antecedent

I've been asking these questions around because I've been accepted to the taught M.Sc. in English Language at Edinburgh (the top UK institution for my field, interestingly) and I've heard an overwhelming amount of support for UK Masters applying to US PhDs. It may have to do with the departments a bit, but I've heard of English Masters and Linguistics Masters completing their degrees in the UK and then returning to the US to get into some of the best programs (MIT anyone?). I just asked this in the North America to UK livejournal thread, and I've also been PMing people from the board who did their degrees abroad and talking to them about it. One way of determining this, and I plan to ask for this in a few weeks myself, is asking someone in the department for a placement record if they have it. Where do successful students end up? ETA: Yes some of the success stories I've heard have come out of Cambridge or UCL, but others have been from outside the big five such as the University of Aberystwyth and the University of Warwick. I think it all comes back to is the British school you're applying to strong in the area where you want to pursue your PhD? If so you should be fine.

Scotland? Or the U.S. Either would interest me

Only if you drink a round for Haru, impending, myself, and all the other GCers that didn't get in. Seriously, thunderpaws (I know I could call you Fiona, but thunderpaws is SO MUCH COOLER) I would love for you to get in. It would be vindicating to know rad people are there even if I can't be

Have you heard yet, andsoitgoes?

Hello! One of my Masters admits is for a British taught program, and I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with British degrees? I am hoping to apply for a PhD in the fall of 2013 (for entrance the fall of 2014, as none of my PhD apps came through this year) and I want to make sure a British taught Masters would be competitive (I imagine it would be, but I'm also come from the English Department, and I know things can be different there). I am hoping to do an historical linguistics/sociolinguistics PhD in North America, if that changes things. Thanks for any thoughts! If you've done part of your linguistics study in the UK, any relevant info.experience would also be greatly appreciated.

I'm hopefully getting a new laptop and another tattoo, and then NEVER SPENDING MONEY AGAIN. I celebrated my acceptances by taking a day off of work, drinking ALL OF THE WINE, and stretching up my septum piercing. And then I promptly got sick. I'll celebrate any funding I acquire by taking a quick weekend trip to wherever I end up going (if it's Scotland I'll just go early) to scout out housing and hopefully find a place.

I'm going to grad school because I want to do it more than I want to do anything else. And I cause I want to say fuck the haters. ETA: I want to stay in academia because it's the only place where people get my jokes.

Sorry to grab on to an old question, but I'm curious about the idea of a "competitive" degree and how we can evaluate "competitiveness". Is it a school reputation or prestige based thing, related to how many people you had to beat out to get a spot in the program in the first place? I'm sure it also has to do with things like faculty activity and publishing/placement records, active scholars etc. This is something I've always had trouble gauging and I'm just wondering how it's established.

I think that's a good idea. <3 chin up!

I'm leaning towards Edinburgh because it's a 12 month program (not two years) so I could squeak by without a loan. I've kind of written off UIUC, but SFSU would still present a valid option. I've made a chart with desirable and undesirable qualities for Edinburgh, Madison, and SFSU...hopefully it will help me clarify the decision, though I suspect there's no easy decision here. They have a castle AND Arthur's Seat (or one of them, anyway) over looks the city.

Awesome! Yeah it's disappointing to get an MA when you were really hoping for a PhD admit, but I'm glad to hear it's a good fit! I'm in the unfunded MA boat too, and it sucks on the one hand, but on the other it's making me evaluate all the other aspects of the programs more realistically which is probably a good thing.

I feel ya. Which MA did you get into?

I'm so sorry guys.

Andsoitgoes, I swear we're kindred spirits! "Some discouragement, some faintness of heart at the new real future which replaces the imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual. That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity." George Eliot, Middlemarch "What a good thing it was to be alive in a world where silver poplars grow." George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

I'm sending you all of my positive thoughts. If you get on the waitlist, I'll be for sure doing a happy dance!

Hey UW-Madisson acceptees, I have a question about funding. If you got in with funding, does it start in your first year? Also, do your teaching responsibilities start in your second year or later? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post it here. I'm starting to gather data to attempt to bargain for even a little help from financial aid/the department, and knowledge is power right? Thanks and congrats again to all that got in

Ooh are you familar with the department/program/town? I'm really torn between my two offers: two great Masters programs that are totally unfunded. I think I'm going to contact the finaid office and see if they can help me out at all cause I really want to go, but with out of state tuition it doesn't matter HOW cheap the cost of living is, I'll still be taking out loans

I haven't received the packet yet, but I just got Robyn's email this morning so that's good - they haven't forgotten about me! And re: specialization, I'm interested in linguistic prejudice and grammatical authority (which both fall under sociolinguistics I guess), and syntax, all on a diachronic scale.

This is where I'm finding myself, except I have one offer with potential scholarships and one offer with no potential scholarships, and neither have offered me funding so far. I'm going to contact the school with no scholarships and ask them if there's anything they can do for me, because I do very much want to attend their program, and I'd definitely be willing to teach in the second year of my MA in exchange for tuition waivers or even just a reduction from out of state to in state tuition. Does anyone have experience doing this for an MA? Did it work? Any pointers?

*Hugs* We're all pulling for you, andsoitgoes!

Yup.

Ugh. I just had a major imposter-syndrome meltdown to my dad over the phone. Fail.

THIS is the best. You win Trip.

So, is anyone thinking about accepting their British offers? Edinburgh (bizarrely) appears to have more funding available than my other options, and the program is great, so I'm very strongly considering it. One worry I have is that the lack of teaching in British MAs might hinder PhD applications further down the road. Though from what I understand, all the other opportunities (conferences, publications, presentations, research groups, LORs etc.) are just as strong as North American programs. Any thoughts on that?