Fall 2011

[dilly-dallier]

Hi everyone. I've just finished my application a couple of days ago. As my name suggests, usually I don't start doing anything until the clock is ticking. I even switched every final deadlines (not the priority or recommended ones) to the Pacific Time so that I have one more day to procrastinate. I know I'm playing with fire, and occasionally I missed a few deadlines for one or two hours. Have no idea if this would by any chance hurt my application. Hopefully they won't think I'm not serious enough.

One thing that really worries me a lot is that one of my recommenders likes procrastinating thing even than I do. So by far he's sent out only one letter, among one of the latest deadlines. As for the programs with early deadlines, he's already 1 and a half months late. Oh my! I guess I'll just keep asking the systems to resend him e-alerts.

I'm a final year MA students in Linguistics and finished writing my (lengthy) thesis last November. Now I'm scheduled for my oral defense. My research interest is theoretical syntax and my thesis centers on the parallelism of clause structures and noun phrase structures in an East Asian language.

My stats are very mediocre if not bad.

GRE: V700/Q760/AW4.0(sad)

TOEFL: 105

undergraduate GPA: I have no idea. The college I attended to didn't calculate GPAs. But given my performance, even if they do, it wouldn't be very impressive.

postgraduate GPA: 3.7

My strength is my extensive teaching and research experience. I've TAed 8 courses in linguistics and started the ninth one yesterday, ranging from LING1XXX to LING6XXX, almost covered all topics in linguistics. No published journal paper, one in preparation with my supervisor (me being the first author) developed from one of the chapters of my thesis. 1 poster, a lot of conference presentations, 1 invited speech, and 1 proceeding paper. I investigated various phenomena in various East Asian languages, topics including argument structure, aspect, case and agreement, language change, comparatives, split CP, etc. I also did some field work of an endangered language by myself. I submitted two writing samples to most of the programs I applied for. One is a thesis chapter, and the other is a collaborated work with my supervisor. What else? Oh yeah, occasionally I helped the language acquisition laboratory with some experiments. But I'm not an experimentalist at all.

I've applied for 8 programs, i.e. USC, Arizona, UPenn, NYU, MIT, UConn, UMass, Cornell. And yes, that's a lot of money. One of my recommenders complained that I applied too much. I'm leaning towards the programs in New England as I'm more into minimalist theorizing in general than topic-driven research. I talked to two professors from USC, though. With the first professor we've spent a whole hour discussing my research and I can tell she likes my idea, but at that time I haven't made up my mind so I didn't tell her I would apply for their program. With the other it's just a brief encounter. I've just got time for self-introduction and asked some application-related questions. At the end I didn't identify him as my potential advisor in my SOP as our research interests don't match quite well.

Oh this reminds me of another topic, SOP. I've heard a lot from successful applicants that SOP is one of the most essential part of an application. So I spent most of my time doing that. In each program I identified 2 to 4 professors whose research interests I'm genuinely interested in, read their papers (really time-consuming, this is why I always submit my application at the last minute), and talked about how my research fit into theirs, how my current findings could strengthen their analyses, and how I would like to continue with the line of research in PhD study, etc.

The good part about late submission is I have less time to worry about during the waiting period. But I'm still supernervous at the moment. Every morning I wake up I felt less confident. I start picking out all my weak links and giving reasons why they should reject me. Perhaps my GPAs are too poor. Perhaps my analytical writing score would hurt. Perhaps by the time they receive my last recommendation they've already made their decision.

Anyhow, good luck with everyone. Fingercrossed!

Edited January 18, 2011 by dilly-dallier

[pearls]

Invited to the open house at UCSD in Feb! I am so excited. Still waiting on the other schools. Anyone else received news?

Congrats!!

My research interest is theoretical syntax and my thesis centers on the parallelism of clause structures and noun phrase structures in an East Asian language.

Then we probably named the same person as a potential advisor at UConn. (My "research" doesn't deal with the TP/NP parallelism, though.) Btw, I think your stats are awesome.

Edited January 18, 2011 by pearls

[psycholinguist]

Invited to the open house at UCSD in Feb! I am so excited. Still waiting on the other schools. Anyone else received news?

