What more do I need to make myself competitive? Plus suggestions on programs?

[racataca]

Hey all! I've said I'm applying forty times before, but this year I ACTUALLY AM. 

I'm located in SoCal and am so, SO ready to get this ball rolling.  My research interests are language, culture and identity (and as a part of this, code-switching); Korean linguistics; Spanish linguistics; psycholinguistics; semantic processing between native speakers of multiple languages and second language learners in adulthood; phonology (this is really focused - the transformation of nasals into stops in onsets in Korean), and issues regarding codeswitching (syntax, identity, etc.)

My stats are: 

Undergrad: International Relations, 3.4 GPA 

Grad School: MA in Linguistics with a 4.0. I wrote my capstone on the hypothesis that music and language involved from a common musical, proto-linguistic faculty, and that the necessary intonation in polar interrogatives in Korean are fossilizations of that. 

Bilingual Spanish speaker, Korean speaker at somewhere between B1-B2. 

Original research presented twice at the grad school symposium, as well as the Language, Interaction, and Social Order conference (where I had to defend myself against Mary Bucholz lololol)

Was a graduate assistant three semesters in a row at grad school, in addition to winning a merit scholarship for tuition and in addition to winning a research travel scholarship to the conference (both competitive). 

Five years experience teaching at the college level, two additional years teaching adults topics in linguistics

GRE: Haven't taken the real thing yet, but my diagnostic scores on the test were 160V, 155Q, 6W, so I'm hoping to raise the V and Q scores by about 5 points each after studying for the test I'll take in July. 

I can count on good letters of rec, and I can count on someone coaching me through a good SoP. 

 

Schools I'm looking at: 

UCSB (Language & Identity w/ Mary Bucholz in an ideal world)

UCLA (Semantics w/ Jesse Harris or Language Acquisition / Semantics / Phonology with Sun Ah Jun)

USC (Psycholinguistics w/ Elsi Kaiser, Korean Linguistics and Identity w/ Andrew Simpson)

Stanford (Lang and Identity w/ Rob Podesva)

Berkeley (Language Contact w/ Lev Michael)

UC Davis (Language & Society w/ Robert Bayley, Language & Identity w/ Julia Menard-Warwick)

U Hawaii at Manoa (Bilingualism w/ Kamil Deen)

UC San Diego (Acquisition w/ Grant Goodall)

I'm also considering applying to some East Asian Language / Korean Studies PhD programs at UCLA and at U Hawaii Manoa but would need to get my language skills up to par (for UCLA I'd probably have to go through the MA in order to be considered for the PhD). 

 

So a couple of questions: 

1. Not many people list code switching as their primary research interest, so I'm wondering if I should seek out faculty who work in bilingualism OR in syntax, both of which could facilitate research in code switching? 

2. Is this too many schools? No enough schools? 

3. How should my application improve from the stats given? 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by racataca

[historicallinguist]

You definitely should not put all the interests you mentioned above in your PS. Stay focused on one or two sub fields (if two, between some sort of interface type of thing), and write about one or two particular thing(s) in the sun field(s) in your PS.

 

UCLA’s anthropology phd program is probably a better fit for you than is its linguistics phd program.

Also, for god’s Sake, please do not say you want to work with only a particular awesome prof X in department Y in awesome UNiveristy Z, as admission is made by a committee not a particular prof. You probably want to mention profs xyz and explain how THESE profs could support your interests to show your fit with the department as a whole.

 

[racataca]

1 hour ago, historicallinguist said:

You definitely should not put all the interests you mentioned above in your PS. Stay focused on one or two sub fields (if two, between some sort of interface type of thing), and write about one or two particular thing(s) in the sun field(s) in your PS.

 

UCLA’s anthropology phd program is probably a better fit for you than is its linguistics phd program.

Also, for god’s Sake, please do not say you want to work with only a particular awesome prof X in department Y in awesome UNiveristy Z, as admission is made by a committee not a particular prof. You probably want to mention profs xyz and explain how THESE profs could support your interests to show your fit with the department as a whole.

 

Haha no, I would definitely not put all of this in a SoP - I'd tailor that to the dept I'm applying to and mentioning the professors in that department that interest me.  But that's super helpful with regards to what perspective I should write from! 

 

I'll definitely check out UCLA's anthropology program!

[vonham]

hey! so far those are looking like some really good stats. I would of course recommend that you check out u of arizona's joing ling and anth program as well :P. 

One thing I'd say is that you're looking at a really wide range of programs and potential subfields. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, as a lot of people start out their phd with varied interests, or completely changing their interests. As someone who started out being interested in codeswitching I can definitely attest to that lol. The important thing, however, as I'm sure you know, is to have quite a focused SOP. Since you're applying to some really different programs your SOP will need to change from application to application, but there should be a central thread that connects them all. Another thing I would recommend, given your varied interests, is looking at departments that have varied subfields represented. University of Arizona's ling dept, for example, is quite large, and there is enough faculty from many different subfields, such that you could have the room to explore what you want to ultimately focus on. I'm sure there are other departments like this as well, so you might want to take that into consideration. 

[historicallinguist]

On 5/16/2018 at 7:11 PM, racataca said:

Haha no, I would definitely not put all of this in a SoP - I'd tailor that to the dept I'm applying to and mentioning the professors in that department that interest me.  But that's super helpful with regards to what perspective I should write from! 

 

I'll definitely check out UCLA's anthropology program!

Also, SUNY albany's anthropology Ph.D. program may be a safe school to apply to. The downside is that the stipend level of this school is pretty low. But it won't hurt to get a safe school  first.

[gradill2019]

Hi! I know this post was made a year ago so I hope you got into a program of your choice and all is well  

I'd like to apply for a Linguistics masters program but I don't have a linguistics background. I did my bachelors in media studies and french (my work experience is similar, in media/digital marketing). 

Can you tell me a bit about how you went from IR to Linguistics, what you did to pitch yourself as a strong MA Ling applicant and what masters programs were open to non-ling people with a strong interest in the field? 

Thanks