radioalfredio

Oh, good! I'm glad to hear that you're no longer in crisis mode, Elizabeth! I now have one more app to submit. It's for UC Davis, and I'm still trying to iron out the personal history statement, and the sop, as always. Jan. 15th seems very soon. Speaking of which, according to the results page, people started hearing back from UC San Diego about interviews around then last year. Eek! I also haven't received any confirmation emails from universities, other than the automated emails and online status check pages. One school that I'm applying to says that they will email me, but so far they haven't, so I wrote to their admin. assistant. When I emailed her before with general application questions, she never responded, so I'm thinking that I'll have to get in touch with her on the phone. It's not ideal, because I like to get important information such as "yes, we have all of your transcripts" in writing. The "waiting it out" phase has almost begun! Good luck, everyone!

You can also try using the Internet Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org/web/web.php) to document the old deadline. Good luck!

And thank you Psycholinguist! I decided to email one prof. who I really want to work (of course, I want to work with all of the profs. that I've applied to work with, but I'm more familiar with this prof's work than some of the others, so it made my email easier). Within a day, I received a very nice email about the department and an invitation to talk on the phone. I'm very excited, and it has been a nice boost to my self esteem. Even if this has no bearing on my admissions to the program, it's still good "interview" practice for me.

It kind of depends on what areas you think you're weak in. If you just want to familiarize yourself with the test format, the official book by ETS is good for that. For vocab, which is my stronger area, I just used the Kaplan 500 words flashcard set. I also liked the Princeton Review Crash Course for the GRE book because it's small and portable. And for me, personally, I'm weaker in math, so I really liked the Cliff Notes Math Review for Standardized Tests.

Well, I'm kind of sort of in your position, Michigan girl. I have a master's degree, and after applying to too few schools, which in retrospect weren't a good fit, I'm now applying for Fall 2012 admission. I learned a lot during last year's application season and I feel confident about my chances this year, but it's still disappointing. My MA program was also pretty time consuming (I taught three sections, wrote a thesis, and had to take comprehensive exams), so I didn't finish until August, and I didn't really have a back up plan. I moved back home, and I spent three months looking for work. I applied for tons of different types of jobs, but I ended up in retail. In the end, I don't think that being "overqualified" necessarily hurt me, but the retail job that I got is very similar to the retail job that I had during my BA (so I already had relevant experience in that area). The thing that everyone needs to realize is that the economy is really really bad right now, and I lot of people are out of work. While we were getting our MAs, someone was working in some entry level job for 2+ years before they got laid off. Even though we have graduate degrees, there are people out there with more on the job experience in these retail/temp jobs than us. Or at least that's my take on the situation. My constructive advice is this: what kind of jobs have you held outside of academia? In looking for short-term job opportunities, draw upon that experience. Employers are looking for people with years of experience, even in entry level retail jobs. I know that it can be discouraging... Also, don't be discouraged by friends or family telling you that you're "above" some job or another. One of my friends keeps telling me "I can't believe that you're working in retail, you have a master's degree," and yeah, it's kind of upsetting, but her opinion is not constructive. I'm happy to have something to do, and at least I'm making money and paying off some of my debts. In the end, I just let my situation motivate me to seek better opportunities, and to make my applications strong. I hope that my experience has been somewhat helpful for you. I kind of needed to vent a little bit too! Good luck, and remember that you have your program to look forward to in the fall!

Having applied to UT-Austin for a Dec. 15th deadline, I would recommend applying at least a week or so before the Jan. 5th deadline, since your recommenders won't receive an email with a link to the recommendation site until you do. Of course, this depends on whether or not your recommenders have submitted other letters for you yet. If all of your recommenders have already written your letter, then you can (generally) expect them to submit their letter a lot faster, and you can probably submit your application fairly close to Jan. 5th. I know a lot of graduate schools and departments give a fair about of leeway for late letters of recommendation, but I think it's better to have everything in by the 5th, just to be safe.

Yay! Good job and good luck everyone! Funology: I'm applying to UMass too, and yes, you need to submit your application before it releases the letter of recommendation emails to your recommenders. The UMass app is also a little frustrating because you will have to wait a couple business days before they send you a link to your application status, which lists all of the credentials that they've received. Oh, and don't forget to email your writing sample directly to the department. You probably already knew that, but it's a little different than all of the other schools I've been applying too. When I sent my writing sample in, the grad admin. assistant wrote me back "got it," which was reassuring.

