FALL 2015 APPLICATONS

[JD - (0)]

Hi Everyone,

 

I know it is a bit early in the cycle, but it's never to early to start thinking about what are you doing, what you are going to do. specially for grad schools. 

So, What schools are you planning on applying to? MA or PhD? What have you done, or are you doing to help in your acceptance? and what fellowship are you applying to?

 

This topic is for all general or specific application and/or fellowship questions and answers here!

The future started yesterday. 

[Garyon]

Ok, I guess I'm gonna start.

 

Hi everyone! I'm Italian and I will (obviously, since i'm writing this post   ) apply for a Ph.D. in Linguistics next year (wow!).

 

I'm interested in theoretical syntax, formal models of language, (first) language acquisition, and neurobiological foundations of language.

 

Currently, I'm getting ready for my TOEFL and GRE and I've just started working on my SOP. I'm also looking at faculty's research in order to decide which programs would be most interesting for me.

 

So far, also following my Italian advisor suggestion, I think i'll apply to:

 

Yale

Stony Brook

NYU

MIT

 

(yeah I know, top-universities. But I'm in love with their Faculty and programs and research!)

 

An US Professor I've been writing to told me to give a look at:

 

UCLA
University of Chicago
University of Delaware 
Johns Hopins 
University of Pennsylvania 
University of Maryland 
University of Massachusetts at Amherst 

CUNY
 

But I couldn't find the time yet.

And...well this is it. 

 

Oh yeah, I'm also trying NOT to freak out already 

[JD - (0)]

Hello Garyon, thanks for starting. looks like you have are already thinking a head, that is good. And you will enjoy being Stateside as well, though you will most likely miss the food. 

Your professors/advisors have provided you with good information. which one of those will you apply for?

[tspier2]

Ok, I guess I'm gonna start.

 

Hi everyone! I'm Italian and I will (obviously, since i'm writing this post   ) apply for a Ph.D. in Linguistics next year (wow!).

 

I'm interested in theoretical syntax, formal models of language, (first) language acquisition, and neurobiological foundations of language.

 

Currently, I'm getting ready for my TOEFL and GRE and I've just started working on my SOP. I'm also looking at faculty's research in order to decide which programs would be most interesting for me.

 

So far, also following my Italian advisor suggestion, I think i'll apply to:

 

Yale

Stony Brook

NYU

MIT

 

(yeah I know, top-universities. But I'm in love with their Faculty and programs and research!)

 

An US Professor I've been writing to told me to give a look at:

 

UCLA

University of Chicago

University of Delaware 

Johns Hopins 

University of Pennsylvania 

University of Maryland 

University of Massachusetts at Amherst 

CUNY

 

But I couldn't find the time yet.

And...well this is it. 

 

Oh yeah, I'm also trying NOT to freak out already 

 

I'm sure you'll do well on your TOEFL. Nevertheless, feel free to PM me with your SOP if you'd like some feedback from me (native speaker, certified English teacher, starting Ph.D in Linguistics this fall). Good luck!

[Garyon]

@JD - (0) The first four i listed (Yale, Stony B, NYY, MIT n this order) are my top choices, so i'll definitely apply to them. As for others, I have a couple more in mind from the other list but I'm planning to spend some time in August looking in depth at their faculty/research. Any suggestion, insight, information, consideration is very very very well accepted

 

@tspier2 Thank you! You are very kind! I think I'll exploit your kindness. Well, as soon as the random notes I've collected so far become something resembling a meaningful SOP. Good Luck to You too for the beginning of  your Ph.D.

[JD - (0)]

Have you worked or do you plan to, on any project between now, and your applications? what did you focus on in your previous degree?

 

Let us know if how we can help you in your apps, if you need any. 

[Cee_Z]

Hi! This is my first post here in this forum.

I'm Cee from Thailand. I will definitely apply for a Ph.D. program in Linguistics or Apply Linguistics for Fall 2015. I have to get accepted this round, or else my work contract will not be extended (which means I will get fired!) T_T

I conducted an Interlanguage Pragmatics in my MA, and I had a lot of fun doing it. So, I plan to continue working on this topic. The universities presented below are chosen based on their professors who share the same interest with me.

