Planning to apply to PhD programs straight from undergrad

[AspiringLinguist]

Hi, everybody!

 

Background: I am a sophomore studying at a large research ("public ivy") university. I intend on double majoring in anthropology (with a focus on linguistic anthropology) and linguistics. My GPA is pretty high, but--as it stands--I lack experience when it comes to research that is closely connected with linguistics.

 

I'll also note that my university does not have a linguistics department; rather, it has a linguistics program. This means that there are no linguistics PhD's teaching here--and hence, the linguistics major structures itself around a pretty interdisciplinary curriculum, involving a diverse range of fields, such as anthropology and psychology (as well as coursework in specific languages, obviously.) 

 

My Goal: As the title of this thread implies, I want to directly enroll in a doctoral program (MA/PhD) in linguistics after I acquire my undergraduate degree(s.) I have particular interests semantics, syntax, and sociolinguistics. I am fluent in English and German and have basic proficiency in French (I'm actively working on expanding my repertoire of languages.) And I would ultimately like to work in academia (as I'm sure most people who seek doctoral degrees in linguistics do.)

 

The Obstacle: I recognize that gaining entry into graduate programs is difficult. I would be facing competition from people with Master's degrees who have serious research experience, publications, conference presentations, teaching positions, etc. Getting into a doctoral-level program in linguistics--especially a reputable one--is going to be a formidable task. As difficult as this path will be, it is my dream. I have a serious passion for language, and I want to devote the entirety of my academic and professional career to its study. That's why I'm here looking for some guidance from people who know what it takes.   

 

Questions: How do I stay competitive, aside from maintaining a high GPA and doing well on the GRE? Where/when/how should I get experience, given my current academic atmosphere (as I described it above)? How should I start preparing? Any tips/pointers? Thoughts/reflections?

 

(If you think I ought to to clarify some details, let me know and I'll try to elaborate. Feel free to private message me!)

 

Thank you.

[zapster]

Can you demonstrate reasonable research experience - even if it is not closely connected to linguistics - if yes, then that can be a big positive. Identify early on who is best placed to provide you with LORs - ideally at least one professor who can talk about your research experience, even if it is not specifically in linguistics

 

Any chances of an exchange program etc. where you can spend some time at another school which has a strong linguistics program and develop a working relationship with a professor ?

 

Read contemporary research publications in your area of interest - your SOP should be able to demonstrate that although you do not have research experience in linguistics, you are familiar with the latest research in the subtopics that interest you. Without sounding artificial, your SOP language should be able to demonstrate familiarity with the research language unique to the field (does that make sense?).

 

Identify people you may like to work with early on, and write to them asking the same question - there will always be a few professors more than willing to

give you pertinent advise, and you may even build a few correspondent relationships. Ask professors if there is any pro bono research assistantship that you can do on a remote basis. Am not familiar with research in the field of linguistics, but if there is absolutely anything that you can contribute with remotely, it will reflect strongly in your application.

 

Grab hold of visiting linguistic PhDs (if any) and follow up with them shamelessly (!)

[AspiringLinguist]

Thank you for your thoughtful response, zapster. I'll address all of the questions/points you posed:

 

Can you demonstrate reasonable research experience - even if it is not closely connected to linguistics?

 

I can try to do some independent research in linguistic anthropology (maybe ethnographic, if scheduling permits), since I could find advisors in that subject area at my university. Also, I am considering working on research regarding a subtopic of the sociology of language. Is it difficult to get published as an undergraduate? How much research should I aim for before I graduate? 

 

Any chances of an exchange program...?

 

Well, exchange programs here tend to be conducted with international universities. Even though some of these universities have excellent linguistics departments, I would assume that their professors would not be able to get me connections in the United States--since they probably aren't in any close-knit US academic circles. And I don't want to get an international degree.

 

Identify people you may like to work with early on, and write to them asking the same question...

 

How early on? How do I go about contacting them? What would I say?

 

Grab hold of visiting linguistic PhDs (if any) and follow up with them shamelessly

 

My university unfortunately has none of these. *sob*

[zapster]

Is it difficult to get published as an undergraduate?

 

Difficult but certainly not impossible - I would think it also varies a lot by field, but am not familiar with the scene in anthropology, so cant really comment.

My point is that even if you do not publish, but do a particularly good project with say a reputed anthro professor - a strong LOR from him/her talking about your research capabilities can be a huge positive.

 

Exchange programs at international universities

 

Faculty collaborate far more across borders than you might imagine. Study the websites of the top few professors in US that you would be keen to work with - they usually list their collaboration netowrk / associates on their websites - that should give you an idea of whether there are any particular international programs that tend to collaborate more with the US programs. Even otherwise, it is not necessary that the linguistics faculty in the international school be personally known to the US programs - as long as they are of good standing in the field of linguistics and can write you a strong LOR, that is a big positive.

 

How early on? How do I go about contacting them? What would I say?

