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Posted

Looks like somebody got into Yale today, the last place I've yet to hear from. I wouldn't attend regardless, but I want to know the result anyway!

Posted

I only applied to MA programs rather than Ph. D. since my BA wasn't in linguistics and my GPA was fairly middling due to some issues from a lack of maturity and depression early in my college experience; I get to look forward to doing it all again in a year or two if I decide to finish out the doctorate.

I didn't do my undergrad in linguistics either, so right now I'm doing my MA in linguistics (and planning to go on to PhD, obviously). There are things I wish I knew earlier in terms of applying to PhD programs, but one and a half years of studying linguistics was not a very long time for me to figure out my research interests and whatnot, so I'm actually extremely happy and thankful about how things turned out. I owe so much to my professors for their support and guidance.

 

I think choosing schools to apply to was fun, and of course getting accepted and visiting are both great. It's just the stuff in the middle that's less fun, as you probably know from your own experience. :P  

Posted

My sig. other applied to NYU's Cognition and Perception Doctoral Program, which technically falls under Psychology but SO's focus is on cognitive neuro mixed with linguistics. POI is in the dept. of linguistics.  Has anyone out there heard back from this program?

Posted

Woo, I got my first official rejection today! :D 

 

 

 

My sig. other applied to NYU's Cognition and Perception Doctoral Program, which technically falls under Psychology but SO's focus is on cognitive neuro mixed with linguistics. POI is in the dept. of linguistics.  Has anyone out there heard back from this program?

 

I applied there as well! I probably applied to work with the same person as they did. I haven't heard anything back yet, but they did have a second open house date that was just on Feb 20th, so I would give it time.

Posted

I didn't do my undergrad in linguistics either, so right now I'm doing my MA in linguistics (and planning to go on to PhD, obviously). There are things I wish I knew earlier in terms of applying to PhD programs, but one and a half years of studying linguistics was not a very long time for me to figure out my research interests and whatnot, so I'm actually extremely happy and thankful about how things turned out. I owe so much to my professors for their support and guidance.

 

I think choosing schools to apply to was fun, and of course getting accepted and visiting are both great. It's just the stuff in the middle that's less fun, as you probably know from your own experience. :P

Good to know there are people successfully making that transition.

Anyway, I just found out I accepted to Indiana. I'm so excited.

Posted

I don't think there's any one set way of going about things. I knew from my sophomore year of undergrad that I wanted to pursue doctoral studies in sociolinguistics. Language and identity has always been my main interest. After graduating my BA (double majored in linguistics and Spanish linguistics with a minor in Modern Greek from Rutgers), I applied to only 4 PhD programs with very little knowledge of how I wanted to approach research. I was rejected from each.

I worked for a few years, ultimately getting teaching experience as a substitute teacher until I found a niche in editing for a small publishing company. On a whim, I applied to a one-year MA in Spanish linguistics with NYU in Madrid and got my master's that way. I applied to 7 PhD programs the year after, now with a legitimate writing sample and a focus on what I want to study and was rejected from each. Did not let that deter me, however. I got a research fellowship in Greece and Turkey and presented on a paper I wrote and here I am applying to even more schools and finally have found some acceptances.

In short, never give up hope. There are many roads to Paradise.  

Posted

Just to contribute with my story: I have a BS in Computer Science and a MS in Comp. Science and Engineering and almost no "official" linguistics courses in my cv. While pursuing my master's I found out this awesome thing called Linguistics. So I approached  Comp. Ling. just to find out I was actually more in love with the study of Language and its properties than with ways to make computers work with languages.

And here I am, a year or so of self-taught linguistics behind me :)  Sacrecrow is right, there are so many ways into linguistics.

 

Also guys, there is something I wanted to ask those of you who have already attended post-acceptance open houses.

Next week I'm headed to Stony Brook for the open house. This may sound silly but... what should I wear? Do you think jeans, a long-sleeve shirt and a sweater would be fine?

Posted

The thing I love about linguistics is that people come to it from a wide variety of backgrounds, and graduate programs recognize that. I think it's actually on some program's site, but I saw that several years ago rather than during this application cycle, so I forgot where I saw this now.

 

In my undergrad I studied neuroscience and philosophy, but I didn't like either field enough to want to go into depth about any topics in those. I was into something in-between, like history and philosophy of science, which I tried to apply for PhD programs in but failed (got into an unfunded MA). I realized that was a rather obscure field anyway. I had some interests in languages but only learned what linguistics was before my senior year (through a summer language program where I met linguistics people), so I didn't want to change fields at that point. I knew I was always into languages though. I just went into undergrad feeling pressured to go into the "hard sciences", but then that also changed when I fell in love with philosophy and wanted to do that as well.

 

I graduated without any clear plans, so I decided to jump into linguistics. I took one linguistics class while applying for MA programs. I had no idea what my chances were, really, but I felt that my academic background was relevant enough, plus I had research experience in a variety of settings, basically stuff from neurobiology to psychology to philosophy. Got into 5 schools (four of which have both MA and PhD programs), and 2 even offered me full funding + TAship for linguistics classes... like, you know, even though I've only taken intro to linguistics at that point. I think I learned a lot through having to lead discussions too. I never told any of my students about how much background in linguistics I had, lol.

