psycholinguist

What a sweet story! I'm glad that you have this as a consolation after such a disheartening application-process!

Yikes!

Yay! Congrats!

I couldn't agree more.

Heh. I just mean that going off to a visit expecting a laid-back vacation may not be realistic.

Gah, I just spent NINE HOURS working on the first draft of my thesis. I'm about to head back to my place and collapse into bed and dream about relative clauses. But I GOT IT HANDED IN! AT 11:59 PM! Not that it was due at midnight or anything. The story just sounds more dramatic that way.

w?lk?m tu ow? l???l ko?n? ?v

I studied abroad for a semester in the UK and received two marks in the 60s and one 75, then thought of this problem just before applying to grad-schools and went to ask the study-abroad office about it. They assured me that American and Canadian schools are used to seeing British grades on transcripts and advised me not to worry about it. However, I got a rejection from one Canadian program supposedly as a result of my grades being a bit lower than they would have liked; my American grades are fine, so I have to wonder whether that program glanced at my British marks and thought they were looking at scores out of 100. If in doubt, I would email the programs with your concerns. Also, visit your university's career-office or registrar and see if they have any international GPA-conversion guidelines.

Rejections are no fun, even when you see them coming! Glad the twitch cleared up, though.

ABORT, RETRY, FAIL? I haven't lived in the UK for a while, but as I understand it, 'cheers' is basically synonymous with 'thanks'. A couple of my Canadian friends might use it for 'bravo'. Neither strikes me as particularly appropriate for the closing of a rejection-letter.

They'll definitely be more interdisciplinary. Cognitive-science is all about the mind, with input from psychology, linguistics, computer-science, philosophy, neuroscience, and more. I wouldn't expect cognitive-scientists to be diehard Chomskyans, but there's certainly overlap between cog-sci and linguistics. It helps to be interested in cognition and perception and the like, though, if you're considering any cog-sci program. My department's newest linguistics-professor has both an MA and a Ph.D. in cognitive-science from JHU, incidentally. He mostly does work on computational linguistics.

I'm not the original poster, but as I also got in there: GPA: 3.68 GRE scores: 730 Q, 630 V, 5.5 W Background a mix of linguistics and cognitive-science. Two semesters of lab-work, one in language-acquisition and the other in cognition and perception. Writing an honours-thesis in linguistics.

Oh, wow! Congratulations! I do have an acceptance; the tricky part for me would be securing funding since I'm an international student (well, at an American college: a Canadian on a student-visa). They're looking into possibly having me TA for the French department, though I don't know if my French is good enough for that. We'll see. I'm going to be visiting the campus on Monday and Tuesday of next week, meeting with Rachel Mayberry and Robert Kluender, amongst others. If I went there, I'm about 95% sure that I would go for the interdisciplinary program in cognitive-science. It looks like a great program, though, and whatever happens to me (I do have other options), I'm thrilled for you!

Works for me!

That sucks! As another Canadian around the forum (a British Columbian, at that!), I'm actually a bit ashamed that you got that from a school in Canada. What a drag!

Sounds like a robot trying its best to be sympathetic.

Congrats!

Understood. The 'Smith where Jones' example may not be particularly natural, but it also doesn't rely on recursion (though it does employ both "had" and "had had" as written statements, which is arguably a bit cheap). But if you think of it, do let us know!

Vancouver is a fantastic city (I grew up near it), and UBC has a lovely campus. You could do a lot worse than that!

No problem! My own adjustment to independence has taken place almost entirely in Ithaca - it's a great place for the transition since it's small, fairly easy to get around, and VERY student-oriented. (I know the constant flow of students in and out of the town drives the locals crazy, but it may be mostly thanks to the two colleges that the town still exists.) Let me know if you have any other questions!

* laughs * I know. I also got into linguistics mainly through a keen interest in wordplay (with a detour through etymology when I was in high-school), so I know that feeling! I hate to seem to be upstaging your childhood self, but also coming to mind is the semi-classic Smith where Jones had had had had had had had had had had had the examiner's approval. (The challenge: punctuate it.)

I haven't received any rejection-letters via email. And I haven't received any acceptance-letters through the mail. I guess that's what you call 'complementary distribution'. * laughs * Excellent.

I've wondered the same thing myself. Is it just a formality?

I hear that stress and anxiety can be triggers as well. Fortunately, as I understand it, most eye-twitches go away over time. And anything you can do to try and relax is probably going to help with the eye-twitches as well. NOTE: I am anything but a doctor. Just a disclaimer. But: when that used to happen to me back in middle-school, I'd simply (wash my hands, then) get into a relaxing position, close the eye(s) in question, and then apply firm pressure to the site of the twitch for a while. It came back a few times after doing this, but after one time when I lay down and pressed the problem-spot for about 25 minutes, it never bothered me again.

This is true. The letter was personalised and fairly apologetic, which I appreciate. Then again, in light of Professor A's comments, I have no idea whether my grades really had a whole lot to do with it. Can't say.