 

Earlier the better - but after you have done a fair bit of reading viz. their publications / research in their areas and can have a reasonably knowledgeable discussion. Contacting them and then sounding clueless can be very dangerous!

Once you are reasonably confident of your knowledge in their area, email them telling them that you wish to pursue a PhD in XX, in XX years from now, mention your specific interests - highlighting how it overlaps with their specific areas of interest. Tell them you would be keen to work with them in the future, and ask for their advice on what they believe you can do to prepare and strengthen your profile. you can be open and tell them that you are pursuing research opportunities in ling.anthro. at your school, but there are limited opportunities for pure linguistics research, etc. Ask if there are any projects / ideas etc. on which they would consider allowing you to participate remotely or providing any sort of assistance. I agree that the last part is a bit of a long shot frankly, but you never know, and even if you dont actually get to work on something remotely, you will have got (a) a fair bit of useful advice from the profs., and ( a bit of recall in the future when you apply to these profs.

 

Best of Luck!

[AspiringLinguist]

Thank you! Very helpful.

[Phonolog]

As difficult as this path will be, it is my dream. I have a serious passion for language, and I want to devote the entirety of my academic and professional career to its study.

 

As I felt zapster's response was rather complete, I am only going to focus on a small part of your post.

 

First of all, I like that you said that you wish to devote your career to this - make sure that the graduate program in of itself is not the dream. This is a common mistake - many people get into grad school and feel like they have a job. Getting in and getting out in 5-6 years should be your goal to a career. Many people become too comfortable in their PhD candidacy ...

 

Second, who ever you speak to, whether through email, in person, letters of recommendation; never, and I mean never, use the word passion It sounds ... well, I think you know it sounds trite, vague, and empty.

 

Speaking of conferences and pubs and what not, I would not worry a second about publications. But, you are in (I assume) Binghamton, NY which is in the general Northeastern area. You have MANY universities around you which hold student symposiums and things of the like. You have a ton of opportunities to present research in a relatively university-dense geographic area. Take advantage of that. Even simply attending gives you something to talk about and probably  meet the people you will need to know. What is your personality like? Outgoing? Do you speak well? Is your appearance pleasant? These things don't matter once your established but when you're trying to make an impression they do.

 

No PhD lings at your school? Not a drawback - a benefit. It means as an undergrad you can warm up to your profs like a graduate would. My undergrad had not graduate program in linguistics, but the profs were nonetheless established academics who had clout and whose alliances were important. Once again, take advantage of the fact that as an undergraduate you are their priority, in the absence of grad students.

 

Interested in learning languages? Find out schools you would like to go to and find out the first language of some of the professors (often, not English). Learn THAT language, get an extra "in" and personal connection. These profs are people, and most of them enjoy these personal connections.

 

So, I would say grad school acceptance would probably break down as such:

20% demonstrating knowledge of how linguistics works (writing sample)

20% demonstrating how innovative you are (writing sample)

20% grades

20% letters of recommendation

5% personal story/history (if it gets to that point)

5% connections with faculty on the admissions committee

4% personality

4% GRE

2% luck that during initial triage, your application doesn't fall into the hands of someone who doesn't know what they are doing.

 

NB - take advantage of student symposia, professor access, and keep the grades up ... and most of all: READ EVERYTHING YOU EVER POSSIBLY COULD ABOUT LINGUISTICS (cognitive, formal, structural, phonology, phonetics, syntax, semantics, typology, whacky theories, defunct theories, history of theory, applications, learn stats and probability, delve into computation ... make your brain hurt ... if you really have this passion (lol) you'll make it hurt until application day comes)

Edited February 27, 2013 by Phonolog

[AspiringLinguist]

First of all, I like that you said that you wish to devote your career to this - make sure that the graduate program in of itself is not the dream.

 

Yeah. For me, grad school would just be a valuable means to an even more valuable end.

 

[N]ever, and I mean never, use the word passion...

 

Very good call.

 

What is your personality like? Outgoing? Do you speak well? Is your appearance pleasant?

 

I think I would be fine on all fronts.

 

It means as an undergrad you can warm up to your profs like a graduate would.

 

I wish. :\ The reality, though, is that all of the professors here do deal with graduate students in their own fields (since no one works exclusively in linguistics, as I noted before.)

 

Interested in learning languages? Find out schools you would like to go to and find out the first language of some of the professors (often, not English).

 

Good idea.

 

take advantage of student symposia, professor access, and keep the grades up ... and most of all: READ EVERYTHING YOU EVER POSSIBLY COULD ABOUT LINGUISTICS

 

Is there a list of literature somewhere that I should refer to? Any journals you would recommend?

 

---

 

Phonolog, thank you so much for your response. Excellent tips! And moreover, congratulations on your acceptances! (Hopefully I'll be in the position that you're in one day.)

[Phonolog]

First of all, I like that you said that you wish to devote your career to this - make sure that the graduate program in of itself is not the dream.

 

Yeah. For me, grad school would just be a valuable means to an even more valuable end.

