pearls

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.

Congrats!


Given my previous experience, I think it is possible to get a visa in three weeks. My visa was issued in three days, in fact. In my country usually we make an appointment online, and bring all your materials to the embassy or consulate for a short interview. If it is approved, the officer would tell you the result immediately. And then you wait at home. It takes two days for them to mail your passport back to you via express delivery. So if you make a next-day appointment for interview, you'll get a visa in three or four days in my country. But you may need some time preparing all the materials. I remember the US visa requires a photograph with a weird size and shape (it is almost like a square!), so you may need to take a new photo. Also if you could apply online, you need an electronic version of your photo.



But can you get a visa without the invitation letter?

Sure, anyone can get a tourist visa to the US. The process should be just as you describe.
The visa is usually issued for 10 years so if you visited the US before it may still be valid, check your passport.
The comment about the invitation was just in case there were no available appointments in the next week and pearls would need to petition for an expedited date. It may not be needed, it depends on the appointment schedule at the embassy (s)he needs to visit.

CONGRATS!

Congrats! That's awesome!

Congrats, pearls! My friend goes there for phonology.

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.

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.

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.

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!