Congrats! I was invited for a visit there two years ago and it was just lovely. The department is full of neat people, the campus is pretty nice, and the weather was great. San Diego is an awesome city, though it's hard to get around without a car. (Couldn't make it work financially - they were so strapped for cash that they couldn't afford to fund international students - but I actually didn't end up resenting it. I love where I've ended up, and hey, I got a fantastic spring-break trip to California out of that. [After nearly a week in SD, I took off for LA and hung out with some friends before returning to parts of the U.S. where it wasn't quite so pleasant outside. * grins *]) The grad-students there were all really friendly - they insisted on taking me out for lunch and nifty conversations ensued - and although I only had time to meet three of the faculty members (Amalia Arvaniti, Rachel Mayberry, and Robert Kluender), my impressions of everyone were positive. I'm thrilled for you! Provided you can make it, enjoy!

My stats are very mediocre if not bad.

I don't think you have much to worry about. Aside from the writing, your GRE scores are strong, and everything else looks pretty solid, too. See how it goes!

[fuzzylogician]

My stats are very mediocre if not bad.

They sound excellent to me! The GRE writing is probably the least important part of the whole app. The SOP, writing sample and LORs are the most important, and it sounds like you'll have strong ones.

Good luck to you and to everyone else!

[hopefulapplicant]

Thanks, everyone! I think UC San Diego would be a really good fit for my interests, so I am excited to learn more about their program. I love that they offer the chance to delve more deeply into the cognitive side of things. I'm glad to hear your experience went so well, psycholinguist--I have heard great things about the people involved in to program from a friend who almost accepted an offer there last year.

Your profile looks amazing, dilly-dallier. It was smart to invest so much time in the SOP--It sounds like you made a persuasive case about why professors should want to work with you. I went to undergrad at Arizona State, so my advice is to ask careful questions about the budget at U Arizona before accepting an offer. Higher education has been hit hard by the recession in Arizona, which has resulted in greater pressure on graduate students to teach more for less. However, the situation has begun to stabilize and the Board of Regents has worked hard to protect students from bearing the brunt of the cuts, so don't count the school out directly. It's a great program with some kind, intelligent people involved.

Edited January 18, 2011 by hopefulapplicant

[dilly-dallier]

Thanks everyone for being supportive!

Then we probably named the same person as a potential advisor at UConn. (My "research" doesn't deal with the TP/NP parallelism, though.)

Good. Let's see how it goes. Maybe we'll end up in the same program. By far my application to UConn is the only one that is complete as they required hard copy recommendations. I remember you've got an accident in you mail delivery. How's it go now?

The SOP, writing sample and LORs are the most important, and it sounds like you'll have strong ones.

My LORs are not complete yet. Do you think they'll start reviewing my application with the absence of one recommendation? MIT sent me an email and said they would, but lacking an LOR would be a disadvantage.

I went to undergrad at Arizona State, so my advice is to ask careful questions about the budget at U Arizona before accepting an offer. Higher education has been hit hard by the recession in Arizona, which has resulted in greater pressure on graduate students to teach more for less. However, the situation has begun to stabilize and the Board of Regents has worked hard to protect students from bearing the brunt of the cuts, so don't count the school out directly. It's a great program with some kind, intelligent people involved.

Thanks for your information. I'll definitely take this into serious consideration. I noticed they had money problems from their website, but I really like some of their research. All the other programs (not sure about U Conn, any idea?) I applied to have good fellowships, I guess. Hopefully I could have the choice to choose among offers.

And oh, Congrats!

[pearls]

Good. Let's see how it goes. Maybe we'll end up in the same program. By far my application to UConn is the only one that is complete as they required hard copy recommendations. I remember you've got an accident in you mail delivery. How's it go now?

It'd be great to end up in the same program as someone from this board.

I don't think the hard copies have reached Storrs, but I hope they will... eventually. My application has been marked complete on January 14, a day before the deadline, though. I was able to email everything I wrote on Thursday (Jan 13), and my recommenders were really nice and supportive and emailed their letters by Friday morning.

Btw, I think that linguistics programs don't have too many applicants, so they'll start reviewing your application even if a LOR is missing. (I've been told that at UConn they first look at your writing sample. If it's good, i.e. has some original thoughts in it, they look at your LORs. Apparently, it helps if they know your recommenders.)

All the other programs (not sure about U Conn, any idea?) I applied to have good fellowships, I guess.

I don't really know how much grad students get from the department (in exchange for TAship). I know there are university-wide fellowships, too, but - again - I don't know any details.