Posted (edited)

Next week I'm headed to Stony Brook for the open house. This may sound silly but... what should I wear? Do you think jeans, a long-sleeve shirt and a sweater would be fine?

 

Sure, that would be fine. Our field doesn't strike me as particularly formal when it comes to outfits (although, of course, people have their individual preferences). In any event, be sure to dress warmly above all, spring hasn't reached the state of New York yet =)

Edited by onzeheures30
Posted

Thanks onze!

I'll dress as warmly as I can! It's still pretty cold also here in Italy.

Posted

Thanks onze!

I'll dress as warmly as I can! It's still pretty cold also here in Italy.

 

Yeah, dress warmer than that. I'm in Europe right now and I keep thinking to myself "man, it's warm here!" It's just above freezing, which I used to think was very cold. But I don't anymore. Don't forget the scarf, hat, gloves. But yeah, once indoors, a dress jeans with a nice shirt+sweater will work. Things don't get too formal in linguistics, normally. 

Posted

Thanks onze!

I'll dress as warmly as I can! It's still pretty cold also here in Italy.

I was just in NYC/Long Island and they're getting a big snow storm today (like so big my flight was rebooked two different times and then just canceled for the day), so maybe bring so snow boots as well! I am coming from Europe too and the northeast has been quite a shock weather-wise.

Enjoy Stony Brook! I was just there and every single person I met was so so so lovely and kind.

Posted

Does anybody know anything about Yale? I see that one person has been accepted there... but do they generally send all their admission offers at the same day? Should I assume I'm not in if I haven't heard anything from them yet? It has been ten days since their open house...

Posted

I've been told that Yale admits like 3 people per year, so it's totally possible that only one of those three-ish uses this forum but that everyone has already been chosen. And I've gathered that if you see people being admitted to a program you aren't hearing anything from, it's basically never a good sign.

Posted

Thank you all guys! I'll dress as warm as I can (I think I'll go buy a pair of gloves  :rolleyes: )

 

Enjoy Stony Brook! I was just there and every single person I met was so so so lovely and kind.

 

Oh wow! Great Thanks! I can't wait to visit! And I'm quite nervous too, even thought it is a post-acceptance visit I really want to make a good first impression.

Posted

Ahhh! Finally got into Pitt! Has been my top choice since emailing my POI back in October! So excited! Open house is in a couple weeks and I'm all over the place this month and this process has been so difficult and I can't stop crying and laughing at the same time.

 

Sorry I'll stop babbling now.

Posted

Ahhh! Finally got into Pitt! Has been my top choice since emailing my POI back in October! So excited! Open house is in a couple weeks and I'm all over the place this month and this process has been so difficult and I can't stop crying and laughing at the same time.

Sorry I'll stop babbling now.

Congatulations!!

Posted

Ahhh! Finally got into Pitt! Has been my top choice since emailing my POI back in October! So excited! Open house is in a couple weeks and I'm all over the place this month and this process has been so difficult and I can't stop crying and laughing at the same time.

 

Sorry I'll stop babbling now.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted

Ahhh! Finally got into Pitt! Has been my top choice since emailing my POI back in October! So excited! Open house is in a couple weeks and I'm all over the place this month and this process has been so difficult and I can't stop crying and laughing at the same time.

 

Sorry I'll stop babbling now.

That is wonderful! So happy for you! Congrats!!  :D

Posted

Thank you all so much! While it's my top choice, there's still so much to consider. I don't know how this decision making process is going to be for all of us. 

Posted

Ahhh! Finally got into Pitt! Has been my top choice since emailing my POI back in October! So excited! Open house is in a couple weeks and I'm all over the place this month and this process has been so difficult and I can't stop crying and laughing at the same time.

 

Sorry I'll stop babbling now.

 

Congratulations!

 

I got email yesterday and I couldn't make it to UIUC! So sad but I think it's may be a blessing in disguise!

 

Still waiting for more news to come! Wish it's a good one,, :)

Posted

Ahhh! Finally got into Pitt! Has been my top choice since emailing my POI back in October! So excited! Open house is in a couple weeks and I'm all over the place this month and this process has been so difficult and I can't stop crying and laughing at the same time.

 

Sorry I'll stop babbling now.

 

Congratulations!

 

No open house for me. One of my acceptance letters mentioned international student orientation -- strange, because I'm not an international student. :)

Posted

Thank you all so much! While it's my top choice, there's still so much to consider. I don't know how this decision making process is going to be for all of us. 

Congrats! Your story has been really inspiring. 

Posted

Hello everyone!

 

This is my first post here. Last night I got my first acceptance from Rutgers! It was totally unexpected and exciting because I knew they started sending admissions a while ago.

 

Now I'm just waiting the result of Maryland. I'm almost sure it's a rejection since I didn't hear a word from them after submitting the application... Anyway, Rutgers is already one of my top choices, so yay! :)

Posted

Congrats! Your story has been really inspiring. 

 

Thank you so much. It hasn't been an easy journey, but I've definitely learned that everything happens for a reason, and usually for the best. I've learned a lot about myself as an individual and researcher and think that very few decisions have worked out poorly. As they say, "the only failure is when you don't learn from your mistakes."

Best of luck with your Spanish linguistics path :D

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