Athenrein

2 rejections 2 acceptances 1 I won't jinx by guessing, because the program is a really good fit for me and it's the only campus I've visited and I love it.

My experience has been that when I tell people I'm going to go back to grad school to get a PhD, the first thing they say is "What will you do when you graduate?" or "What kind of job can you do with a PhD in linguistics?" It makes me feel like I have to defend myself, or that I'm making an impractical decision. Another thing they do is just assume that I'll be staying here and studying at UF, and when I tell them I'll be moving, they're surprised. It's strange hearing this stuff from my parents and the friends that I've known for 10 years or more. I've always been a very academic person, so it's just weird to me that they wouldn't get it. But no one's ever doubted my ability to succeed in school, so that's good at least, because I doubt my ability on my own just fine.

I would open a bed and breakfast. Or study computer science. Or try to make a living as a craftsperson. Or join a friend of mine to make and sell vegan baked goods.

I don't use Facebook much, but I'll be posting about school because it's a pretty big deal. I know a lot of people who are in between "friend" and "acquaintance" and I'd like them to know I'm moving and starting grad school. If I get into Harvard I'll post about it right away, because at that point there most likely won't be any further decision-making. But if I have a decision to make, I'll probably wait to post until I know which school I'll actually attend.

Heh, I've got an all-Porcupine Tree playlist too. Must be a linguistics thing. Other current favorites: Spock's Beard (Skeletons at the Feast), Herbie Hancock (the Future 2 Future album), Janelle Monae (Cold War & Many Moons), and Amanda Palmer (Leeds United). Also, the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog soundtrack.

Harvard's and Stanford's were really annoying. Harvard's was huge and intimidating and uploading documents was complicated. Stanford's didn't let me go back to previous pages to change anything, the link to the app was buried, and finding the status check & way to resend an email to a recommender was difficult (finally did find the way in, though!).

I'll second that congratulations. (: I hope it means the rest of us will get good news soon too!

Double Rainbow

Last year at this time I was working in a university's Registrar's office, and let me tell you all, January and February (and probably December too, but I wasn't there then) are COMPLETELY INSANE. I've seen the mailroom and I've seen the process of getting everyone's official transcripts processed. It was actually kind of reassuring when it came to sending in my transcripts, because I know pretty much what's going to happen to them. For the most part, our office had a 1-day turnaround time when it came to processing incoming graduate application materials. But the sheer VOLUME of them was amazing. So rest assured, those people are working really hard to get all your materials where they're supposed to be. I also know people who work in various departments, and they're good people too. They're ridiculously busy right now, but they're on your (and now my) side. (:

Much love for sociolinguistics here too. I voted morphology. Mostly because it was when I took my undergrad morphology course that I became absolutely sure that linguistics was the right field for me. I had been pretty sure before, but then I KNEW. I like non-Indo-European morphology specifically. I want to work with endangered languages.

Good luck to both of us! Kira Hall is one of the people I want to work with if I end up at Boulder.

I got an email from gradadm at berkeley! And it was a link to a survey about their application. ):

Word salad.

Ah, the "Get rich with linguistics" plan. That's my plan too. Good luck!

You didn't mention what field your masters is in, but if it's the sort of field that you can do internships in, it might be worthwhile to do that. I have a master's in library science, and hadn't been able to find a job at all. I finally decided to do an unpaid internship at the university library. After a couple of months they offered me two temporary part-time jobs, so I'm doing that now, and will hopefully be able to hold on to one of the jobs until I leave for school this August. That might not be an option, but it's a good way to get into somewhere if you can afford to not get paid for a little while.

I haven't heard back from anyone yet, but this is the exact thing I'm scared of. I really don't want (more) debt. Right now the loans from my MLIS are manageable, but I really don't want out-of-state tuition loans. Personally if I were in your situation, if it were an MA program, I would probably go to the school that offers funding even if it's not a perfect fit. Though from what I've seen for US schools, most MAs aren't usually funded. But for a PhD, I would follow fuzzylogician's advice and try to get funding for the dream school next year. For med, psychology, engineering, or the hard sciences, the debt is probably worth it, but for social sciences / humanities, it isn't.

Bad day: "One year of Spanish, one year of Chinese, one semester of Latin, a bunch of photography classes, a bunch of religion classes... she can't figure out what she wants! She should just go work in a library with her silly little MLIS degree." Good day: "This one is unusual - she created a language for her thesis, and got a Master's in library science. She sounds creative and unique. Let's see what she can do." Weird day: "hahahahahaha! I know, let's put all these people who have no business applying here in a hat, and draw one of them out at random and let them come, just for the fun of it. We can mock them while they struggle through!"

I'm 27. Sometimes I wish I'd gone straight into grad school, but I'm glad that I took some time off. I met my boyfriend, got an MLIS degree, got some work experience at several different jobs, and got a handle on the depression I've had for many years. So I think I'll be better off in grad school now than I would have been if I'd gone straight in after undergrad.

Thanks for the encouragement! It's more nerves than anything, but I had such a hard time deciding what schools I should apply to, since I couldn't afford more than 5. I'm proud of my grades and accomplishments, but for the top schools I'm suddenly nothing special. Anyway, fingers crossed. It's going to be a long month or two of waiting!

Hi, fellow aspiring linguists! I'm interested in morphology, endangered language documentation, and sociolinguistics (esp. language and gender). I finished applying a couple weeks ago and at first I was just relieved to be done, but now the waiting nerves have set in big time. And I still need one professor to send in letters - all but one of them will be late, but better late than never. I'm so worried that the missing letter will be the cause of a rejection. It was hard for me to get recommenders because I've been out of school for a while, so it's really important that he sends them in - I'm panicking a bit, but trying not to worry too much.

It's the new gre scale - that's why I included the percentiles. I think my scores were 710 verbal and 730 quantitative in the old system.

My applications are already in and there's nothing more I can do, but I'm still really nervous that no one will accept me. Here are my stats - do I have a decent chance? I have a BA in linguistics from UF and a MS in Library and Information Studies from FSU. Undergrad GPA: 3.93 Graduate GPA: 3.94 GRE: V 165 (96%), Q 157 (77%) A 4.0 (48%) My undergrad thesis was kind of unconventional - I created a language. So I don't feel like it's a really strong example of academic writing. Instead of focusing and taking 2 or more years of one language, I took 1 year of Spanish, 1 year of Chinese, and 1 semester of Latin - so I don't have fluency or even competency in any other language. In general my classes don't point strongly towards one area - I took a wide variety of classes and did well in them, but I worry that I don't exhibit the focus that grad schools look for. I did my MLIS part-time, online, and it's professional degree more than an academic one, so I don't know how relevant that will be to an admissions committee. Harvard is my dream school. Stanford or Berkeley would also be amazing. I also applied to the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Washington, and I'd be happy at both of those, but from what I could see, funding is a lot less likely, and I really don't want to have to take out loans.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.............. [breathe] So much panic. But I am so happy I found this website full of people who know how crazy it all is.