[Typologaster]

Hi everyone. I've just finished my application a couple of days ago. As my name suggests, usually I don't start doing anything until the clock is ticking. I even switched every final deadlines (not the priority or recommended ones) to the Pacific Time so that I have one more day to procrastinate. I know I'm playing with fire, and occasionally I missed a few deadlines for one or two hours. Have no idea if this would by any chance hurt my application. Hopefully they won't think I'm not serious enough.

One thing that really worries me a lot is that one of my recommenders likes procrastinating thing even than I do. So by far he's sent out only one letter, among one of the latest deadlines. As for the programs with early deadlines, he's already 1 and a half months late. Oh my! I guess I'll just keep asking the systems to resend him e-alerts.

I'm a final year MA students in Linguistics and finished writing my (lengthy) thesis last November. Now I'm scheduled for my oral defense. My research interest is theoretical syntax and my thesis centers on the parallelism of clause structures and noun phrase structures in an East Asian language.

My stats are very mediocre if not bad.

GRE: V700/Q760/AW4.0(sad)

TOEFL: 105

undergraduate GPA: I have no idea. The college I attended to didn't calculate GPAs. But given my performance, even if they do, it wouldn't be very impressive.

postgraduate GPA: 3.7

My strength is my extensive teaching and research experience. I've TAed 8 courses in linguistics and started the ninth one yesterday, ranging from LING1XXX to LING6XXX, almost covered all topics in linguistics. No published journal paper, one in preparation with my supervisor (me being the first author) developed from one of the chapters of my thesis. 1 poster, a lot of conference presentations, 1 invited speech, and 1 proceeding paper. I investigated various phenomena in various East Asian languages, topics including argument structure, aspect, case and agreement, language change, comparatives, split CP, etc. I also did some field work of an endangered language by myself. I submitted two writing samples to most of the programs I applied for. One is a thesis chapter, and the other is a collaborated work with my supervisor. What else? Oh yeah, occasionally I helped the language acquisition laboratory with some experiments. But I'm not an experimentalist at all.

I've applied for 8 programs, i.e. USC, Arizona, UPenn, NYU, MIT, UConn, UMass, Cornell. And yes, that's a lot of money. One of my recommenders complained that I applied too much. I'm leaning towards the programs in New England as I'm more into minimalist theorizing in general than topic-driven research. I talked to two professors from USC, though. With the first professor we've spent a whole hour discussing my research and I can tell she likes my idea, but at that time I haven't made up my mind so I didn't tell her I would apply for their program. With the other it's just a brief encounter. I've just got time for self-introduction and asked some application-related questions. At the end I didn't identify him as my potential advisor in my SOP as our research interests don't match quite well.

Oh this reminds me of another topic, SOP. I've heard a lot from successful applicants that SOP is one of the most essential part of an application. So I spent most of my time doing that. In each program I identified 2 to 4 professors whose research interests I'm genuinely interested in, read their papers (really time-consuming, this is why I always submit my application at the last minute), and talked about how my research fit into theirs, how my current findings could strengthen their analyses, and how I would like to continue with the line of research in PhD study, etc.

The good part about late submission is I have less time to worry about during the waiting period. But I'm still supernervous at the moment. Every morning I wake up I felt less confident. I start picking out all my weak links and giving reasons why they should reject me. Perhaps my GPAs are too poor. Perhaps my analytical writing score would hurt. Perhaps by the time they receive my last recommendation they've already made their decision.

Anyhow, good luck with everyone. Fingercrossed!

Excellent stats man, you have some beast research experience! I'm also quite interested in theoretical syntax (specifically case, agreement, argument structure, etc.). Good luck, perhaps (if luck goes both our ways) we'll be able to work together on something in the future.

[dilly-dallier]

Thank you, Pearls and Typologaster. The good news is my recommender submitted five letters today, still two more to go.

Have you guys applied to UMass? This is my dream program, though I'm not a big fan of formal semantics. I'm following one of the professors' research for years.

But their online application system is really difficult to use. Once I've submitted the application, I have no access to the system any more. One of my recommender didn't receive any e-request, and I can do nothing about that 'cause there's no "resend" option. So later she has to email her letter to the dept and the dept will direct the letter to the graduate school and later the graduate school will direct all the materials to the dept again. Isn't it ridiculous? After severals days of submission they sent me a link where I can check my application status and the materials they've received so far. But it seems that the system is updated manually. So I still have no idea how many recommendations they've got.