1. Indiana

2. Hawaii

3. Florida

4. UIUC

5. Arizona

6. Northern Arizona

7. Iowa

8. Wisconsin

9. Penn State

10. Georgia State

Actually, my list is longer than this because I am not sure if I will be accepted or not. And as I said, I have only one last chance to apply.

In terms of preparation, I've got TOEFL102ibt. I know my score is just acceptable, and still considerably low. I plan to retake it once I manage to take GRE and finish preparing other documents.

I won't apply for any funds there as the university I am working for will support everything for me. And I want to focus on my study to get the degree within 5 years.

Oh, btw, nice to meet you all!

[JD - (0)]

Hi! This is my first post here in this forum.

I'm Cee from Thailand. I will definitely apply for a Ph.D. program in Linguistics or Apply Linguistics for Fall 2015. I have to get accepted this round, or else my work contract will not be extended (which means I will get fired!) T_T

I conducted an Interlanguage Pragmatics in my MA, and I had a lot of fun doing it. So, I plan to continue working on this topic. The universities presented below are chosen based on their professors who share the same interest with me.

1. Indiana

2. Hawaii

3. Florida

4. UIUC

5. Arizona

6. Northern Arizona

7. Iowa

8. Wisconsin

9. Penn State

10. Georgia State

Actually, my list is longer than this because I am not sure if I will be accepted or not. And as I said, I have only one last chance to apply.

In terms of preparation, I've got TOEFL102ibt. I know my score is just acceptable, and still considerably low. I plan to retake it once I manage to take GRE and finish preparing other documents.

I won't apply for any funds there as the university I am working for will support everything for me. And I want to focus on my study to get the degree within 5 years.

Oh, btw, nice to meet you all!

 

Nice to meet you too Cee. how is it going?

 

You have a nice list of school there for interlanguage pragmatics. 

 

First off, congrats. and I personally like that field, though it is not my specialty. Second, since you already have funding, which you will mention in your application, it will help to ease the process of getting in since the school you are applying to will not have to fund you.

 

Are these universities also based your choice priority?

 

Best of luck, and this forum is here to help.

[Cee_Z]

Nice to meet you too Cee. how is it going?

 

You have a nice list of school there for interlanguage pragmatics. 

 

First off, congrats. and I personally like that field, though it is not my specialty. Second, since you already have funding, which you will mention in your application, it will help to ease the process of getting in since the school you are applying to will not have to fund you.

 

Are these universities also based your choice priority?

 

Best of luck, and this forum is here to help.

Thanks a lot for your support, JD. The first two schools are my top choices. I don't know much about the universities there, so I rely my decision on the professors. Any suggestions on other schools I might be able to get in?

Btw, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself? Where do you study/plan to study? And in which area?

[JD - (0)]

Thanks a lot for your support, JD. The first two schools are my top choices. I don't know much about the universities there, so I rely my decision on the professors. Any suggestions on other schools I might be able to get in?

Btw, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself? Where do you study/plan to study? And in which area?

 

 

I know the first three are really good schools for pragmatic studies. I was accepted to two of them, Indiana, and UF for masters to Ph.D program. I will be attending UF starting this fall studying applied Linguistics focusing on Language Documentation and Computational Linguistics. I am currently working on a lexicographical project, which includes (1) a monolingual dictionary in agriculture and environmental sciences, and (2) an online corpus, which I am currently in the process of building, and can be found at kokray.org. The continuation of this project will be my Ph.D research and project. 

 

For UF, I know Mrs Boxer is well know in the pragmatics field, and she is awesome to work with. 

 

Which schools did you apply to last cycle?

 

You may also be interested in these schools

 

Northwestern U

Oklahoma State U

Western Washington U

U of Michigan

U of Colorado

Edited July 14, 2014 by JD - (0)

[wuglife427]

Hi everyone!

