[Picked up any new hobbies while waiting?]

This thread made me laugh, because I didn't notice that I started a couple hobbies to pass the time waiting for responses. I taught myself to knit last week, so I can be a total dork and make myself scarves of the four houses in Harry Potter (did I really just admit that?) and I also randomly started training for a 5k that doesn't exist.

Awesome! Be sure to check out Ravelry if you haven't already!

[Fall 2011]

Hang in there, everyone. Let's also not forget the possibility of being waitlisted; last year I was put on the waitlist at my top choice of school on 15 March. Then, two weeks later, I got an email saying I was in!

[Please Help Me to find this city]

Nifty!

[Fall 2011]

It's true, I feel like we've lost a friend. And seriously psycholinguist, don't blame yourself, you were just trying to be helpful and saying what anyone else would say to someone who was going to San Diego for the first time.

My condolences to her family and friends as well ...

Thank you! I'm feeling much more rational today. I think it's just natural in the wake of awful events such as this to wonder how we could have helped prevent them, which unfortunately often leads to the temptation to think, 'Well, if I hadn't done X or Y, then this never would have happened'.

[What would Chuck Norris do?]

Great thread!

Chuck Norris was once sent a form rejection-letter by a school we've never heard of; this is because Chuck Norris immediately went back in time and ensured that its two founders would never meet.

Chuck Norris can accept all of his offers simultaneously.

Chuck Norris can reduce any language to a small handful of synonyms for 'afraid'.

[Fall 2011]

That's absolutely not your fault.

I'm still hoping this is not true...just too difficult for me to accept it.

Thanks so much. On some level I do realise that, and I think I'm going to be all right. It's just, yeah, a terrible shock.

It all does speak to how special the community here is, though. I mean, heck, even though we don't even know each other's names (as well as ages and genders in many cases), we've come to care about one another a lot.

[Fall 2011]

Hello everyone,

I have not been active in the boards, but I have been following them. I thought it would be my duty to deliver you some unfortunate news.. Although I cannot be absolutely certain of hopefulapplicant's identity, I was also in attendance at the ucsd open house. Unfortunately, on the drive back home Friday night, she was involved in a serious car accident and passed away at the hospital. This was extremely shocking to hear, as she had such a bright future ahead of her and was an amazing person. Obviously I have not known her for a long time, but from meeting her, I could tell what a great person she was, and it is extremely painful for me to hear this news.

I thought everyone here also deserved to know, as she appeared to be pretty active in the forums, and I'm sure you all valued her friendship.

Once again, I cannot absolutely confirm her identity, but based on her acceptances and meeting her, I am almost certain that this is her.

I'm sorry to deliver such horrible news, but I thought it would be fair to share it, as I'm sure you are all wondering why she has not been active in the last few days.

That is just awful! I'm so sorry. Thanks for letting us know.

(I'm going to try not to spiral into self-blame here, but to be honest, I can't stop dwelling on the fact that I was the one who mentioned that San Diego is difficult to get around without a car.)

[Fall 2011]

A couple friends of mine got acceptances there several weeks ago. The open house was this past weekend. Sorry. It's possible you're wait-listed or something though.

Hey pangur-ban! Good to see you! How goes it at MIT?

[What else can I do?]

The other thing is... if they write back to you along the lines of "You were very, very qualified and there was nothing wrong with your application." Maybe they would go as far as to suggest that fit is an issue. But what they WON'T say is department politics. This type of rejection hurts the applicant the most of all because department politics are completely out of the applicant's control and that also cost the applicant $.

So if you cannot find a satisfactory answer, assume department politics.

Also, sometimes even contacting faculty beforehand to see if they'd be interested in taking students don't necessarily correlate to finding out about their sabbaticals. I honestly did not even know that two of my PAs were going to be on sabbatical this year when I contacted them in the fall. Now I have to twiddle my thumbs and just hope that my applicant will be strong enough to get through the process. I swear, professors never tell you about their sabbatical plans.

Agreed. This may or may not have been the issue with one of my applications one time...and honestly? Either way, the whole experience was so confusing and contradictory that I'm glad I didn't end up there.