Edited January 20, 2011 by dilly-dallier

[Typologaster]

Thank you, Pearls and Typologaster. The good news is my recommender submitted five letters today, still two more to go.

Have you guys applied to UMass? This is my dream program, though I'm not a big fan of formal semantics. I'm following one of the professors' research for years.

But their online application system is really difficult to use. Once I've submitted the application, I have no access to the system any more. One of my recommender didn't receive any e-request, and I can do nothing about that 'cause there's no "resend" option. So later she has to email her letter to the dept and the dept will direct the letter to the graduate school and later the graduate school will direct all the materials to the dept again. Isn't it ridiculous? After severals days of submission they sent me a link where I can check my application status and the materials they've received so far. But it seems that the system is updated manually. So I still have no idea how many recommendations they've got.

I applied, and yes, their application system is slightly weird. It says they received everything from me, except the section Miscellaneous Materials (or whatever it is) doesn't state that they have my thesis (but I know they do). Prof. Johnson seems awesome—I think there's this youtube video of him teaching syntax to undergrads in which he uses grad students dressed up as bees to convey the notion of constituency. o.o (I could be misrepresenting this somewhat; I saw the video quite a while ago.)

[dilly-dallier]

I applied, and yes, their application system is slightly weird. It says they received everything from me, except the section Miscellaneous Materials (or whatever it is) doesn't state that they have my thesis (but I know they do). Prof. Johnson seems awesome—I think there's this youtube video of him teaching syntax to undergrads in which he uses grad students dressed up as bees to convey the notion of constituency. o.o (I could be misrepresenting this somewhat; I saw the video quite a while ago.)

I watched the video just now

You've submitted your thesis? I was thinking about submitting my thesis, but it's almost 300 pages long. I seriously doubt if anyone would like to read it. Sometimes I even felt sorry for my committee members for having the obligation to read it. So eventually I selected just one chapter from the whole thing and slightly modified it into a 20-page long paper (single-spaced). Some would say this is still long, but I did my best. I'm a little bit curious about how careful the adcomms will read our samples. Do they care more about our analytical skills or about the research ideas we conveyed?

Edited January 20, 2011 by dilly-dallier

[pearls]

I'm a little bit curious about how careful the adcomms will read our samples. Do they care more about our analytical skills or about the research ideas we conveyed?

According to one of my recommenders, they'll care more about our analytical skills. According to the only adcomm member I've ever talked to, they want to see something original in our sample. I'm not really sure what qualifies as original (enough for grad school acceptance), but - according to one of my other recommenders - that could be sth small, e.g. new data.

EDIT: I just remembered that the aforementioned adcomm member said that in our sample we could present a problem even if we didn't have a solution.

Edited January 20, 2011 by pearls

[Zouzax]

According to one of my recommenders, they'll care more about our analytical skills. According to the only adcomm member I've ever talked to, they want to see something original in our sample. I'm not really sure what qualifies as original (enough for grad school acceptance), but - according to one of my other recommenders - that could be sth small, e.g. new data.

EDIT: I just remembered that the aforementioned adcomm member said that in our sample we could present a problem even if we didn't have a solution.

this was great to hear. just took a major load off ... my biggest concern was that my sample was on a different subject...

[fuzzylogician]

I'm a little bit curious about how careful the adcomms will read our samples. Do they care more about our analytical skills or about the research ideas we conveyed?

From what I understand adcom members pay careful attention to the writing sample. Several profs commented on my paper when I met with them after I was accepted and even offered ideas for applying the solution to other data, so they definitely look at the details. Some even read other papers on my website beside my writing sample and commented on it as well. I think that they mostly want to see that you are capable of identifying an interesting question or data set, and as a bonus that you can come up with an analysis that derives the whole pattern (but also that you can flag any problems that your analysis may raise, or show why existing analyses can't deal with your data - even if you can't come up with something better). A lot of the squibs we write for our seminars are just identifying a problem and not necessarily coming up with a solution, so I think it should be entirely acceptable as a writing sample.

[pearls]

this was great to hear. just took a major load off ... my biggest concern was that my sample was on a different subject...

Glad if I could help! And since you're into psycholinguistics, I don't really think you should be worried that your sample deals with an issue in psychology.

EDIT: OMG, I just checked my mail - I'm shortlisted at Michigan!! I'm sooo happy!

