esgalerin

Look at the faculty listings at schools that you're interested in and some that you're not. You should be able to figure out whether a school will be a good fit for you based on what the faculty's research interests are. Don't apply to a school just because it has a big name. If your interests don't match theirs, you almost certainly won't get in. If you haven't been out of school for too long, I'd also suggest getting in touch with your former professors and asking for advice on applying to grad schools. If you get lucky, they might have some suggestions on schools for you to check out. (You're going to have to contact them eventually for letters of recommendation anyway, so you might as well get that out of the way too.)

I'm not sure that you need to convince anybody of the connectedness of your previous degrees to the one you're applying for. It seems to me that your SOP should mainly answer three questions: What do you want to do? How are you prepared to do it? and Why should you do it here (the school that you're writing to)? Of course you can go beyond answering these questions, but when you're limited in how much you can say, I'd stick to those main points. Good luck with your applications!

Davis is very much a college town, so there are a ton of apartments near campus. Plus, it's a very small, so there is no part of town that's more than about 5 miles from the main part of campus. You can peruse your apartment choices (and anything else you're curious about) on Davis Wiki. Even if you live on the edge of town, there's a very comprehensive bus system that has stops within reasonable walking distance of most apartment complexes. If you have a car, you may want to consider living in a nearby town instead because housing in Davis tends to be on the expensive end of things. Cheapest place I ever lived was a 2-bedroom for about $1000/mo that seemed like it hadn't been renovated since the 80's. (On the other hand, I've heard that renting a house in Davis with a few other people is cheaper than living in an apartment, but I've never looked into it very much myself.) Like any town, there's the occasional violent crime in Davis, but it's extremely rare. I (as a fairly small female) would have no qualms walking through town in the middle of the night. The biggest thing you'd need to watch out for is theft (especially bike theft) and that can be avoided a lot of the time by being smart. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions about Davis. Make sure to look through the threads that already exist on the cities you're interested in also. They'll already have answered a lot of your questions.

Nothing to contribute since I haven't applied yet, but I'm eager to see what other people have to say. Thanks so much for that link and for starting this thread!

Thank you! Good luck yourself! (:

I don't have any concrete advice to give, as I'm going to be applying this fall myself. I just wanted to say that I've been wondering the same thing myself lately. On one hand, it's summer vacation right now. Maybe professors won't be as eager to hear from prospective students so early in the season. And if they just get a quick email now, they might not remember by the time applications come around. On the other hand, if I do email them in September like I originally planned to, they'll probably be inundated with similar emails as well as work emails as the academic year starts up. =/ I was also thinking that grad students doing research related to what I want to do might be more inclined to reply on account of having gone through this process more recently than their professors have and probably not being quite as busy. Is it standard practice to email grad students directly, though? I'm guessing that a lot of it just depends on the individual, but it'd be nice to have a few guidelines about what's acceptable.

Well, you seem to both want and need a PhD to get to where you want to go. No one but you can determine whether that's the right path for you. As for the more pragmatic side of the job search, I'll leave that for somebody else to comment on.

Haha, the system probably just rounds your GPA to the nearest thousandth, and you just happen to have ended up in that unenviable position of being so close, yet so far. Sorry for getting sidetracked with the applied linguistics thing. I didn't know that there were such things as ESL/EFL or SLA PhDs. They just look like applied linguistics to me. (Of course, when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.) If you mainly want to teach ESL, I don't think you need a PhD for that. At the least, it's certainly not a requirement, but I'm guessing that you think it might make you a more desirable job applicant? You'll have to wait for someone more familiar with the ESL job market to comment on that.

What do you want to do with your PhD? Do you want to do research on language acquisition/learning, or do you want to teach ESL? You might consider looking into linguistics programs that specialize in applied linguistics. A lot of linguistics programs seem to offer full funding (tuition + stipend) for PhD students. The only school I can suggest for that is UC Davis. (Full disclosure: I'm doing undergrad here right now.) I don't actually know very much about the specifics of the program or the research because it's not my field, but I can tell you it gets HOT here. As of this typing it's 90ºF out, and this is considered a fairly cool day. Over the weekend, it's supposed to hit 104º. If that's the sort of thing you're looking for, you'll have to wait for people who actually know a thing or two about applied linguistics to give you better recommendations. I will say that from what I've heard, it really is a tough job market out there for Linguistics PhDs. But if it's what you want, go for it. At least you won't have to sink too much money into it. (Your GPA is 3.999? They couldn't have rounded up?)