 

Posting here is bringing back a lot of memories of College Confidential forums...I still have trouble believing I'm already applying to PhD programs! I'm looking to pursue theoretical syntax, with a particular focus on Slavic languages. I'm also interested in field work with minority languages, so depending on where I end up I may branch out into morphosyntax of languages of the Caucasus or Siberia/Far East of Russia. In terms of specific research interests, right now I'm getting really into case theory and concord, and my senior honors thesis will be focused on that. I'm also into certain aspects of psycholinguistics, particularly how we can use experimental techniques to inform syntactic theory.

 

After a lot of research and several meetings with my advisor, I've come up with the following schools:

UC Santa Cruz

MIT

UMass Amherst

Chicago

UConn

NYU

UMD

Stanford

UC Berkeley

SBU

 

I'm pretty intimidated by all of those schools, and I'm still looking for the best balance of optimism/confidence and avoiding eventual disappointment

 

I really appreciate you getting this thread going! This process is so crazy, and I'm sure it will only get more stressful when the school year gets going...it'll be helpful to be in touch with people going through the same thing  

[inertia]

Hi everyone!

 

Posting here is bringing back a lot of memories of College Confidential forums...I still have trouble believing I'm already applying to PhD programs! I'm looking to pursue theoretical syntax, with a particular focus on Slavic languages. I'm also interested in field work with minority languages, so depending on where I end up I may branch out into morphosyntax of languages of the Caucasus or Siberia/Far East of Russia. In terms of specific research interests, right now I'm getting really into case theory and concord, and my senior honors thesis will be focused on that. I'm also into certain aspects of psycholinguistics, particularly how we can use experimental techniques to inform syntactic theory.

 

Consider applying to Harvard if you're interested in fieldwork, languages of the Caucasus, and using experimental techniques to inform syntactic theory!

[YoungR3b3l]

Ok, I guess I'm gonna start.

 

Hi everyone! I'm Italian and I will (obviously, since i'm writing this post   ) apply for a Ph.D. in Linguistics next year (wow!).

 

I'm interested in theoretical syntax, formal models of language, (first) language acquisition, and neurobiological foundations of language.

 

Currently, I'm getting ready for my TOEFL and GRE and I've just started working on my SOP. I'm also looking at faculty's research in order to decide which programs would be most interesting for me.

 

So far, also following my Italian advisor suggestion, I think i'll apply to:

 

Yale

Stony Brook

NYU

MIT

 

(yeah I know, top-universities. But I'm in love with their Faculty and programs and research!)

 

An US Professor I've been writing to told me to give a look at:

 

UCLAUniversity of ChicagoUniversity of Delaware Johns Hopins University of Pennsylvania University of Maryland University of Massachusetts at Amherst 

CUNY

 

But I couldn't find the time yet.

And...well this is it. 

 

Oh yeah, I'm also trying NOT to freak out already 

If you scored less than 100 in TOEFL and less than 315 combined score in GRE and your GPA is less than 3.60 dont waste your time and effort to apply to Yale MIT Harvard Stanford. I know they make us drool and sound flashy but I think you dont want to start your new year with "Sorry to inform you" e-mail letters.

Best of luck, Campione!

[YoungR3b3l]

Hi everyone!

 

Posting here is bringing back a lot of memories of College Confidential forums...I still have trouble believing I'm already applying to PhD programs! I'm looking to pursue theoretical syntax, with a particular focus on Slavic languages. I'm also interested in field work with minority languages, so depending on where I end up I may branch out into morphosyntax of languages of the Caucasus or Siberia/Far East of Russia. In terms of specific research interests, right now I'm getting really into case theory and concord, and my senior honors thesis will be focused on that. I'm also into certain aspects of psycholinguistics, particularly how we can use experimental techniques to inform syntactic theory.