But I'm also sad 'cause I probably won't be able to visit due to financial issues - the plane ticket would be more than $1k. It's night here, so I'll have to discuss things with my parents tomorrow evening (yeah, I have lectures on Saturday )...

EDIT #2: Oh, the mail says the department will pay up to $500 for airfare, so money stops being a problem. But what about the fact I don't have a US visa? I don't think I can get it in three weeks...

Edited January 21, 2011 by pearls

[hopefulapplicant]

Congrats, Pearls! You must be so excited. It is nice to have the first result be such a positive one; sets a good tone for the rest of the cycle!

Email Michigan about the Visa situation. I am sure they have dealt with this before. Otherwise, you might want to PM Fuzzylogician. She was an international when applying to graduate school, so she might be able to give you some firsthand advice. The interataional forums here might also be of help.

And pack warm for Ann Arbor...Michigan is going to be freezing in February!

[fuzzylogician]

EDIT: OMG, I just checked my mail - I'm shortlisted at Michigan!! I'm sooo happy!

But I'm also sad 'cause I probably won't be able to visit due to financial issues - the plane ticket would be more than $1k. It's night here, so I'll have to discuss things with my parents tomorrow evening (yeah, I have lectures on Saturday )...

EDIT #2: Oh, the mail says the department will pay up to $500 for airfare, so money stops being a problem. But what about the fact I don't have a US visa? I don't think I can get it in three weeks...

Congrats!!

You have to have a visa to enter the US. A tourist visa B1/B2 is good enough, unless you are from one of the countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program and your passport has the electronic chip (should be in any passport issued in recent years). Contact the embassy in your country *now* and ask for an expedited interview date; it's worth a try. Explain your situation, forward your invitation if needed. There could be other interviews in your future--most were in early-mid March the year I applied--so you should get the visa even if you can't attend Michigan's event. In terms of funding, most schools refunded international students between $350 and $500 the year I applied (with the exception of UMass, which didn't give any refund), so if you get invited to even 2-3 events you'll be able to get a full refund. The only catch: you have to have the money in your bank account to spend, because the refunds don't arrive until several weeks after the visit.

Anybody else who is international and reading this -- check that you will be able to visit the US, if invited! Get yourself a tourist visa now.

[dilly-dallier]

EDIT #2: Oh, the mail says the department will pay up to $500 for airfare, so money stops being a problem. But what about the fact I don't have a US visa? I don't think I can get it in three weeks...

Congrats!

Given my previous experience, I think it is possible to get a visa in three weeks. My visa was issued in three days, in fact. In my country usually we make an appointment online, and bring all your materials to the embassy or consulate for a short interview. If it is approved, the officer would tell you the result immediately. And then you wait at home. It takes two days for them to mail your passport back to you via express delivery. So if you make a next-day appointment for interview, you'll get a visa in three or four days in my country. But you may need some time preparing all the materials. I remember the US visa requires a photograph with a weird size and shape (it is almost like a square!), so you may need to take a new photo. Also if you could apply online, you need an electronic version of your photo.

Anybody else who is international and reading this -- check that you will be able to visit the US, if invited! Get yourself a tourist visa now.

But can you get a visa without the invitation letter?

Edited January 22, 2011 by dilly-dallier

[fuzzylogician]

But can you get a visa without the invitation letter?

Sure, anyone can get a tourist visa to the US. The process should be just as you describe.

The visa is usually issued for 10 years so if you visited the US before it may still be valid, check your passport.

The comment about the invitation was just in case there were no available appointments in the next week and pearls would need to petition for an expedited date. It may not be needed, it depends on the appointment schedule at the embassy (s)he needs to visit.

Edited January 22, 2011 by fuzzylogician

[Zouzax]

Glad if I could help! And since you're into psycholinguistics, I don't really think you should be worried that your sample deals with an issue in psychology.

EDIT: OMG, I just checked my mail - I'm shortlisted at Michigan!! I'm sooo happy!

But I'm also sad 'cause I probably won't be able to visit due to financial issues - the plane ticket would be more than $1k. It's night here, so I'll have to discuss things with my parents tomorrow evening (yeah, I have lectures on Saturday )...

EDIT #2: Oh, the mail says the department will pay up to $500 for airfare, so money stops being a problem. But what about the fact I don't have a US visa? I don't think I can get it in three weeks...