[Comments on Cornell?]

I did my undergrad degree at Cornell, and loved it! Most people are really down-to-earth (there really isn't any stereotypical Ivy League feel to it at all) and there's a great variety of backgrounds: as I recall, about 35% of the grad-students are from countries other than the U.S. Ithaca is in the middle of nowhere and hard to get in and out of, but the area is stunningly pretty. The winters...well, they're winters, but they're manageable. And they're always preceded by the most amazing autumns I've ever witnessed.

[Fall 2011]

I got the admission from Toronto. What's weird is that they know from gradcafe that I'm considering between Penn and NYU. Is anyone from Toronto here?

Congrats! Yep, I'm in the MA program (and, for the record, I absolutely love it here!). I wouldn't be surprised if someone has indeed had a look at this forum. Not that I think people here are any nosier than usual; it's just that Grad Café is accessible enough that this would be a pretty straightforward place for any department to start looking for additional information about applicants that might help them out.

[Good resources for beginners?]

I agree with vaaarr about Wikipedia! One of my undergrad professors liked the phonology pages so much that she encouraged us to explore them, read them, cite them, whatever.

Also, the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, by David Crystal. Readable mini-chapters, lots of helpful images and graphs, great for browsing. The third edition just came out last year...meaning that inexpensive copies of the second should be easy to find! * grins * (Heck, I think the one I have is the first edition, which despite being as old as I am is still very decent.)

Welcome to the field, whether you decide to hang around or are just visiting for a while. * grins *

[Fall 2011]

Congrats to all!

I did my undergrad degree at Cornell; it's an absolutely lovely department (albeit small, with only so many subfields covered). But it's just one of many options!

[Fall 2011]

Awesome! Congrats, everyone!

[Fall 2011]

I can empathize, vaaarr--I too began my day with a rejection from UCLA and ended it with an acceptance from UC Berkeley! Will you be attending the Open House? I am sooooo excited and happy. I can't believe I am actually going to grad school!

Congrats!

[Fall 2011]

Congrats on both acceptances!

[Fall 2011]

A couple of minutes ago I received an email from USC saying that I'm admitted but I have to wait for financial aid. It sounds positive. This is the first email I've ever received from any of the adcoms concerning my application. I also applied to UMass, but no interview yet. I hope this isn't a bad sign.

Yay! Congrats!

[Grades in Graduate School]

Anyone else from a North American school that uses a different scale?

Heh. I hear the University of Ottawa uses a 10-point scale, and Carleton University a 12-point one. Go figure.

But most transcripts should come with a backside or extra piece of paper explaining the school's scale (and maybe grading policies), shouldn't they? At my undergrad school an A+ was 4.3; but yeah, 4.0 is tops at a lot of places, especially in the U.S.

[Anxiety level through the roof]

I was reading the information on the "health plan" that I get as a grad student. It says that all services, including counseling and psychological services, are covered 100% at the university's health center. It says it will pay 80% on preferred providers outside the university's health center after a $400 deductible. I'm not sure if and how that applies to seeing an outside psychiatrist. I can ask the next time I am there at the health center.

Sounds like a good start! Go for it!

[Anxiety level through the roof]

Is there a student health insurance program at your school with which you could request a referral to an outside specialist? Otherwise, try Googling around for help in your area; you may be able to find a group that works with lower-income people.

I agree with all of the above. Actual psychiatrists (as opposed to psychologists or counselors) are the best bet because they have medical training and know how to deal with mental-health issues as medical conditions, and how to address them with whatever combinations are going to suit the problem and the person best: talk-therapy, medications, cognitive-behavioural therapy, etc. It's not an overreaction, a personality-flaw, a weakness, or a case of runaway emotions. It isn't nothing, either; but it's just some brain-chemistry that isn't quite working right.

[Fall 2011]

EDIT: OMG, I just checked my mail - I'm shortlisted at Michigan!! I'm sooo happy!

Congrats! That's awesome!

[Applying to Only One Program?]

Nice. I applied to York a few months ago. The program deadline is Feb 1st, so I probably won't hear back from them in a while. I figured there would be quite a lot of contact between both universities. It's a small circle, after all.

