Decision for Linguistics Program

[afraymi]

I am an international student and have applied to these universities for Linguistics Ph.D. :

1-Chicago

2-Johns Hopkins (Cognitive and Linguistics)

3-Cornell

4-Brown (Cognitive and Linguistics)

5- McGill

6- UIUC

7- UMich

8- UWashington Seattle

9- Maryland

10-Arizona Tucson

11- Rutgers

12- UMass Amherst

13- Austin Texas

14- Northwestern

 

I have admission letter from Cornell and very good emails for interview from McGill, Brown and an offer of TAship from UIUC. I withdraw from Arizona last day after a positive interview.

 

I don't know which one to choose. Is it okay if i withdraw from McGill and Brown?

My top choices are Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Brown, McGill. How do i choose one of them? (I have no news from Johns Hopkins and Chicago yet)

 

I'm married and depend upon the university fund. I need to choose the program which i can easily find an academic job after graduation.

All the programs have been carefully selected and match with my research interests.

 

Would you please help me to compare my top choices?

Edited February 9, 2013 by afraymi

[fuzzylogician]

What are the priorities here? What are your research interests? What will your spouse be doing - working or staying at home (i.e., are you looking for a place where there are job opportunities for your spouse)? What kind of funding are you being offered? Does weather play a role in the decision? A number of the schools you list have a very good placement record but it also depends on what you do, and where you hope to end up.

[afraymi]

I'm an international student so my spouse won't be able to work, she is going to work on her Egnlish and apply the next year for Master/Ph.D. in Architecture. My field is phonetics/phonology/computational lingiustics. I want the most reputable one. The one that i can easily find a teaching position after graduation.

So my priorities are the ones that will give me the best job offer after graduation.

My fund in Cornell is 23000$/year . 2 years of fellowship and 3 years of TAship. I am compeletely dependent upon the university fund.

Edited February 9, 2013 by afraymi

[fuzzylogician]

Well I'm not a phonologist but if I were applying to schools with the concentrations you listed, I think I would have had a completely different list of schools and set of favorites. Your description of your interests and top choices is honestly confusing me quite a bit. There are several leading schools in the fields you mention that are not on your list, and on the other hand there are some schools on your list that probably don't need to be there. That not withstanding, the schools you listed are good and there is no clear "placement ranking" of the kind you are looking for. In addition, all schools tend to provide students with enough funding to support a single person, but a couple is more difficult. The details of the offers you have could make a big difference here. You can't (and shouldn't) make a decision until you have all the offers in hand, otherwise you are missing crucial information. I think your post is premature. You should wait until you have all the information you need -- that is, all the funding offers you can get -- or else it's hard to make a good decision.

 

Two additional thoughts: if your wife is applying to grad school, you should look at places where she can go to a decent school, not just at places that are good for you alone. In addition, if you get a J-1 visa then your wife will get a J-2 and will be able to get a work permit. I'm not saying it'll be easy (or even possible) for her to find a job, but it's not completely out of the question the way you put it.

[afraymi]

Thank you very much for your detailed response. Would you recommend telling the interviewers from McGill and Brown that i have an admission from Cornell? Do you think it makes them think i'm going to reject them?

Your point was very good that i should not withdraw before getting an offer with funding.

thank you

[fuzzylogician]

I would not bring it up because it is not going to be relevant during the interviews. Later in, once you have an offer, you could try playing one school's offer against the other by trying to have them match each other׳s offers. That rarely works in linguistics, as far as I know, but may still be worth a shot.

[afraymi]

Thank you for your guide. Two more questions:

1- If it was up to you how did you sort these linguistics programs? Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Brown, McGill

2- If i want to choose between Cornell and McGill which one is more prestigious? Which one i'll have a better chance to find an academic job in other universities? (I know it is dependent on many factors but put yourself in my shoes)

 

Thanks

[fuzzylogician]

1. JH and Brown are more cognitive science/psych leaning, the others more theoretical linguistics leaning. Personally I'd prefer one of the latter, because I think these theoretical-leaning schools have good experimental people and can better support you than going the psych route where getting support for theoretical work is more difficult.

 

2. You are asking the wrong question. If you want a research based academic job, you'll get hired based on your work, not based on the school you're from. I can't put myself in your shoes because I don't know what kind of work you do. You need to find a place with an advisor who you get along with and who can push you in the right directions. Whether your personalities match is a very personal question, and people who I get along with may not be people you get along with. My advice is to talk (on skype or phone) with these potential advisors and try and assess your connection. You can usually get a good idea of whether or not you get along from a short conversation.

[afraymi]

Thank you very much for your careful response. I'm gonna make the interviews and get the formal offer. I'm gonna make the decision after getting all the information including the funding package.

[selecttext]

You will have to pay tuition from your stipend at McGill. Your salary will probably be higher than at other schools but that's because it is adjusted to account for international student tuition. Most Canadian universities do not have tuition waivers for PhD students. I don't know it works for the spouse of a graduate student coming to canada, but from what i understand of the reverse circumstance, it is difficult for a spouse to work.

Edited February 9, 2013 by selecttext

[morphoguy]

If your wife's program is also important, you should think about how many universities are in the nearby area that your wife could apply to (and what the likelihood of acceptance is). Just as one example, if you decide to attend Cornell, but your wife is not accepted to the architecture program there, then there are no other universities nearby. By contrast, other schools like Brown or Rutgers might have 3-4 other schools nearby that offer architecture programs. So she could apply to several places and increase the likelihood of acceptance. 

 

Also, do you plan to teach in the US or return to your home country after getting your PhD? Some universities are more well-known in other countries than others. But like fuzzylogician said, whichever school you attend, if your work/research is good, that is more important than the name of the school. 

[morphoguy]

Correction - Syracuse University is near Cornell and has an architecture school (sorry, didn't mean anything against Syracuse). I was just using that as an example of considering what other schools are in the area. 

[afraymi]

Very important point you mentioned MorphoGuy about near universities. I'll certainly consider that. I'm going to teach in US. So i want a program which is more reputed in US. I just looked at placement ranks and found that Johns Hopkins cognitive program has a higher placement rank than others. Thank you very much. It's worth to mention that i have carefully selected these universities and i have high interests in all of them.

Edited February 11, 2013 by afraymi

[afraymi]

My current choices are here in order:

1- Johns Hopkins

2- UChicago

3- Cornell

4- Brown

5- McGill

 

any idea?

[afraymi]

I found the NRC ranking very similar to what i had in my mind about the quality of universities. This ranking is much better than other rankings.

NRC ranking for Linguistics programs in U.S. :

 

http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124741/http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124741/

 

regards.