As far as how long it takes application materials to reach a school, it really depends on where they are being sent from and where they're being sent to. Some schools also have big delays around this time of year when it comes to sending transcripts. I know that my undergrad institution offers the service of paying 10$ extra to move your transcript request to the front of the line. I decided to take advantage of it for the peace of mind. Although schools prefer for you to submit your application before sending other credentials, such as GRE scores and transcripts, you don't have to wait. If they receive doc. before your application has been submitted they'll still start a folder for you. I think the real thing to watch out for is that schools don't always update your online status all the time, and they might have a doc. that they still show as " not received."

Thank you again for the great advice. As I looked through past threads, I found similar advice (I believe from you). Still, it's reassuring that I don't necessarily need to make contact to be accepted. And if I get accepted, I might just ask you for some advice about how to contact POIs then.

This thread makes me really really happy. It's so nice to see that others feel the same way. I'm a first-generation (and lower income) student, so I have plenty of diversity/personal history statement worthy material, but still, it makes me so uncomfortable to reveal myself in such a way to people who I'm trying to impress with my academic accomplishments, not my personal struggles. It also makes me feel insecure (and like a bit of an impostor) to dwell on these issues. I guess if I do end up receiving a diversity fellowship, I'll feel like the playing field has been leveled. Until then, I kind of feel like these essays are less of a chance for me to address the different challenges I've faced in a safe space and just another barrier to higher education. OK - end rant.

I don't think it's a big deal at all. I applied to a school that uses ApplyWeb last year (Ohio State, I think), and now I'm applying to Cornell as well (for linguistics), so I had to use the same user name and password. I don't remember any of the information being ported from the one app to the other. I think ApplyWeb is just trying to restrict the number of unique accounts. They don't want 10 accounts for the same name and social on their server. Or at least that's what I'm guessing. I hope it works out for you!

I know this topic has been discussed on a lot of the other forums, but I wanted to get the opinion of other linguists. Should you email a POI or department before/after your application is under consideration? If you do, what should you say? I've only contacted one department, and that was primarily because it is very close to where I live, and I had the opportunity to speak with some one in person, not via email. Otherwise, I'm pretty nervous about contacting departments and POIs, just because I'm afraid that I'll say something stupid and it won't help my chances. I know in some disciplines, such as engineering, it's crucial that students contact a POI first. Do you think that it's the same way in linguistics? Those of you who are already in programs: what did you do? How about other Fall 2012 applicants?

Well, I've now submitted 4 out of my 7 apps. For me, it's gotten easier after the first app. UC San Diego's Dec. 1st deadline kind of forced me to get everything done early. So now I only have Stony Brook, Cornell, UC Davis left. I have to write a personal history essay for UC Davis, so I'll probably leave that app for last. In other news, all of my letters of recommendation are in (except for UMass, which I haven't been able to check yet -- their application is a little old school, and I have to wait for an email with a code from them). Phew!

I decided to write the essays for the San Diego Fellowship (which are essentially optional diversity statements) because I fit the requirements and there is funding attached to it. I tried to stay focused on my statement of purpose before I worried about the optional essays too much. In the end, I'm not really that happy with how my optional essays for UC San Diego turned out. Oh well. I ran out of time, and I just have a hard time writing about myself. I'll keep working on it for the other schools that ask for one. I guess my thoughts on the subject are this: as long as the essay isn't absolutely horrible, I don't think it'll hurt your chances, and it should only help enhance your funding opportunities. If working on an optional essay is going to hurt your statement of purpose or other parts of your app., then you should put it on the back burner.

Hooray! I just submitted my application to UC San Diego! I cut it really close (the deadline is today). One of my letter writers had her car broken into last week and her laptop stolen, so she couldn't submit the letter until yesterday. Now on to the next set of applications!

Oh yeah! I'm just about done with my statement of purpose. I'm currently grappling with my essays for the San Diego Fellowship at UC San Diego though. I'm a first- generation college student, so I figure that it's worth my time to at least throw my hat into the ring for it, but I get so stuck writing about myself. I'm happy to write about my research and linguistics though. Oh well... The UC San Diego deadline is on Dec. 1st, so I need to get everything done really really soon. I can't wait to have everything turned in as well.