I'm pretty sure Ryerson doesn't even offer linguistics. As for OISE, they offer an M. ED/M.A in Second Language Education which is close to applied linguistics, but with a focus on education. I've already got a TESL diploma, so pursuing an M.ed in SLE seemed kinda pointless. York University is my only option. Let's hope I get in!

It's always nice to find a fellow torontonian (and a linguist for that matter!) in here, so thank you for sharing your story.

Ah, that would explain why I hadn't heard anything about any programs of theirs in linguistics. * laughs *

Likewise! Best of luck!

[Grades in Graduate School]

Depends on the department and school; I get the feeling that some of them just dole out As to grad-students simply because they feel grades are a lot less important in grad-school (and because they want their grad-students to have competitive scholarship-applications and such), but others make you work for them. Regardless, I imagine there really aren't any standards; and more importantly, it's your research/presentations/publications that count for the most.

(By the way: hello from across campus, and thanks for letting me know that grades are now available on ROSI! I'd been wondering when they would be.)

[What do you take notes *in* (not on)]

I would get so excited to go back to school just so I could take the annual trip to Staples with my dad.

I always felt exactly the same way! I still have a bad habit of collecting pretty notebooks and then not necessarily using them. I'm also very particular about the pens I use, and have started relying on art-supply stores for those. Heh.

I once did a Moleskine for a calc class but I was so compulsive about being neat that I ended up buying one of those cheapo notebooks, taking class notes in that and then transferring it into the Moleskine. (Sometimes, I am a little anal and it definitely comes out in my class organizational skills!)

Here's another feeling I know! My notebooks are my archives; they need to be tidy and easy to revisit.

Edit: I forgot to post the notebooks I use from Staples, they are great! The paper is so smooth and obviously not Moleskine quality but I like it. They come in a bunch of sizes. They are made from some sort of sugarcane waste.

I have a notepad from that line right here by my computer, and it's lovely! Recommendation seconded.

i second a vote for environotes. some of their notebooks have internal pockets to hang onto syllabi or assignments, so they remain preferable to binders for me.

and even though this thread is about notebooks and not computers, if i'm being honest, i use the computer far more than my notebook. so far, the notebook is only pulled out for an undergrad language class i'm taking and the undergrad lecture i TA for. i use a laptop for all of my grad coursework. i type notes for every book i read and then type in notes from seminar discussions into the same file. it is time-consuming, it is tedious, it slows my reading-rate way down, but it still works for me. in seminar i can scroll or do a keyword search if i'm trying to find a certain note quickly. when i'm writing a paper, particularly end of semester historiography papers that require a synthesis of 14 books, the keyword search function is an absolute life-saver. when the time comes to write my comps, printing out all of my typed notes will be much easier than digging through six semesters' worth of notebooks and trying to decipher my chicken scrawl.

just thought i'd put it out there. it's definitely a slower process at the moment. i can only read 20 pages/hour instead of 30 pages because i constantly stop to type my notes, but the extra time now will save me having to re-read 150 books for comps because half my notes are scribbled in the margins.

That's a really darn good idea!

[Applying to Only One Program?]

Psycholinguist, which university are you currently attending? The department sounds wonderful! I'm curious because I'm also from Toronto, and I applied to do my M.A in Applied Linguistics.

I also applied to only one program. In retrospect, I think I should have applied to more schools, but I didn't have the money at the time ($90CAD per application is a lot for an unemployed college grad). I was also limited by the fact that I can't relocate to another city, so there is really no point in applying to places I can't get to. I fell in love with the program I applied to, so I'm quite happy with my choice.

Nifty! I'm at the U of T, doing regular unapplied linguistics. * laughs * (And not psycholinguistics, either; my name is out-of-date.) Not sure if there're applied programs here, though there might be something offered by OISE that comes close. (As for some of the rest of the city: I know absolutely nothing about linguistics at Ryerson, but I've heard good things about York. There's a fair bit of contact between their linguists and ours, actually; people from here go on to there and vice versa, and there's at least one mailing-list about guest-lectures that goes out to people at both places.)