funology

As the others have said, checking out the programs websites for what schools generally offer in terms of financial aid packages. Typically a school's enrollment is constrained by funding (which means that if you get in, you usually get fellowships) If you have specific or general questions regarding linguistics, there's always the forum here and you can feel free to PM me.

Linguistics programs are no different, except that maybe cohorts are a little larger. To give you an idea, UMass Amherst had 147 applicants for 7 spots. UCLA only gave offers to 5% of students who applied. (I think they gave 12 offers, not sure on their cohort size) You can look through CVs of current grad students and the results board to get an idea of the typical candidate.

I think that a certain aspect of the SOP is not necessarily to detail in specific terms what you hope to expect in research, but more so a narrative of your own preparation and what tools your background offers you to be able to do well in a program. My undergraduate training is minimal compared to some of my colleagues at other schools (intro + 1 course in each subfield, and I haven't gotten to OT or Minimalism in any course), but I think, as LinguisticMystic mentions that, preparation outside of linguistics can be made relevant to your application. Going to conferences are a really good idea, it was there that I was able to find out more of what I wanted to do and also got to see what kind of problems are being worked on by professors.

@Cockneysparrow: PM'd you and radiowires just so we don't overload this topic. And yup, I'm a phonologist

@amyjoust it's all about telling your story in your application a way which lines up your background an interests with the department's interests. So yes, maybe a MA in TESOL might be most applicable for an Applied Linguistics, but you can likely tell your story in a way that can get you places Might as well mention here that I'm going to MIT next year. I'm pretty stoked

wame0601: A lot of Canadian programs offer funding (to Canadians at least), uOttawa, UBC and McGill to name a few at the MA level. SSHRC and OGS both offer MA funding. I say this because you mentioned being Canadian in that other thread.

@Reddawg50, each of us emailed our POI. I think the fact that we're international is besides the point

Appears like the Chicago decisions were in fact made a while back. I emailed my POI as I was making travel plans and got rejected.

@fuzzylogician, amen to what you're saying. I've met a number of graduate students pursuing PhD's in Linguistics with little or no formal training in their undergrad. For those of you with interviews, consider fuzzylogicians post carefully and emphasize aspects of your undergrad career which make you well prepared to ask good theoretical questions. For me, it was my electives which prepared me for a PhD more so than the few linguistics courses I've taken. Also, any word from Chicago?

MIT acceptances are out, they took 12 students out of 200+ applications. It's been a rough season all around. Hope you all get some more news tomorrow

nicolemc, word on the street is for SSHRC MA, getting forwarded to Ottawa usually results in funding. (i.e. a rubber stamp) You should let them know the good news! They will likely have a good idea of the MA yield.

The website doesn't have my decision up yet, so you can take that as a data point.

Ehh, I'll just post here. Just got the official offer now. Open house March 5-6

I'll post on the results board when I get my official offer, just so everyone is aware of the timeline

Got accepted to UCLA with 5 years of funding Personal email from POI mentioned that the graduate director will be emailing admitted applicants with official offers of admission. Good luck to everyone here! Hopefully you all hear back soon