 

After a lot of research and several meetings with my advisor, I've come up with the following schools:

UC Santa Cruz

MIT

UMass Amherst

Chicago

UConn

NYU

UMD

Stanford

UC Berkeley

SBU

 

I'm pretty intimidated by all of those schools, and I'm still looking for the best balance of optimism/confidence and avoiding eventual disappointment

 

I really appreciate you getting this thread going! This process is so crazy, and I'm sure it will only get more stressful when the school year gets going...it'll be helpful to be in touch with people going through the same thing

Uconn, umass, uc santa cruz are very average unis dont worry.

[wuglife427]

Uconn, umass, uc santa cruz are very average unis dont worry.

Actually, UMass and Santa Cruz are considered to be in the top three of theoretical linguistics programs (along with MIT). In addition to having fabulous syntacticians, they do an excellent job of teaching you how to teach, making their grads highly sought after. They have recent grads teaching at Stanford, Yale, Brown, Georgetown, and lots of other top schools. I was shocked when I realized getting into Santa Cruz could be harder than schools most people consider top-notch; this is a very specific field, so you have to look at the program itself vs. its composite strength as an institution for undergraduates.

 

Consider applying to Harvard if you're interested in fieldwork, languages of the Caucasus, and using experimental techniques to inform syntactic theory!

Argh ok Harvard is on my list...I copied and pasted the list from my spreadsheet, and it might have gotten deleted while I was working out the formatting issues. But thank you for suggesting it!!

Edited August 10, 2014 by wuglife427

[tspier2]

Actually, UMass and Santa Cruz are considered to be in the top three of theoretical linguistics programs (along with MIT). 

 

There are so many lists for ranking schools out there that this comment just makes me shake my head. Look at RU/VH schools and focus on your fit instead of strictly ranking.

[wuglife427]

There are so many lists for ranking schools out there that this comment just makes me shake my head. Look at RU/VH schools and focus on your fit instead of strictly ranking.

My point wasn't that I was applying only to tippy-top-ranked schools; it was that YoungR3b3l's assertion that they were "average" was simply incorrect. As I said, I put in many hours of research and talked to someone who is very knowledgeable about her field and the people working therein. I will say that reputation and placement record is an important factor to consider, given that professor positions are hard to come by and I do want a paying job after I get my degree. In any case, I've made a spreadsheet listing potential advisors at each of these institutions, and I've knocked off any schools--no matter how highly ranked--that didn't have what I was looking for or that put too strong an emphasis on facets of linguistics that don't interest me. Trust me, I'm putting quite a lot of thought into this decision, not just culling the ranking lists.

[fuzzylogician]

There are so many lists for ranking schools out there that this comment just makes me shake my head. Look at RU/VH schools and focus on your fit instead of strictly ranking.

I think wuglife's list seems very much appropriate for their stated interests (and assuming the list is pretty much ordered by fit, that seems quite accurate, too).

[tspier2]

I think wuglife's list seems very much appropriate for their stated interests (and assuming the list is pretty much ordered by fit, that seems quite accurate, too).

 

I agree. My point is that there are so many lists out there that rank schools that the ranking itself should not be the primary consideration, which is the way the comment about UMass and Santa Cruz reads.

 

 

My point wasn't that I was applying only to tippy-top-ranked schools; it was that YoungR3b3l's assertion that they were "average" was simply incorrect. As I said, I put in many hours of research and talked to someone who is very knowledgeable about her field and the people working therein. I will say that reputation and placement record is an important factor to consider, given that professor positions are hard to come by and I do want a paying job after I get my degree. In any case, I've made a spreadsheet listing potential advisors at each of these institutions, and I've knocked off any schools--no matter how highly ranked--that didn't have what I was looking for or that put too strong an emphasis on facets of linguistics that don't interest me. Trust me, I'm putting quite a lot of thought into this decision, not just culling the ranking lists.

 

I understand now what you're saying. The tone just sounded a little bit reactionary to me, which is why I felt compelled to respond. It sounds like you're on the right path.

