jthh

I think the question is, what do you want to specialize in? Which schools have scholars that you like? What kind of degree do you want? (Columbia Teachers College offers an EdD, for example.)You need to find a place that has people who will be a good fit for you. Applying for these PhD programs is much more a matter of the right fit than a stellar CV, at least in my experience. You don't necessarily have to have a fully formed plan for research, but you probably do have to know what general area you want to be working in and you need to be able to show that you have strong potential for doing good research. Good luck!

Also, it may vary from dept to dept. The department that eventually accepted me specifically asks applicants not to contact faculty members because they are too busy to respond to the myriad inquiries they tend to get. Of the five schools I applied to, I had met faculty members (and in two cases, current PhD students) at four. Of those, I was accepted to three programs, though one said she didn't remember meeting me after I'd been accepted. I didn't contact them out of the blue -- I made a point of introducing myself at conferences.

My advisor has told me she expects/wants me to publish two papers before I graduate. (I'm in applied linguistics/ESL.) A good way to get the ball rolling is to do a book review first. Reviews don't "count," but I think it's a good way to learn something about the publishing process. I found it surprisingly easy to be assigned a book review by a well-respected journal in my field with just a short email request. Of course, I haven't written it yet...

A lot of changes on the housing waitlist last week...I'm still holding out hope at #193 on our first choice. Can I ask how it worked when you got the housing offer? This sounds stupid, but does it come when your waitlist number is down to zero? That makes sense, right? Have you guys gotten any info about applying for UGF/SSHRC/etc grants? I understand that the deadline is usually in early or mid September and I was told by my advisor that applications might be available in the summer but I haven't heard much about this. I'm not Canadian so I'm not totally familiar with this system, but as far as I know these are applications for grants for the following (2010-2011) academic year...

I applied for housing on April 6, and I am number 239 on my first choice for housing (there are 3 other possibilities, ranging from # 270 to #896). In roughly a month I've moved about 20 spots up the list. The list seemed to change a lot this week, maybe due to graduation -- not sure if that will continue.

The location was definitely a factor for UBC. I wasn't too keen on dragging my wife to Arizona or Indiana... That being said, hearty congratulations to Tugboat Cap. Matsuda is amazing and working with him is bound to be an enormous boon to your work and future career. Maybe I'll see you at SSLW 2009!

Hey Tugboat Captain, any decision yet?

Hi westcoasteducation, I'm starting the PhD program in the Language & Literacy Education Department in the Fall. I've talked to some of the professors in my dept but don't have a ton of insider knowledge. Sounds like we might be in the same boat?

Wow, I had no idea about all that happening at UBC. Makes me glad I got in there with a decent fellowship before I had to start worrying about TAing (which I do still want to do, but the fellowship is a nice cushion). As far as I can tell my department seems to be doing pretty OK ... fingers crossed ...

Yeah, I have officially declined Purdue. Thanks, psycholinguist, I was actually wondering if you could recommend a cheap-ish nice-ish neighborhood (maybe those are mutually exclusive), housing-wise. My wife and I are hoping for campus housing, but the waitlist is pretty long.

I'm trying to remember how big the campus is from the time I visited -- I seem to recall it being big but manageable to walk. I'll be starting a PhD in the Language & Literacy Education Dept. in September. Any other new UBCers here?

L2 writing is my interest as well, and I applied to both of those programs for the reasons you mentioned. Actually, that's why I applied to 2 programs at ASU -- Matsuda seems to be mostly based in the rhetoric and linguistics program in the English dept., which I wasn't accepted to (though of course he is also among the faculty for app lx). In fact, I didn't realize Matsuda taught in a separate program until I met his wife, who teaches in the applied linguistics program. The funny thing is, she encouraged me to also apply to the English department because she said funding was limited for applied ling -- yet I got into that program and not English. I was accepted by the ESL program at Purdue, and like I said, it was gut-wrenching to turn them down. Silva, Berns, and Atkinson are all absolutely top-notch scholars. For me it had to come down to location and funding - UBC had the edge for both. Their faculty is really good, too, and another L2 writing specialist, Ryuko Kubota, just joined the department this year. Good luck with Purdue, I do hope you make it!

I agree that it shouldn't be an issue. I had a discussion with a colleague (a retired professor) who claimed that getting a PhD in Canada would doom me to working only in Canada for the rest of my life, but most other informal advice I've received has been to the contrary. I think I'll be one of the only Americans, if not the only one, in my program. It should be interesting! The UBC brochure for grad students actually says that Americans can apply for the study permit at the border on their way in, which makes me believe that our countries have some kind of special arrangement. I'll be applying for the permit earlier, regardless, but that seems to suggest it may not take too long.

Hey, another applied linguist! Congrats on your acceptances. I was also accepted at ASU a couple of days ago. I've actually made the decision to go with UBC because they offered superior funding, but it was very hard to turn down Purdue -- their faculty is amazing. Any thoughts on which direction you're leaning now?

I just got an "ASU Admit Letter" from the applied lingustics program (I applied to 2 programs at ASU), but I remain in waitlist limbo (i.e., "maybe you're on the waitlist?") with the English dept. EDIT: I've withdrawn my application - hope this helps other waitlisters!

The secretary answered my email: "As far as I know, you are on a waitlist," and said she'd get back to me with more details later. Kind of weird...

That must be quite a pile. I liked how ASU was the example of schools that are having huge budget problems in the recent NY Times article on the subject. OK, I didn't like it...but it did make me less confident about the availablity of funding there.

I've also heard that you need to apply as soon as you decide to go. It's possible that it won't take long but it can take a matter of months. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go to UBC, so I need to get on this ASAP too... for other Americans considering/going to Canada, have you given any thought to, or gotten any advice about, how a Canadian degree would affect your job prospects in the US?

FYI, as of March 21 my Rhet/Comp & Linguistics application is still "In Review." I've been accepted elsewhere, but it'd still be nice to know what's up!

Because this website doesn't allow one to search for the word "applied" (for reasons which are now obvious to me), I thought I'd start a thread for those of us who are applying to applied linguistics or related programs (SLA, TESL, etc). I'd be curious to hear about others' experiences. My interests are ESL writing and World Englishes (or English as an International Language, or what have you). I applied to 5 programs - I was accepted at UBC and Purdue, rejected by Penn State, and am waiting to hear back from two different programs at Arizona State (one is their new interdisciplinary app ling program, the other is rhetoric and linguistics in the English dept). I'm having a hard time deciding between UBC and Purdue as those were my top two choices, and they both have a lot going for them. I'd love to hear if anyone else is looking at these schools or others in this field, or just to start an app ling-focused discussion in this thread!