Thanks for the advice. I especially like the creativity your idea fuzzylogician. Luckily, the university in Finland said that they could just mail the transcripts for me without a self-addressed envelope or a wire transfer of euros or something complicated like that. I was just having some good old fashioned application-related panic. I also like your idea to attach an additional sheet about the grading system, psycholinguist. My GPA from Finland is on my undergrad transcript, so hopefully the universities can refer to that, but like psycholinguist said, they probably won't care about my study abroad too much.

Yay! Welcome, funology. Awesome user name, and it looks like you're applying to some great programs. Is it alright if I rant about the application process a little bit? Specifically transcripts... I attended a study abroad program in Finland for a semester through my undergraduate home university, and my home university did not list the courses that I had taken. They only list that I was on a study abroad program and what my transfer GPA was. This means that I need to send a transcript from my university in Finland, but so far it's been difficult to figure out how to do this. I emailed them, but they wrote me back with a PDF of my transcript, so now I've sent another email explaining how the transcripts have to be sent through the mail and come directly from the university. I think European universities must not be as concerned about people doctoring their transcripts. Anyway, has anyone had to deal with something similar? I know this isn't really that big of a deal, but it just makes me nervous, since I'm worried about transcripts arriving on time. Also, how awesome are those universities where you only have to scan your transcripts?

My scores are below a lot of the scores that have been posted on here, but I'm happy with them, so I'm sharing them so others can get an idea of how the mid-range worked out. Test date 9/24 V: estimated 630-730 (90th - 98th %); old-scale equivalent: 620; new scale: 161 (89th %) lower than estimate Q: estimated 570-670 (40 - 61%); old-scale equivalent:630 ;new scale: 150 (53%) right in the middle of the estimate range (-ish)

Update: Well, it looks like I'm going to have to reformat my thesis after all. One of the schools that I'm applying to requests that my writing sample is between 15 - 20 pages, so I'm going to have to pair it down (which I guess will be easier than working on one of my older papers). Ah... the application process!

Okay, so I totally bombed the GRE the first time that I took it, but my new scores were estimated to be much higher. V: 570, 158, 80% (the new estimated score is higher than predicted using eomentl's formula) Q: 470, 142, 22% (the new estimated score is lower)

bluetourmaline: Thanks for the UChicago suggestion. I'd briefly glanced at their website, but I'm not very familiar with their program, since I don't know anyone who has gone there. I gave them a second look, and Prof. Yu's research in phonetics/phonology interface looks really interesting, and very similar to my own interests. I was kind of on the fence about applying to Illinois, so I might apply to UChicago instead. I'm trying to cap the number of programs to 7. It also looks like I don't have to send hard copies of my transcripts to UChicago unless I'm accepted, which is a big plus financially. Elizabethrose14: I second the Indiana University suggestion. From what I've read on thegradcafe, the General Linguistics program at Indian University doesn't seem to give out much funding, but one of my friends recently began the PhD program in Hispanic Linguistics, and she likes it a lot -- plus I think that she's fully funded.

Thanks, fuzzylogician and Sigaba. That's kind of how I feel about it too, but I wanted to get some feedback from others. At the very least, I might just cut out the clutter at the beginning of the formatted thesis. My MA adviser told me that I should consider reformatting my thesis in the style of a linguistics article for eventual journal submission, but I think that it's too stressful, and not important enough to worry about now.

So, I guess it goes without saying that I'm going to use my MA thesis as my writing sample for PhD apps, since I'm staying in the same field. My question for y'all is whether or not I should re-format it. My thesis is currently formatted, well, like a thesis. It has huge margins, and a long tables of contents, and all of those other picky things that my graduate school made me do. I'm thinking that it might be easier for an adcom to read if I edited it to follow the style guidelines of a linguistics article. It would certainly cut down on the page length of my thesis. What do you think I should do?

Hi, Elizabethrose14, I don't know a lot about which schools have strong discourse analysis programs, but you might want to look into some of the large Midwestern schools as well, such as Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana. Have you looked into any Hispanic Linguistics programs with an emphasis on sociolinguistics? I've heard that the funding in Hispanic and Romance Linguistics programs can be better than General Linguistics.