CONGRATS!

[psycholinguist]

EDIT: OMG, I just checked my mail - I'm shortlisted at Michigan!! I'm sooo happy!

Congrats! That's awesome!

[Typologaster]

Glad if I could help! And since you're into psycholinguistics, I don't really think you should be worried that your sample deals with an issue in psychology.

EDIT: OMG, I just checked my mail - I'm shortlisted at Michigan!! I'm sooo happy!

But I'm also sad 'cause I probably won't be able to visit due to financial issues - the plane ticket would be more than $1k. It's night here, so I'll have to discuss things with my parents tomorrow evening (yeah, I have lectures on Saturday )...

EDIT #2: Oh, the mail says the department will pay up to $500 for airfare, so money stops being a problem. But what about the fact I don't have a US visa? I don't think I can get it in three weeks...

Congrats, pearls! My friend goes there for phonology.

[pearls]

Thanks so much, everyone!

Being short-listed really encouraged me. I don't have my hopes too high, though, as the results page here says they invited 14 people last year and only admitted 5 of them. (And as I can be pretty awkward sometimes.) I'm still happy I'll get to meet the faculty - especially Epstein and Pires - and other ling students.

Well, I hope I'll get to meet them - I'm still not sure I'll get a tourist visa. Thanks for all the info, Fuzzylogician and Dilly-dallier! It seems I'll be able to get an interview soon, but I'm not really sure what supporting documents I need (I mean, do they really need the birth certificates of my entire family ?; I'll call as soon as my pin code for their call center's active and ask them everything) and how much money I need to have in my bank account (can't wait for that pin code to be activated!).

edit: Hopefulapplicant, unfortunately, February's usually freezing where I'm from, too. I wish summer could last all year long...

Edited January 23, 2011 by pearls

[dilly-dallier]

Thanks for all the info, Fuzzylogician and Dilly-dallier! It seems I'll be able to get an interview soon, but I'm not really sure what supporting documents I need (I mean, do they really need the birth certificates of my entire family ?; I'll call as soon as my pin code for their call center's active and ask them everything) and how much money I need to have in my bank account (can't wait for that pin code to be activated!).

You are welcome.

If you are still a student, or if you've got a full-time job, applying a tourist visa will be very easy. The only documents they'll really look at (though they may ask you to prepare more) are your application form, your passport, and the letter from your university or your employer saying that they granted your leave of absence.

If you are currently between jobs, printing out the email from U Mich would be a good idea (actually you should bring it anyways). Highlight the funding they will provide for your trip. Since it is a half-funded trip, I don't think you need to prepare a lot of money in your bank account. But you'll have to make a reservation of a double-way flying ticket before the interview, and print it out.

I think bringing along the birth certificates of your entire family is as ridiculous as bringing long your family photos. The idea is just show them you have no intention staying in the states after the open house and you have your loved ones at home that you want to come back to.

Edited January 24, 2011 by dilly-dallier

[billy]

Glad if I could help! And since you're into psycholinguistics, I don't really think you should be worried that your sample deals with an issue in psychology.

EDIT: OMG, I just checked my mail - I'm shortlisted at Michigan!! I'm sooo happy!

But I'm also sad 'cause I probably won't be able to visit due to financial issues - the plane ticket would be more than $1k. It's night here, so I'll have to discuss things with my parents tomorrow evening (yeah, I have lectures on Saturday )...

EDIT #2: Oh, the mail says the department will pay up to $500 for airfare, so money stops being a problem. But what about the fact I don't have a US visa? I don't think I can get it in three weeks...

Congrats! UMich Visit would be awesome! As a Chinese student who went to the campus visit last year at UMich, I strongly recommend you going there. I also encountered the same visa problem, however with some helpful suggestions from my seniors and from BBS, I managed to get one. The tip is that you need to make an appointment fist, whether the interview date is after the date of the campus visit. Then, you just write a letter explaining the urgent situation and fax it together with your passport and visa appointment info to the US consulate of Shanghai/Beijing/Guangzhou (depending where you live). You can find more info. about it via the following link:

Beijing Embassy

Shanghai

Note: From this link, it seems that they change the way of sending the application method. Now, you need to send your stuff via email, which is much more convinient!

Last thing, good luck and have fun!

PS the type of visa you need to apply is B1/B2

Edited January 25, 2011 by billy