liszt85

So what if none of the above applies? Can I then go ahead and get the J1 visa and not worry about the home residency requirement? Point no. 1) however is tricky. Some of my funding comes from a professor's grants and I suspect some of those grants come from the defense offices (of Canada and possibly the US). I'll contact the international office with this question..

I'm assuming you'd have a car then. I'm an international student, so can't tell you about the traffic. However, you can get studios nearby for a little more than what you'd be paying for yours. I'm getting one for myself for about $450 (all utilities included!). Its a 10 minute walk to the building that houses my lab. As a a grad student, its always a good idea to remain close to the campus. So if you're willing to shell out $450-500, you can get a studio with all utilities included somewhere nearby. A 9month OSU grad stipend should be able to afford this but you may have other expenses, so I cannot comment.

"Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing" by Manning and Schutze "The Psychology of Language" by Whitney Does anyone have these in ebook format? There are sites like gigapedia.org from where we can download these for free (I have no idea about the piracy rules and if downloading from gigapedia is legal or not, it sure isn't ethical but I'll wait until I have some money before I start buying a lot of books, at present I only buy the ones that I'll need long term) but couldn't find these anywhere. I couldn't find them in my library either. These are books that my adviser suggested I read before the quarter begins.

I asked and I got a list and a proposal for my MA thesis (a very challenging one, in his words :|) from my adviser. With my upcoming wedding, I'm quite sure I won't read a lot but I'll get some introductory reading done.

Engguy, I guess you're right. I gave the package that NU sent to me (including papers by faculty) to my professor. Don't want to see it anymore..will remind me of what could have been

Same reason listed on mine as well and I'd been in touch with a professor who did exactly the kind of work that I wanted to do and its his name that I mentioned in the SOP. After reading my CV and research interests, he himself once contacted me and said that I might be a good fit for his lab. So yes, that deny reason is not helpful and probably is some sort of default thing.

No, they won't. Don't panic, just pass your courses and go and have a good time at Purdue. If you apply to a PhD program later, the grad school there may or may not care about your undergraduate final semester grades.

"Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing" by Manning and Schutze "The Psychology of Language" by Whitney Does anyone have these in ebook format? There are sites like gigapedia.org from where we can download these for free but couldn't find these anywhere. I couldn't find them in my library either. These are books that my adviser suggested I read before the quarter begins.

This is where I'm with you. I chose OSU even though I have very little idea about what research I'll end up doing as my primary adviser is fixed and some of my funding comes from his grants. His research is on topics (that do look interesting) that are probably more traditional and safe areas in terms of future job prospects but I want to be working in a very specialized subfield which none of the faculty there really do. The departments that do research in those fields rejected my application except for Northwestern where the research is amazing and fits very well with what I'd like to be doing but I declined their offer and I cannot help but think that that may have been a mistake. I chose OSU for various reasons: cost of living, better health care package (esp for the spouse), better chances for my wife to enter a program, preferred a laid back life in Columbus than life in a big scary city like Chicago (esp for my wife since she's never been more than 8kms from her home at any point of time so far in her life! I know it'll come as a shock to many of you, but there are cultural factors such as these that I had to take into consideration), very famous guy (who is at the moment pissed off) in another dept who does exactly the kind of work that I wish to be doing, so I hope to get to do a project or two with him and that will get me all the post doc positions I need to turn my research in that direction. Once I achieve that, my PhD thesis in the traditional area will make me competitive for tenure track jobs + my post doc experience in this specialized subfield (which is expected to rise in a big way in the next decade or so) should make me a competitive applicant later on. That is my key to intellectual freedom as I see it because once I get a good position, I can start a research lab and study what I want High Hopes. Then again, was declining NU a mistake? I'll not know until I start my life at OSU. If something bad happens, I'll deal with it then. It bugs me when people ask me with mouths agape about why I declined a better ranked program from a more reputed university.. and I normally don't have a very good answer to give them. My referee here, a Professor of Linguistics, tried her best to get me to accept NU but I didn't. So I chose OSU against everybody else's idea of what was good for me (and probably mine too). So there.. the conundrum continues.

I face this dilemma. I will have a dependent accompanying me and I'm on a meager stipend but some people tell me that the F1 is always the safer choice in terms of probability of getting it issued. I have no idea about the J1 rules. I'd be hugely benefited if somebody could point me in the right direction for expert advice on this matter as if I can go on a J1, life will be so much better for the both of us as its important that she has something worthwhile to do as well and also gets to be a little independent. I'm sure it will do us a world of good. So far, nobody I've asked for advice has had a very good idea about these J1 'return to home country' rules.

Glad to know that there are others like me who are not entirely sure about their decisions. Hope its all for the best. If at all something does turn out wrong, I'm sure we'll find a way out at that time (transfer, etc).

If its of any help, I'm in a similar position but don't have the panic attacks that you do. I declined an offer from a better ranked school and probably a better program (wrt to my interests) due to a few reasons that I now think I should not have really bothered about (money was one). One of the other reasons was that there was this professor at another department who does exactly the kind of work I want to be doing and if you've worked with him, you are looked at with respect in the field. I had been in touch with him for a few months and he would be very friendly and would give me advice on my applications, etc. Then one day I made a stupid mistake, I sent him a really irritating long email (because I had a panic attack that day about making a decision and about having to decline that higher ranked school) and he responded saying that the professors would probably now think that it was a mistake to offer me a place because I was probably incapable of making a decision by myself and also probably because I would need constant attention. I went ahead and accepted the offer from the same school. I intend to work my ass off and make up for that and try to get back in good terms with him. My primary adviser and my primary topic are very new to me and I was recruited only for some of my skills in using some concepts of physics in my research. So I'll probably enjoy that as well but I was really hoping to do a few projects with this guy from the other department.. So as of now, I feel like crap too (1. Don't have a very good idea about what my primary research will be exactly like 2. Don't know if I'll get to work with this guy) but what I'm trying to tell you is this. If you work hard and enjoy your work, nobody can mess with you. So stay positive, immerse yourself in your work and enjoy working with your primary adviser. Deal with this other guy when it is time to do so, and you've got 4-5 happy years before that! If you've worked well, the other professors will take care of him and will put him in his place or you yourself will end up doing that

If you would like to read something cognitive related, Mandler's work on infant conceptualization would be a great read. Try to get hold of her book "The Foundations of Mind:Origins of Conceptual Thought" http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/s ... MxMTgzOQ== This was the book that got me really interested in linguistics and allied areas. I read it for a term paper.

