linggeek

McGill was one of my dream schools location wise (would love to live in Quebec). But I decided against it. They seemed to be heavily into semantics & syntax but I did note a couple of professors who had similar interests as me. Am I wrong? PM forthcoming. I decided against Stanford too. One of my good friends who did her MA there told me about the focus. So I decided against that too.

I'm narrowing my list of grad programs I am applying to by the end of the week. I've looked at so many departments' websites but I may have missed some. I am looking for something with a good balance of phonetics and phonology and perhaps sociolinguistics. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Took the GRE 9/26. Score posted 11/3 V: 154 (520 in old format) - estimate they gave me was 520-610, ugh. :-( Q: 149 (620 old format) - estimate was 540-640 AW: 3.5 whaaaaaa(?)

I am currently looking for some grad schools to apply to. Now, I am fairly certain what fields of linguistics I am interested in. And I feel really strongly about a family of languages that I would be working on. I have identified a program that is all about said language family, and judging from a couple of people I've spoken to there, my chances of getting accepted there seem to be pretty high. But I am looking at other schools, particularly reach and dream schools that I could apply to. While I think they are awesome on the methodology, a number of them don't really cater to the language family I'm interested in. So, I ask... How important is the language family that I am interested in compared to the field/methodologies I'm into? Thanks!

420 Q and 400 V 3.5 on the analytic... Quite weird since I had taken the GRE practice program expecting higher V than Q. I'd also average around 550 each on the practice program. But I had gotten really sick the day before, so that played a part in my low score.

I just got done with this quarter and looking into the GRE again and I am deciding between taking the current GRE or the new GRE. I took the GRE in December and I did poorly (didn't do much preparation for it). I am thinking of taking the current GRE, but that wouldn't leave me much time to study. If I take the new one, I'd have more time to prepare. But I wouldn't be used to the format. Plus I'd have to buy a new prep book. Oh, and plus I heard there's a calculator on the new one? It would help people like me who aren't good at math. I have the option of taking 4-week preparation classes for both; but I can afford only one. What should I do? FWIW, I will be applying to linguistics programs.

I graduate in June, but I am considering the possibilty of taking a couple of classes as a post-bac to make myself a more attractive applicant (didn't get in this year). By the time I graduate, I will have taken over a dozen linguistics courses in addition to independent research, an honors thesis. The classes I am considering would be semantics, an advanced phonetics course, and an advanced phonology course. What are you thoughts on it? Is it worth it? I ask because I know some linguistics students in grad school who have never taken a linguistics course as an undergrad.

Two of the professors in the dept are shocked/surprised. Too bad they weren't on the adcom! :-\ Thanks.

rejected. Ah well.

A classmate informed me today that she was accepted into our department's grad program, which I also had applied to. My heart sank because I haven't received the notification e-mail. I know, I haven't gotten any official rejection or word. But I'm kinda nervous. They send out acceptance notifications as they go and not all at once, right? Right? *breathe*

Reposting my post from the linguistics forum I'm currently a senior majoring in linguistics and decided to apply to my department's MA program for fall 2011. I think I have a very good shot at getting in; my GPA overall and in the major is very good, I have some research experience, recommendations from a few professors within the department, doing an honors thesis, and a decent SoP. However, my GRE score is very depressing. I got sick the day before the GRE but I did it anyway (I had no choice, with the deadlines and all) because I was satisfied with the results of the practice tests I had been taking. But I admit, I can't blame it all on that since I did a piss-poor job of preparing for it. Now, my department "expects" a GRE score of 600 each (I got 400) but at the same time they say they take a more holistic look at an applicant's background, which does give me a glimmer of hope. Still, is it realistic to believe that I may still be admitted? I mean, they must have a cut-off point somewhere. Is it possible to be accepted with a very low GRE? I should be finding out any day now, and I am very anxious! :-( Thanks

I'm currently a senior majoring in linguistics and decided to apply to my department's MA program for fall 2011. I think I have a very good shot at getting in; my GPA overall and in the major is very good, I have some research experience, recommendations from a few professors within the department, doing an honors thesis, and a decent SoP. However, my GRE score is very depressing. I got sick the day before the GRE but I did it anyway (I had no choice, with the deadlines and all) because I was satisfied with the results of the practice tests I had been taking. But I admit, I can't blame it all on that since I did a piss-poor job of preparing for it. Now, my department "expects" a GRE score of 600 each (I got 400) but at the same time they say they take a more holistic look at an applicant's background, which does give me a glimmer of hope. Still, is it realistic to believe that I may still be admitted? I mean, they must have a cut-off point somewhere. Is it possible to be accepted with a very low GRE? I should be finding out any day now, and I am very anxious! :-( Thanks