solairne

Fit is the most important part of your application. If you have .5 below the average GPA but are a stellar fit, you have a better chance than .5 over and no fit.

If you already have talked about this before with him, as it appears you have, just ask him flat out if it will work out or has potential to for you.

Mine are all thinking how fantastic everything about my application is and putting me in the 'definitely' pile. Hopefully.

If you check the results, Chapel Hill has already started giving back admissions decisions for Linguistics. It seems like none of my programs will let me know either way until at the earliest the middle of February, so I am a little bit more relaxed. I still constantly check my email, and if my phone buzzes in class, I'll definitely look at the area code or the email. It seems that my schools will be responding via phone call or personal email before I'll receive anything in the post or an update on the application page... so... I just keep checking that inbox. lol As scared as I am to hear back about if/where I got in, I'm equally scared by the prospects of packing up my house, dogs, life, and moving. It's all so fun, though!

They really asked that? I don't see why offering admission to somebody who is hesitant about it would be that bad for the school. If it's a decent program and you decide not to attend, I'm sure there is a waiting list with people who would take your spot.

It doesn't. The GRE isn't a very good means of measuring. I'd say if you have a good writing sample and a good GPA, it is clear you can write.

Don't be too concerned about that. There are a lot of circumstances for delayed responses, such as the professor just being busy or the professor could be on sabbatical or gone for a week at a conference. I'd email 2 or 3 just to hedge your bets.

I still can't get over people calling 750 low - haha. I really think if you contact a professor who is interested in your work, your GRE doesn't matter. Some people just don't test well, and if everything else about your candidature is ideal, I don't see why a program would reject you simply because of a 'low' 750Q.

Just call the program. There is no point in worrying when calling and asking could easily fix this.

*67 or use a different phone lol I think a lot of you all are equating adcomms with East Berlin... I don't think they're this out to get you.

Why not just call and pretend to be somebody else so it doesn't matter if its a bad idea? lol

That's not necessarily true. The GRE is not that important. If you are worried about not meeting a sweeping cut-off, try emailing a professor and get them interested in your work, so if you are swept aside because of a GRE score, the professor will go get your application and read it anyway.

Some schools also have a link to current graduate students in their 'people' section or somewhere on the program page. Sometimes the grad students have a CV that you can look at and look at their profile before the PhD started to get an idea of what successful competition was like in the past.

I've read (at least for Linguistics) that the GRE is very unimportant. Half of the schools I've applied to don't require it and one of the schools I was considering in California (I'm not sure if it was Stanford, UCLA, or Berkeley) flat out told me in an email that even though it is required, they don't really care much about it unless it is just obscenely low. From what I've been able to discern, they are much more concerned with your writing sample and LOR than with your GRE. Certainly if you are denied across the board this round, raising your GPA would be something you could do to better your candidacy for next round, but I don't think it is make it or break it.

This might sound a bit morbid, but if somebody wrote in an SOP that they have a low GPA because of a chronic condition (not like they overcame cancer, but something that is persistent) would that have a negative impact on admissions? Wouldn't an adcomm be hesitant to admit somebody whose life is less than certain?

No idea, really. It is from MIT Press, but I've never received anything like that before. It is totally possible, though, that they are just mailing people who applied. That seems sort of weird, and a waste of resources, though.

Right, I saw about all of the rejections via mail, but I thought MIT notified acceptances as early as January. I might be wrong, though.

So they call if you're accepted and mail if you're not?

I'm not really as MIT isn't my first choice. I'm just curious about what this is.

So I got a packet today in the mail from MIT with a bunch of descriptions of textbooks and such and an order form for them. I haven't gotten an acceptance or rejection letter from MIT. Is this just something that is mass mailed out to all applicants or something else? I don't have my hopes too high, but I figured it was worth asking here since the grad offices are closed this weekend. Thanks

I was in Europe for 2 months while my partner was back here. Before that, though, we had been together for 3 years and had been living together for 2.5 of those 3, so it wasn't particularly hard. We video chatted daily.

You're so full of useful information. I love it.

Yea, I'm not expecting to get a confirmation or rejection until at the very earliest mid to late February, but I keep my fingers crossed for an email from an advisor or something...

Has anybody been given an interview yet? Are they even a part of the Linguistics admissions procedure? None of my 4 programs perform them, as far as I know.

Honestly, I would suggest just setting aside one day to deal with this. Since you're applying for fall 2011, you definitely have the time. It won't be fun dealing with finding out your code and everything, but you'll feel better later having submitted everything perfectly, you know?