barredell

I know one person whose gotten an offer from UMass for next year, so it seems like they're sending out the positive news, now. (I'm a first-year there with no knowledge of what goes on in admissions )

I really like the program at Chicago. It was an incredibly difficult decision for me. Good luck! - I thought the faculty and students were both excellent and there was a really great departmental dynamic.

UMass it is. It is wonderful to have decided - and while I knew from the beginning that the school was on the top of my list (this was the statement of purpose that I started with despite the application deadline being significantly later than at other schools...because I actually wanted to write it), I don't regret taking the time to visit some of the other schools. Visiting gave me the chance to meet other faculty and students and gave me a few new ideas for future research. Plus, as a result of taking so many planes, I now have a couple of free tickets through Southwest, which is never a bad thing. So, onwards!

I'll be at UMass in the fall - I visited a few weeks back and cannot wait to go back. I've been advised by the people in my dept. to look in Northampton for housing over Amherst. I'll probably be taking this advice if possible and was wondering when people here recommend starting the apartment search for Northampton. I have heard that single housing is relatively hard to find (not sure yet if I'll be living with anyone from my cohort). I will be at a program in CA for all of July and the first half of August. Would going up in June to visit places make sense (signing if necessary and moving in in August)? Is that too early? Too late? I've been trawling the off-campus housing site through UMass as well as Craiglist, but not too much is up on the latter right now. Thanks!

There is also the point that all of formal linguistics is not Chomsky. He does not speak for the entire field. That's my experience, at least. To the extent that formal linguistics can be characterized as mulling over the same 6 French or English sentences and using only your own intuitions to guide you in your analysis, I have heard functional linguistics characterized as nothing except counting tokens. Neither characterization comes close to the current truth of things. For what it's worth, quite a few of the linguists working on languages that I am interested in are of a more functionalist bent - while it's not the framework that I would pursue in my own work, it's nevertheless interesting and something that I respect. And that's all I've got. : )

My professors seem set on not telling me where to go...which is nice, except that each time I tell them I've turned someplace down, they tell me that they think I made the right decision to do so. So clearly they have very definite opinions and are just not telling me. All I hear is "well, you can't make a bad decision," which I know is true, but nevertheless.

stuck between UMass, MIT, and UCSC. Haven't visited UMass yet. I am growing less sure by the day of where I ought to go...

I got in but won't be going...

I am definitely going (they're announcing fellowships by email, by the by. Like everything else this year, I know the number of fellowships being offered is smaller than usual (around 30 out of 240 applicants?) because they just weren't getting enough affiliates paying full ticket price. Still not sure about housing. I was thinking about trying the international student house because it sounds more interesting than the normal dorms but I like stability (so don't want to wait to craigslist something). The co-op housing option looks nice, too. Hopefully there are still rooms available - I had forgotten completely that I'll have to live somewhere while I'm there!

From what they told me, I'm 99% sure that there is no scheduled visit day for Rutgers - you just go at your convenience.

For University of Georgia, it looks like Alexander Williams is their theoretician. While I don't know him personally, he taught at my college a few years back and was, apparently, a good teacher and does interesting work (syntax). Also, if you go through his CV, he has had job talks at very, very good schools. Good luck!

You guys are great - thanks for all of the suggestions!

I should look into that (I'm actually from KY...not from that area though. I have to say that the river county dialects in my part of the state are absolutely fascinating and, as far as I know, haven't been studied too deeply. Linguistics in your own backyard ftw. Also, fuzzylogician: you have a lambda calculus shirt? That's amazing! I have a shirt (actually from a computer programming site of some sort) that says 'Semanticist' in block letters. I love it but will keep it under wraps until I've earned my semanticist rights in grad school, heh.

Anywhere before the turn of the 20th century, as far as I can tell from my trawling about on Google. Which is why I want to know whom this girl is talking to (and if they'd talk to me, too).

You get in contact with someone whose facebook profile you happened upon (but whom you've never met) solely because their 'about me' section included the phrase: "when people mess up comparatives and say 'so...as' instead of 'as...as'" (e.g., 'she is so tall as her mother' vs. 'she is as tall as her mother') (anyone one here do this? want to tell me about it?) And my grammaticality-judgments are shot. There are some readings in semantics that I just can't get, either.

MIT is calling, for the record... (my decision just got more difficult) Good luck to everyone!

...that is an intensely lavender-colored website.

I won't be applying but I am right there with you on walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela - I've been mildly obsessed with Galicia (Galiza, even) since high school and would love a good reason to go there at some point.

The idea of the 3 person cohort, as Chicago said to me, was that the 3 people would just integrate faster with the second- and third-year students...usually they would be looking for 6. It does sound a little intense (exciting, though), but like fuzzylogician said, Rutgers is looking for a cohort of 4 as well (UCSC and UMass didn't say in their emails what the expected size will be, but both departments are on the small size so I would be surprised if it were much larger than the others).

I'm pretty sure that my writing sample was what made my application stand out. Every faculty member that I have talked to has mentioned it. It was quite long - don't be afraid to send in long writing samples if they don't specify a page count! Also - I had the chance to meet a number of faculty members at a conference where I presented. Whether you present or not, I cannot stress enough how helpful going to a conference and meeting people can be. This not only gave me a chance to see who I clicked with, but also let them put a face and personality to my application.

Thanks! Actually, I don't trust the website so much. My status there still says 'No Decision' and says that they never got my personal statement (and they did). The UMass website says they never got 2/3 of my rec letters (and they did) or most of the rest of my application. The websites seem like trouble, generally speaking.

Also, it looks like Rutgers is sending out news today by email, as well

UPenn already made the first round of decisions (for the visit day), if that helps.

It's also weird to think that any doors that are closed to me at this point are ones that I've closed myself. This is a bad process for the semi-sentimental so I'm not going to think about that anymore! (Can you tell that I'm about to send another email of "thank you, but..."?)

I have (will have...) a BA in Linguistics from a small liberal arts college. And I have never met a linguistics major from another school apart from conferences, which does not count. It's kind of eerie, sometimes, heh. We exist, I swear we do...