Wondering about prospects for a non-terrible PhD

[Tairy]

Pardon me if this is frowned upon, but I'm just sort of scraping around at this point. While I realize there is essential information such as writing sample quality and GRE scores that I can't give / don't have yet, I'm curious about your opinion if there is any grad school possibility with the following background:

 

Pros (or at least not cons):

 

Linguistics BA, from an average American university.

Large background of linguistic coursework, with perfect grades.

Experience as an undergraduate researcher (not culminating in anything but a poster presentation, however).

A year of fieldwork experience, though in a class setting.

One talk at a local undergraduate conference.

President of my university's linguistics student group.

Specific research goals in mind, pertaining to my experience and language background, which I am capable of articulating.

(Don't know if it is at all relevant, but a TESL certification as well.)

 

Con:

 

3.6 Cumulative due to mediocre early years.

 

I am of course asking real-life people about these things, but more opinions never hurts. I have only recently seriously considered the possibility of further schooling and am just getting a sense of the territory. (Which seems competitive, but I'd take what I can get, if there is anything I might get.) I understand the impoverished and impersonal nature of this information, but would be happy for any comments or advice.

[hoviariel]

GPA is meaningless as long as its above the cutoff point for most grad programs, like above 3.0. The GRE aren't that important but likewise something of a cutoff point, so try your best to be like 80-90% or above.

What matters most is suitable research interest, good writing/research skills, and your undergrad professors liking you.

[cotterw]

I agree with hovariel. GPA isn't crucial, but having a high one is helpful. GRE only seems important in the sense that it's used as a cutoff metric. That being said, my quantitative percentile was in the 30s, so ridiculously low and I got accepted to a couple of PhD programs so low test scores also shouldn't be a total deterrent. 

 

Most important definitely seems to be solid writing/researching abilities, good letters of reference, and fit with prospective programs. Obviously nothing is all inclusive and it's never all perfect though. 

[beccamayworth]

There's nothing about your background that would prevent you from going to a GREAT PhD program. The last point, in particular, is most important:

 

 

Specific research goals in mind, pertaining to my experience and language background, which I am capable of articulating.

 

 

It would help if you could get more research experience from now and the time you apply (maybe volunteer at a lab?) 

 

Also, you didn't mention letters of rec... will you be able to get good ones, from Profs that know you well? 

 

Hope that helps

[fuzzylogician]

A 3.6 GPA along with a decent GRE score should get you past any cutoffs, if any exist. A 3.6 is not actually that low and if it's from early years and not the major, it's even less of a problem. Now that that's behind us, the real question will be what the other parts of your application will look like. The fact that you can articulate clear research interests will be a very big plus when it comes time to choosing schools that are a good fit, and then expressing that in a SOP, so that's good news. I assume that you could get a strong LOR from the professor whose research assistant you were, and from whomever you worked with on the material that led to your talk. I also assume that you're fairly visible and known to the faculty, since you're the president of the linguistics club (hurray!), so I imagine that you shouldn't have a problem getting a good third LOR. The final important question is what your writing sample will look like; since you have a lot of time to prepare, you can hopefully come up with something good. I know that LORs and writing samples are a very important in the process at my school, and I'm sure it's similarly important at other ones. So, if you play your cards right, I think you should have a good chance of getting into a good program next year.

[Tairy]

Hi, belated thanks for your feedback. I've felt moderately confident, provided that I manage to get an acceptable GRE score, but I've noticed something else. I've been browsing the websites of a lot of graduate students of schools I've been considering (which aren't all necessarily even tippy-top places), and the results are fairly intimidating.

 

It seems in general, half or more grad students have some form of website with their CV on it. Of that set, it seems that  >80% were perfect-grades honors people before starting their PhD. Those that weren't, often were double majors, or have an MA. I am not one of these people. My performance -in linguistics- is basically spotless, but the first half of my record, primarily consisting of random required courses, is nothing amazing.

 

In addition to that, I do have one F on my transcript, from a silly gen-ed course that I was totally unprepared for. I re-took it later and got an A, but I wonder whether or not this is a serious issue. Should I address this in my statements? While I feel that it is clear from my record that I am currently performing well and not a dumbass, the competition seems stiff enough that I have no confidence that I can compete.

 

It could of course be that there are more non-perfect individuals among the fairly substantial set of students that don't have CVs posted online. But, I don't know either way. Regardless, I'm pretty disheartened looking at the competition.