From what I can tell, MA programs are a lot less competitive than PhD programs are. You say that you "used to have" a minor in Econ, so I assume that you stopped taking Econ classes partway through undergrad. Presumably your grades went up after that? I think if you mention briefly in a personal statement/SoP that your poor grades came from an unrelated field, you should be okay. Again, though, you should take everything I say with a grain of salt since I haven't been through this myself. If it makes you feel any better, I'm applying to PhD programs with an overall GPA of 2.9. I've had my panicky moments about whether any grad program would want me and a couple of my profs have had to talk me down. They tell me that because I have a 3.8 GPA if I only take the past two years into account, I shouldn't have to worry too much. One told me that he would actually look favorably on that kind of growth (but in my case, there is a very marked contrast between my first two years and my last two years). My point is that if my professors seem to think I can get into a PhD program with a 2.9 GPA (below the GPA cutoff at a lot of places :S), you can probably get into an MA with a 3.3. Of course, your LoRs and SoP will have to be stronger than those of people with crazy-good GPAs, but most of them are probably going to PhDs.

Any other pre-application people going? Wanna come wander around with me? :3 Or for that matter, anyone currently a student there want to show me/us around and tell me/us about your school? By the way, would it be appropriate to try and arrange a meeting with my PoI while I'm there? I know it's sort of early to be contacting schools, and I don't want to impose when he might be taking a break for the summer. (I don't even really know how campus visits normally work. As far as I know, departments invite candidates on their short list of possible admits. Would it be frowned upon to try to visit by yourself?) Edit: Turns out that Rackham's having an open house on June 28th.

Speaking as somebody who has had zero experience applying to grad schools yet, I think you're on the right track. According to one of my professors, master's programs for people who need a chance to explore some more or to build up the requisite linguistics background before going for a PhD, and that sounds very much like the boat you're in. I wouldn't worry too much about your GPA. I think a 3.8 in French shows that a) you have some sort of interest in language, and you can work hard when the subject is something that you're interested in. It should help if you also got good grades in the linguistics-related classes you took. The one problem that I see with your plan, though, is that terminal MA programs in non-applied linguistics seem to be few and far between. If you can find one that suits you, great. (I know that UC Davis just started one recently if that's any help.) If not, it might be better to see if you can take linguistics courses as a non-degree student somewhere.

Cool. Thanks for the info, guys. I'll take a look at Indiana for sure.

Harvard has an option to specialize in Manchu in its East Asian Languages and Civilizations program! My dream has been to study Manchu. Seeing as it's not exactly a common topic of study, I thought I was going to have to work my way towards it slowly by specializing in historical Chinese linguistics. Now I HAVE to go to Harvard for PhD! I just thought I'd share my excitement here (because nobody else understands!). Though this may be a good time to ask: anyone know if there any other schools that teach Manchu that have been hiding from me? edit: Never mind, I may have gotten a little bit ahead of myself, and it's not really a full specialization. BUT they do teach Manchu in alternate years!

I don't think you're getting ahead of yourself at all! In fact, I wish I had had that kind of foresight. But sorry, I can't answer any of your questions. Hopefully someone in the field will come along and help you out.

Thanks for all the replies, guys! I just found out that my school actually has an Undergraduate Research Center to help out with this sort of thing, so I'm setting up a meeting with them for some advice. I guess I should also start sending out e-mails to professors now so I can start doing some research as soon as possible. (Worst thing that can happen is that they say no, but it's so intimidating somehow!)

Does anyone know how common it is to be admitted to a master's program without having done any research in undergrad? I'm going to try and get in on a research project once the school year starts up again, but I was wondering whether I should even try applying this year if I'll only have done a few months of research by then. On a related note, does anyone have any advice on how to approach a professor to ask about research? Should I just send them an e-mail saying, "Hi, this is esgalerin from Class X. I understand that you're working on Y and was wondering whether you had any room for an undergrad to help out."? Or should I go to the undergraduate advisor first and ask if he knows whether anyone is willing to take on undergrads?

