moody

No.  It doesn't matter for linguistics, because almost all stand alone masters programs are at regional schools.  Just make sure that you work hard on research and form good relationships with the faculty.

I would echo the others in strongly encouraging you to go.  Even if you are 90% certain that you will not end up attending JHU, there are many very interesting people there and you should take the opportunity to talk about work and establish professional relationships.  They expect you to have other options, and they will not be offended if you end up going elsewhere.  Even at top programs only about 50% of the admission offers are accepted, and everyone knows that many factors feed into a decision.
 
That said – do not try to negotiate a better package; linguistics departments typically have very little leeway with this, for all kinds of reasons.  I have seen people try to negotiate in the past, and it was not well perceived.  In general, top linguistics programs have standard packages that are given to everyone, and the culture of the field is such that this is interpreted as a desirable state of affairs.  (To understand the approach people tend to have, it may help to think about where and when generative linguistics took off.)

I would echo the others in strongly encouraging you to go.  Even if you are 90% certain that you will not end up attending JHU, there are many very interesting people there and you should take the opportunity to talk about work and establish professional relationships.  They expect you to have other options, and they will not be offended if you end up going elsewhere.  Even at top programs only about 50% of the admission offers are accepted, and everyone knows that many factors feed into a decision.
 
That said – do not try to negotiate a better package; linguistics departments typically have very little leeway with this, for all kinds of reasons.  I have seen people try to negotiate in the past, and it was not well perceived.  In general, top linguistics programs have standard packages that are given to everyone, and the culture of the field is such that this is interpreted as a desirable state of affairs.  (To understand the approach people tend to have, it may help to think about where and when generative linguistics took off.)

I would echo the others in strongly encouraging you to go.  Even if you are 90% certain that you will not end up attending JHU, there are many very interesting people there and you should take the opportunity to talk about work and establish professional relationships.  They expect you to have other options, and they will not be offended if you end up going elsewhere.  Even at top programs only about 50% of the admission offers are accepted, and everyone knows that many factors feed into a decision.
 
That said – do not try to negotiate a better package; linguistics departments typically have very little leeway with this, for all kinds of reasons.  I have seen people try to negotiate in the past, and it was not well perceived.  In general, top linguistics programs have standard packages that are given to everyone, and the culture of the field is such that this is interpreted as a desirable state of affairs.  (To understand the approach people tend to have, it may help to think about where and when generative linguistics took off.)

I would not send them in this case; really, if they are not required, I would only send them if they were in the 90th percentile or above.

Typically departments (rather than universities) make decisions about if, when, and how to interview candidates, and linguistics departments vary in exactly what they do.  Most American departments (but not all) have open houses (usually over some "visiting weekend") where all of the admitted candidates are invited to visit the department, meet with faculty and graduate students, etc.  This is really the department trying to convince you that you should accept their offer of admission (they're courting you).  Departments will typically pay either the full cost or the cost up to some dollar amount (maybe 400 or 500 USD), and attendance is optional.  UCSD, USC, and UCLA typically do this, along with many others.
 
Some departments have "open visiting" for admitted students.  The department will typically pay, again, but they will let you choose if/when to visit (often within some particular time period).  You would go to classes, meet with faculty and students, etc.  This is also a "courting" kind of situation.  This has traditionally been the practice at MIT and UMass, among others.
 
 
Some departments will have open houses for the "shortlisted" applicants.  The structure is similar to what I described above, but there is more pressure on the candidates because the department is also "interviewing" you.  Stanford has done this in the past, but I don't know if they have now changed to the more typical open house format (maybe someone else knows).

Various departments may contact certain students for phone interviews before making offers of admission.  This is usually to get a better sense of a candidate's areas of interest, ability to talk about linguistic topics, and /or facility with English (especially for international students).  Unless a department has a general practice of interviewing all students before admitting them (and I've never heard of any linguistics departments that do), you shouldn't read anything into not being contacted for an interview; many people are a admitted without any prior contact at all.

The writing sample is one of the more important components of the application, certainly more than the GRE and GPA scores. Those might keep you out if you don't meet minimum standards, but it's the SOP, LORs and WS that will get you in. My writing sample was read by adcom members. Some even gave me specific comments when I visited their campus. It's the most direct way to gage the quality of a student's work. You don't need to have a journal paper to show potential, its enough that you argue a sustained and well defended position, even if the scope of the argument is quite limited, and that you show strong language skills. I'd recommend you assume your WS *is* going to be looked at and change your attitude towards this requirement, or else you might be doing yourself a disservice.,

I would probably interpret it as business / NGO / non-profit.

I can't see how this possibly matters. The letters will read by the committee and letter writers always state how they know you... and so the committee members will decide for themselves how to weight the letters.

and in regards to "feminists," I'm talking about women who will do and say anything to justify their position of victimization in a -- so they want to emphasize -- "patriarchal society". so they jump on the bandwagon when cases like this leak, as they get to suspect a man for being oh-so-evil! they tend to disregard the fact that men 1) have their unique feelings and insecurities and 2) women can make up stories precisely to take advantage of a "victim" position. these "feminists" make me ashamed to be one myself.

Wow... take a chill pill, dude and read his text. He said: "And knowing the nature of rumors, it will probably turn into 'he was accused of rape' rather than 'he was a victim of a false accusation.' Doesn't this support what I'm saying about society's tendency to villainize men? See, the truth is clearly that "he was a victim of false accusation," but because (along the lines of my conjecture) some people automatically assume men are in the wrong in these matters, the case will be spun to "he was accused of rape omg let's stay away from him." People will more than possibly not be able to view the case objectively, jump to judgments and shun him -- unfortunately. Thus, this shows how we're dehumanizing men by not being able to view cases such as this one objectively but are rather inclined towards our pre-conceived notions of what men are like -- which equals rapists in this case.

I'm so sorry to hear about this! I think this story shows how our society (especially self-righteous "feminists") is so willing to villainize men to the point that men are dehumanized. i really think men have feelings equally as women do.

i don't know what to tell you except to keep insisting on your innocence and tell them that you'd be in jail, instead of in academia, had you really been guilty?

I would advise against this approach. Even if this is not your intent, it could be interpreted as if you are negatively disposed toward research, and view it primarily as a pathway to financial independence. Neither of these are likely to sit well with people who have dedicated their lives to research which often does not pay well. If you feel that you must say something about your grades, I would stick with something along the lines of it taking some time to adjust to university and find your true passion in research.

IMO, a 170Q is pretty much an easy-in for MIT.. what they won't care about is the 70% honors thing.

It doesn't matter in the slightest. Only your GPA is relevant. (Plus your letters and SOP and writing samples, etc.).

Detail is good. It's best if you can clearly lay out previous research you've done / a research project you're currently working on, and then talk about the questions it raises that you would like to pursue in your PhD (+ why University X is the ideal place to continue this study). At the same time, you don't want to be soooo specific that you sound like someone who has only one interest.

For example, say you did some type of analysis of some type of documents from a particular historical period. You could describe what you found out, and how it fits with the field in general. Then you would discuss what questions this made you want to answer next. Maybe you want to look similar documents from a different historical period, or maybe there are other sources of information from the same historical period that you want to compare.

Remember that you will only have 2 pages or so, what it can't be too long or too detailed... but including things like reference to specific texts helps to show that you are serious and have some real sense of what the field if all about.