What about international students? Can some such exemption be claimed on the flight ticket price? I know that wouldn't make a lot of sense but who knows.. do let me know if there's any such thing!

I agree with the above. You should however maintain good contact with your current adviser and tell him/her that you would like to explore the possibility at this state school and would continue there only if are able to find some funding sooner than later (implying that you would try to come back to work with this professor if things don't work out). In any case, I think you should go for it because if the students there tell you that there is a good chance of finding funding, it is almost always true. So go for it!

I've had a very similar experience with quite a few of my schools. One of them, a UC school has this professor who is absolutely top notch in the field and she had written to me on more than one occasion telling me that she loved a few of the ideas I'd written in my SOP and that she thought those would make excellent research material. She however emailed me before the graduate school could notify me of a decision and told me that the graduate school was likely to reject me because of lack of funds. She emphasized that there was nothing in my application that acted against me and that she would have loved to have me work with her and that this decision was purely financial. I was greatly disappointed as the PhD program I was interested in at this school was ranked 2 by US news and this professor is absolutely one of the most active and productive ones in the field. Another professor from another UC school also had emailed me expressing interest but in the end the website showed the deny reason as "professor not available in the proposed field of study". I have no idea why! Here I guess the professor must have found something in my application that he didn't like but then I don't understand why they did not put up a deny reason that said "better applicants" or whatever.. this process stumps me. A professor from another school once emailed me saying that though my research interests were slightly different he would like me to consider working in his lab and to try and see if I'd be interested in working on some of those things (haptics, multisensory perception, etc) and I had agreed. I've never heard back from him. He had seen my CV and writing samples before he wrote to me. I'm guessing my grades might have been a problem. So yes, this is totally confusing. I don't think you should expect any honest answer or any reply at all from most of them.

You heard right.. be very careful while choosing a neighbourhood. I have a few friends who will attend USC but fortunately one of our friends is already there and he's doing the apartment hunting for them. Just a few months back, 3 girls (students) were raped and one murdered somewhere nearby. Doesn't happen too often with students but if you're not careful, you'd be very vulnerable to such attacks. If you have no contacts there, I'd really suggest taking on campus housing for a semester at least.

This is very true of the CS program. Quite possibly true for Me as well.

I agree about the bombs.

Which is why I said I wouldn't really prefer USC. A 20th rank on US news is most definitely because of their PhD program. I did say that their PhD program is very reputed. I speak from personal experience. I know a lot of people who're doing their MS there. They've all got in without having to do much. Its as if almost anybody can get in! I have a friend who is doing a PhD there, he's seen the mediocre quality of the MS students there and the HUGE intake everywhere. Anyway, this might be offensive to many, but these are just passive observations I've been able to make from halfway across the globe. So please ignore these comments if you really like USC's program that much. About cost of living, you really don't have to worry. This friend of mine lived for one year on a $950 monthly stipend. He shared a 1BR apartment with 2 others (!) and spent around $360 per month on rent. So if you're willing to live a slightly constrained life, you should be able to manage. Decide based on which program you really like and future prospects.

This advice above is good. I had dismal grades on my transcript during the initial few years. My cumulative at one point in time was a horrendous 5.2/10!! It is now 7.0/10. My last 2 years of Physics (major) would be close to 8.0/10 and the last 2 semesters were the best (avg=8.8/10). So there was a clear improvement over the past two years. Some places still did have a problem with my grades (eg: McGill). Some places did not (eg: Northwestern, Ohio State University, McMaster, Georgia Tech). Northwestern in fact offered me a place on the 23rd of January and I was probably offered a place before many applicants who were linguistics majors and who had much higher GPA's than mine but my undergraduate research (done independently of the courses for no credit) resonated with what a Professor(senior) there wanted to do and there was a near perfect research interest fit with many other faculty members. I was able to successfully demonstrate that to them through my SOP as well as my writing samples and my publication. So that's my story, hope it helps...

So I've picked up the oxford handbook too. What books do statistics (Psych) courses normally use or are there any that you'd recommend?

I would advise against going to USC. Their MS program accepts so many mediocre applicants. So their MS program really holds no great value in my opinion but the PhD program there is reputed. So if you can continue on to a PhD or if you intend to do so, its fine. About Penn State, if I were you, I'd go with it. $20K is a lot of money (and that's only the difference you're talking about, the actual amount you'd go in debt for is much higher). However, if UPenn has a really reputed MS in CS program and if you think chances of internships and jobs thereafter are higher, then $20K is really peanuts. You can earn ~$5K per month during internships in companies. What is the total amount you'd have to take a loan out for if you decide to attend UPenn?

I found a book called "Gateway to Memory" (neural network modeling of the hippocampus and learning) by the same authors..will look around for "Learning and Memory". Thanks.

Could somebody suggest a few names of textbooks that I can use to read up basics about memory, attention, language performance. If you've taken Memory and Cognition courses, what textbooks did they use? Where can I read up about Latent Semantic Analysis?