 

[N]ever, and I mean never, use the word passion...

 

Very good call.

 

What is your personality like? Outgoing? Do you speak well? Is your appearance pleasant?

 

I think I would be fine on all fronts.

 

It means as an undergrad you can warm up to your profs like a graduate would.

 

I wish. :\ The reality, though, is that all of the professors here do deal with graduate students in their own fields (since no one works exclusively in linguistics, as I noted before.)

 

Interested in learning languages? Find out schools you would like to go to and find out the first language of some of the professors (often, not English).

 

Good idea.

 

take advantage of student symposia, professor access, and keep the grades up ... and most of all: READ EVERYTHING YOU EVER POSSIBLY COULD ABOUT LINGUISTICS

 

Is there a list of literature somewhere that I should refer to? Any journals you would recommend?

 

---

 

Phonolog, thank you so much for your response. Excellent tips! And moreover, congratulations on your acceptances! (Hopefully I'll be in the position that you're in one day.)

Well, as I said, read everything. One of the first things you can do is read cover to cover (browse, if you must) all of those "Handbook of ..." (syntax, phonology) ... there's the Oxford handbooks, the Blackwell handbooks and companions, etc. The more up-to-date, the better, however some of the ones published in the 90's can contain truly important articles. Then you move on to their bibliographies. Then you get a list of all the things you find fascinating and you Google Scholar them and check for how many citations there are. Read articles that are cited alot (in phonology, I say this is 150+ plus ... syntax might be higher). Make sure you keep lists of "buzzwords" that will generate important articles. For me, this means finding buzzwords (just examples) like: "obligatory contour principle" "underspecification phonology" "harmonic grammar" "learning algorithms linguistics" ...  read through your LinguistList announcements for buzzwords (you should be subscribed to all of the mailing lists and announcements there that interest you). Here's a partial list of general buzz words (far from exhaustive) you might want to type into Google Scholar:

 

"minimalist syntax"

"government and binding"

"syntax interface"

"semantics interface"

"interface in linguistics"

"architecture of grammar"

"underspecification in linguistics"

"generative linguistics"

"derivational linguistics"

"non derivational linguistics"

"syntagmatic paradigmatic"

"langue et parole"

"structuralist linguistics"

"Prague school linguistics"

"optimality theory"

 

... it goes on and on. Find more, out of the above resources, that fit you - if you're more into socio or pragmatics, there's alot that I don't know "focus marking" "theories of focus" "code switching" come to mind. To not waste inordinate amounts of time ... look at citation amounts. Make sure you read anything that gets into the 800+ citation range - it's important and everyone has read it. Check out your schools and see what those profs wrote. It might be minor, but check their bibliographies for more important articles. Repeat: reading THEIR article won't suffice as you'll have to understand the bigger issues which they have referenced. If this is going to be your career ... get ready to read alot. Even better, these articles should be inspiring you. Start writing squibs about your ideas and come back to them later. My masters thesis was written based on an idea I had reading an article in my second year of undergrad that I kinda just wen't out on a limb on. This is also the way I wrote papers that I presented at conferences and submitted to journals.

 

And I repeat, above all, those so many important parts of your app. I received not only good admits, but my rejections were pretty much all accompanied by a personal email, which is very rare. But they wanted to be precise that I was an excellent candidate but here are the red flags that kept me out of some great programs and you should really keep in mind:

I had a 3.45 GPA. Do your best to stay 3.6 +

I have a bad habit of signing up for overloads in credit hours ... 18 instead of 12. Then I drop two or three around mid-semester when I get overwhelemed. Keep the "abandoned" or "withdraws" off your record.

 

Some things people might now know but they should:

Send in ALOT of writing. You can never send in too much. Especially if they are all on very different topics. Linguistics admit committees don't mind getting too many writing samples.

Linguistics people are generally very down to earth. Network - people will take you seriously even if you're a freshman in college, as long as you know what you're talking about.

Everything that admit committees expect you to know about linguistics you learned in your first year of your major program - EXCEPT for the/those subfields which interest you, in which case you should be as versed as a first-year graduate (at least).

[AspiringLinguist]

Superb advice! Thank you again, Phonolog.

 

I'm going to do readings on classical theory (e.g., De Saussure) to reinforce my knowledge of broad concepts... and then work my way up toward contemporary linguistics--trending articles and ongoing discussions. Hopefully, through auto-didactism, I'll be able to comfortably speak at an academic level with scholars in the field. (Also, Google Scholar is an excellent resource; I can't believe I overlooked it.)

 

 

I had a 3.45 GPA. Do your best to stay 3.6 +

 

I think my GPA will be 3.6+, so that seems like a non-issue, luckily.

 

 

Linguistics people are generally very down to earth. Network - people will take you seriously even if you're a freshman in college, as long as you know what you're talking about.

 

I'll try. Maybe I'll email some professors... Hell, maybe I'll go to a symposium. I just need to make sure that I am confident enough with my knowledge of the field to approach these people.