Edited August 10, 2014 by tspier2

[funchaku]

My point wasn't that I was applying only to tippy-top-ranked schools; it was that YoungR3b3l's assertion that they were "average" was simply incorrect. As I said, I put in many hours of research and talked to someone who is very knowledgeable about her field and the people working therein. I will say that reputation and placement record is an important factor to consider, given that professor positions are hard to come by and I do want a paying job after I get my degree. In any case, I've made a spreadsheet listing potential advisors at each of these institutions, and I've knocked off any schools--no matter how highly ranked--that didn't have what I was looking for or that put too strong an emphasis on facets of linguistics that don't interest me. Trust me, I'm putting quite a lot of thought into this decision, not just culling the ranking lists.

 

You seem to have put a lot of thought into this, and your list seems pretty comprehensive. The only other one I might (tentatively) add is Rutgers. In my opinion, you absolutely should apply to the top schools that fit your research interests. There are more qualified candidates than jobs in linguistics, and the school's reputation and placement rates matter. I also don't think  that terms like "safety school" makes that much sense for PhD applications. I was rejected from a school that is lower-ranked, simply because it was obvious my interests weren't that great of a match. 

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

Uconn, umass, uc santa cruz are very average unis dont worry.

 

UMass has one of the best linguistics programs in the world.

 

In addition to having fabulous syntacticians, they do an excellent job of teaching you how to teach, making their grads highly sought after.

 

I can corroborate this. I know a couple syntacticians at UMass and they're really incredible.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Chiki

[Scarecrow24]

So, I'm a little nervous because this will be my third round of PhD apps (first time was to just 4 socioling programs straight out of undergrad, second was last year to 7 socioling after finishing my MA). I feel like I'm a much stronger candidate since last time because not only do I have my master's (from NYU in Spanish linguistics), but I just completed a research fellowship in Greece and Turkey and have a bit more experience under my belt. Somebody recommended branching out to ling anthro since they tend to have more funding, so I'm going to give that a shot. My undergrad GPA was a 3.65 grad 3.81 and GRE (old test) was V650 (93%) Q630 (40% ugh) and 5 on the essay (92%).

My primary research interests are on language and identity, language/dialect ideologies and Spanish/Greek dialectology. My MA thesis was on the diminutive in Spanish as an index of gender in Castilian Spanish.

Sociolinguistics:
Chicago (unsuccessfully applied last year)

Pitt

Washington

UI Urbana-Champaign

 

Linguistic Anthropology:

Arizona

UCLA

USC

UT Austin

Virgina
 

 

In the past I've applied to Stanford, UPENN, UC Berkeley, Ohio State, Georgetown (x2), NYU (x2), CUNY, Michigan and Chicago and not sure if it's worth reapplying. 

Sorry for the long post, but I am in knots. Any advice?

[xolo]

Scarecrow, you sound like you have all the bases covered. I think you just need to pull it all together with your SOP, writing sample, letters of recommendation. Are you a Spanish or Greek speaker? Sorry, I don't know what Spanish Linguistics is, maybe that is something in the linguistics department that doesn't involve knowing the language?

[beccamayworth]

Scarecrow, have you reached out to POIs in those schools? 

 

Also, I'm not sure about this because socio/ling anth is definitely not my area, but I was under the impression that Ling Anthropology requires students to do field work... do you have any experience with that, or any plans to do so?

[JD - (0)]

I could be wrong, but when applying for PhD, your fit with what the school offers is one of the most important aspect to be considered. If you have made so far, and want to continue into a PhD program, it is 'safe' to assume you did not do it by chance, or by some kind of miracle, you actually worked for it. Therefore, the expectation is that whichever school you are accepted into, you will work just as hard to earn that PhD. Thus if the school that matches what you are looking for is a top school, upon acceptance, you will be expected to earn it. Though acceptance may have to do with their quotas, in which case, you may not provide enough proof that you can perform better than other applicants who match the school interest, that may affect your chances of getting in. But as Caffeinated stated, applying for safety schools is not really sound. 

 

I am studying Language Documentation, with a focus on Lexicography of Haitan Creole. This combination was impossible, and only two schools came close, and I was accepted to both of them, and I only applied to three (Third one, in which I did not get accepted was my safety school).

 

I am sure you will have many acceptances and you will do great in whichever you decide to go. 

 

Best