Need advice in Applied Ling programs

[QIUQIU]

Hi~I've viewing this site for months and decided to ask for help when my GRE and IELTS tests are done. So here I am!

During this Fall, I am about to apply for applied linguistics programs in U.S and in desperate need of advice regarding how many schools are there providing the exact type of program I am looking for (except those listed below which I've done some work in investigating).

My background:

I obtained my B.A. in linguistics in Beihang Univ. in China (one of China's top polytechnical universities, specializing in aeronautics and national defense technology.), which is not a traditionally-acknowledged prestigious university in Modern languages(Subject Ranking around 200 worldwide), yet the English linguistics of my university is famous in China with several pricinpal investigators.

I continue to pursue my M.A. here at Beihang as well since my research interest(Corpus Ling, EAP) has much to do with our team and indeed received a lot help from my teachers.

My focus from undergrad to now is always about using corpus to evaluate language performance in learners' or professionals' writing( so Second Language Writing, EAP, Pedagogy, Language Testing would all be my primary target field.) My B.A. thesis is about testing Doug Biber's developmental index in Chinese learners writing and My M.A. thesis(in conduct) is about using grammatical metaphor to explain shell noun differences between pure and applied sciences research articles.

My advantages(sort of..):

GPA:(haven't calculated yet and my university is famous for strict scoring, so around 3.75, I guess), GRE: 158V+166Q+3.5AW, IELTS:(W:7+S:8.5, Overall: 8) 

Received a grant from our graduate school for conducting a research on "combining genre-based and corpus-based study to teach academic students to write journal articles." (5,000 RMB, not much)

Currently working with my surpervisor on one paper, deciding to publish on J of EAP this Sep. 

My supervisor has a close tie with Michaela Mahlberg from Birmingham U and Lu XF from PennState(They both visited our department and we had several gatherings.) So suggestions to our current paper and my recommendation won't be a big problem.

Outside academics, I won several prizes in British Parliamentary debate competitions when I was a sophomore and taught "Current Affairs and Debate" course in Central Univ. of Finance and Economics when I was a senior for one semester. (So teaching experience, check)

Interned in Elsevier, Beijing for one semester + summer vacation.

Prepared to attend Australia Applied Linguistics Conference this Nov., presenting the abovementioned paper( I also sent the abstract to ICAME and Applied Ling Conference in U.S., yet declined by both due to inspecificity of the topic and method)

 

Universities that I looked through(more information is appreciated!)

PennState, the most desired program in my mind. I've met and talked to the professor that I wish to work with and there is no guarantee since the competition is harsh. Many applicants from UPenn applied to this program every year.

Iowa State, the program is fascinating, yet the demand is too high(AW should be higher than 5, I think)  comparing with the general ranking of this university. More advice on this program is highly suggested! I wish to learn statistics and programming in my doctoral studies, which may broaden my way of doing research. I also had some background in Math, so definitely I can expect myself to learn those skills.

Gerogia State, the host of this year's Applied Ling Conference, with several promising researchers in EAP, Language Testing , Applied Ling and Technology.

UCSB, I skimmed through their website and found very few applied linguists/corpus linguists, which is enough for my application. However, I wish to know more about how the department look at these fields. Do they invest a lot comparing with other fields? i.e. is applied ling strong in the department?

UMich, definitely well-known, but couldn't find relevant researchers.

Purdue,  I searched this university because I heard one of Doug Biber's student was working in the linguistics department(but I couldn't locate her profile on the website). This department does provide applied ling program, but I am not sure if it suits my interest.

More options from you guys would be great! And I'd love to share what I know with you:)

 

Qiu Qiu 

[QIUQIU]

Check if anyone here is interested.

Your help is appreciated!

[Glasperlenspieler]

You might havs better luck in the linguistics section of the forum. This part of the forum tends to be pretty quiet and is mainly occupied by people working in non-English languages and literature. Good luck!

[historicallinguist]

You do not need to worry too much about GRE in that linguistics PhD programs generally do not care too much about it. In fact, there is a trend in the recent years, probably starting from schools like mit and Ucla, to abolish the GRE requirement for admission.

I think UCSB has a decent amount of corpus linguists, and I suggest you look into their website more carefully. Stanford and UPenn do as well.  

 

Iowa state is fairly easy to get in. I guess the real question for this school is whether you can get funding from them. 

 

For umichigan, robin queen is probably the one that fits your interests. But do not count too much on this one because admission to this school is very competitive. If you have luck, then you get it, but do put all your bet on this one. 

You could also look into umass Boston. This one is in a very good location.

By the way, usually only candidates interested in experimental tracks are admittted by the prospective PI. For theoretical track, admission is made by the adcom (basically you need to get the majority vote in the adcom so as to get in). So, you probably want to approach your schools differently, depending which track you are applying to.