in the Results section. Everybody else, I hope we all have good news soon!! Hopeful, you've really been doing great this app season (I'm sure that some of those "anonymous" acceptances are yours)! Can you tell me who from U of Maryland interviewed you? Was the interview long? Test-like or more relaxed?
  13. Thanks so much, everyone! Being short-listed really encouraged me. I don't have my hopes too high, though, as the results page here says they invited 14 people last year and only admitted 5 of them. (And as I can be pretty awkward sometimes.) I'm still happy I'll get to meet the faculty - especially Epstein and Pires - and other ling students. Well, I hope I'll get to meet them - I'm still not sure I'll get a tourist visa. Thanks for all the info, Fuzzylogician and Dilly-dallier! It seems I'll be able to get an interview soon, but I'm not really sure what supporting documents I need (I mean, do they really need the birth certificates of my entire family ?; I'll call as soon as my pin code for their call center's active and ask them everything) and how much money I need to have in my bank account (can't wait for that pin code to be activated!). edit: Hopefulapplicant, unfortunately, February's usually freezing where I'm from, too. I wish summer could last all year long...
  14. Glad if I could help! And since you're into psycholinguistics, I don't really think you should be worried that your sample deals with an issue in psychology. EDIT: OMG, I just checked my mail - I'm shortlisted at Michigan!! I'm sooo happy! But I'm also sad 'cause I probably won't be able to visit due to financial issues - the plane ticket would be more than $1k. It's night here, so I'll have to discuss things with my parents tomorrow evening (yeah, I have lectures on Saturday )... EDIT #2: Oh, the mail says the department will pay up to $500 for airfare, so money stops being a problem. But what about the fact I don't have a US visa? I don't think I can get it in three weeks...
  15. According to one of my recommenders, they'll care more about our analytical skills. According to the only adcomm member I've ever talked to, they want to see something original in our sample. I'm not really sure what qualifies as original (enough for grad school acceptance), but - according to one of my other recommenders - that could be sth small, e.g. new data. EDIT: I just remembered that the aforementioned adcomm member said that in our sample we could present a problem even if we didn't have a solution.
  16. It'd be great to end up in the same program as someone from this board. I don't think the hard copies have reached Storrs, but I hope they will... eventually. My application has been marked complete on January 14, a day before the deadline, though. I was able to email everything I wrote on Thursday (Jan 13), and my recommenders were really nice and supportive and emailed their letters by Friday morning. Btw, I think that linguistics programs don't have too many applicants, so they'll start reviewing your application even if a LOR is missing. (I've been told that at UConn they first look at your writing sample. If it's good, i.e. has some original thoughts in it, they look at your LORs. Apparently, it helps if they know your recommenders.) I don't really know how much grad students get from the department (in exchange for TAship). I know there are university-wide fellowships, too, but - again - I don't know any details.
  17. Congrats!! Then we probably named the same person as a potential advisor at UConn. (My "research" doesn't deal with the TP/NP parallelism, though.) Btw, I think your stats are awesome.
  18. I freakin' cried today! I casually called the local post office to check where my Express Mail Service package is. Guess what? It's still somewhere at an airport in Amsterdam! It should have arrived to Connecticut almost a week ago! I don't have high hopes of getting in anywhere, but UConn's probably my top choice. I do love the programs at all the schools I applied to, but - because of the work Bošković does on Slavic lgs - UConn maybe beats the rest by a fraction. The deadline is Jan 15, and God knows when my package is going to reach the Department of Linguistics! (Btw, grad school received the transcripts, which were sent by regular mail, a week ago.) When I stopped crying, I emailed the program assistant. She was very nice and understanding and helped ease my mind a lot. (Thank you, Catalina! ) I emailed her all the materials I'd sent originally. I also emailed all my recommenders tonight, asking them to send her their letters. I hope I'm not getting on their nerves with my applications. And I hope they still have the letters. So, the only remaining thing is to pray all the post offices involved finally do their job. Oh, I forgot you were an undergrad senior. I somehow thought you graduated last year. I don't think 35 pages will be a problem, esp. if they're not single spaced. (Unfortunately, I left my writing sample single-spaced, so I'm afraid it'll be a bit hard to read.) I know someone interested in socio who applied there. I wish best of luck to both of you! I'm afraid I'm to be blamed for all the tension here. Sorry! I just really think my chances are bad to non-existent because I don't know how to compare myself to US applicants and primarily because I don't think my applications have any extraordinary component. I didn't have a formal semantics course, either. I learned bits and pieces of it in other courses, but I'd definitely need to take Intro to Semantics or sth like that for it all to come together. As for distractions, I'm trying to read some papers I really have to read and forcing myself to start developing the idea for my MA thesis seriously, but I just... can't. In the meantime, I'm playing some really stupid games. Btw, technically, I'm in a one-year MA program. We've been recently informed, though, that - while the program officially lasts a year - we'll have another year to complete our theses. Me too! EDIT: Probably too much identifying info, but I'm too tired to really edit anything...
  19. Thanks for being supportive. I know adcomms expect different things from people with different levels of education, so sending a short term paper isn't necessarily bad. Honestly, I feel my writing sample is the least bad part of my application. It deals with a syntactic issue and theoretical syntax is what I really want to do. The thing is it's not stellar - not a single component of my application (except my GPA, which isn't very relevant as I'm not from a very well-known university) is. Anyways, I see you did an honors thesis. Is that your writing sample? Btw, I applied to UCSC, too. (And I made a bunch of typos in my SOP - I omitted a couple of words, I wrote a word twice... Ouch. ) Me too. I hate checking my mail these days. I know it's still early, but I'm always half-expecting an ugly rejection sitting in my inbox. century428, I really wouldn't worry so much if I were you. Your stats make me wonder why I applied in the first place. You've got some awesome research experience!
  20. I didn't. I submitted a 15/16-page term paper. Anyway, I sent my last application (due Jan 15) two days ago, but I don't think I'm going anywhere this fall. My applications are too mediocre for a PhD program, esp. for an international student. Oh well... I just wish I'd spent all that money in a different way. Good luck everybody!
  21. Thanks! I'm applying for a PhD in Linguistics. I was kind of disappointed with my verbal score because I have a BA in English(/Linguistics), but I got over it (and now I'm stressing over other parts of my application(s)).
  22. I thought I'd share my experience... I finished every single practice test with 5-10 minutes to spare on each section. The real thing really shocked me - I almost ran out of time during the quantitative section and I had to guess the last five questions in the verbal section (3 of them were reading comprehension). I guess I was too concerned with getting every single question right. Needless to say, I didn't do too well - 600V & 730Q. I'm an international, though, and the GRE was my first standardized and my first computer-adaptive test ever.
  23. Ugh, I'm not excited, I'm terrified! Theoretical syntax is what I like most. I'm applying to University of Connecticut, University of Maryland, University of Michigan and UC Santa Cruz. Seems like Deus ex machina and I like the same schools.
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