I agree with EquationForLife. Even if you don't get into Stanford's PhD program, you'll have an MS from Stanford to use to apply elsewhere.

I don't have a good answer to any of your questions, but if you're worried about your grades, have you considered doing a Postbac? My former roommate was an NPB major but didn't think his chances of getting into grad school were great, so he's currently doing one. As far as I can tell, it includes both research and classes, so it'll help out with the GPA while allowing you to add to your research experience.

It's great to hear that, cajunmama. Of course I know cognitively that there are people who don't graduate the first time around, then do go on to do great later on, but it's always nice to hear from people who've done it themselves.

Well, without that one D+, it's a 3.75. All A's with a couple A-'s and B+'s in the mix. Soooo I'm hoping that they'll look closely enough at the transcript to see that. (Yeah, maybe not GREAT, but I hope that it shows that I'm a competent student.) I'm looking to get a PhD eventually, but I'm not averse to the idea of getting an MA separately. In fact, before I really started looking for schools, I was pretty sure that I would want to go for an MA first because I'm not sure that I would be able to get into a PhD program. Unfortunately, it seems that except for a few applied linguistics programs and ESL-teaching programs (Sorry, forget its actual name at the moment), there aren't any linguistics programs that are intended to end at just a master's, at least in the US. Maybe I should broaden my horizons a bit and look in Canada too. (edit: Actually, I take that back. It's been a while since I gave up looking for MA's, and I don't think I looked all that hard to begin with.) A quick question about master's programs: are they intended to be more classroom learning than independent research, or am I mistaken? Kinda like a more rigorous version of undergrad?

Wow, fast reply! Thanks! Yeah, I'm pretty sure that they'd stick pretty firmly with that 3.0 cut-off. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask, though, in case somebody knew otherwise. =/ I've only been back three quarters. My GPA during this time has been a 3.6, a pretty marked increase from what it had been previously. Of course, I'll point this out on the personal statement.

I dropped out of college after my first two years (dissatisfaction with original major, denial about dissatisfaction, depression, denial about depression; you know how it goes). During the next two years, besides bumming around and generally feeling sorry for myself, I figured out why I wanted to go to school and what I want to do with my life, and now I really want to go to grad school. The problem is that when I dropped out, I had a GPA of something like 1.9, so I figure that to manage a 3.0 GPA, the minimum GPA to be even considered for most grad programs, as far as I can tell, I need to retake all the classes that I failed before AND get close to a 4.0 in my remaining time in undergrad... which I haven't been doing. (I got a D+ in one of my classes in a quarter when I took 5 classes as opposed to the usual 3-4 classes. On the other hand, I got on the Dean's List last quarter, which is apparently noted on the transcript.) I'm going to be a senior in linguistics in the fall, and my GPA is currently a 2.6 (3.5 in the major), which means that I won't be able to apply this winter, but I can probably raise it enough to apply next year. I know there are plenty of people who don't get accepted by any programs the first time around. Presumably they're doing something to make themselves more attractive candidates besides rewriting personal statements and retaking tests, but I have no idea what that is. Should I take classes at a community college to boost my GPA, even if those classes aren't particularly related to linguistics? On a related note, does anybody know how strictly admissions officers stick to the minimum GPA listed on websites? Other than my GPA, my credentials are pretty decent, I think. There are two professors whom I'm fairly confident will write me strong LoR's, and I'm going to try to get in on a research project when the school year starts. (It didn't even occur to me that non-science undergrads could do research until a month ago. It's not just to boost my application; I want to go into research eventually.) I usually do well on papers, especially when the topic is one I care about, so I'm not too worried about the personal statements. I haven't taken the GRE yet, but unless I go into full-on panic mode, I should get a pretty good score. Didn't mean to brag, but my point is that if they won't necessarily reject me out of hand for having a GPA of less than 3.0, I might go ahead and try applying this year. Sorry for the general rambliness of the post. I was feeling kinda panicky up to the last bit. (But you must be used to that on these boards, huh?)