Any MPhil applicant? Oxford applicant?

[misssherry]

Just poking around here and trying not to panic……  has anyone else applied for an MPhil in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology at Oxford? Have you heard anything back from them yet?

 

My grades and references are pretty good (GPA: 4.03/4.30, 9 scholarships and awards, 3 publications on international journals, only some part-time work experiences, 2 research assistant experiences, did not take GRE), and I do really wish to get into this programme (as expressed in my SoP).

 

My concern is that in my SoP, I mainly expressed my interest in sociolinguistics and pragmatics, but not for any other fields that seem to fit into the expectations of this faculty, e.g. syntax, morphology, comparative and historical linguists. Although I AM very interested in syntax and typology, and would like to conduct further interest in these two fields, I wonder if you guys think not mentioning that in my SoP will affect my chances of getting it? 

 

And yes I'm also checking my email every other minute…… Dr Jan Fellerer from the faculty told me that I would expect to get the results in early March. So if anyone else is applying this year, or if you applied previously, could you share some of your experiences (of admission or rejection)?

 

Thanks and fingers crossed for all applicants! 

[d-rex]

Not sure how much luck you'll have here, as this forum (and Gradcafe generally) appears to be very heavily focused on American universities with a few Canadian schools as well. Hopefully someone has information for you. Serious question, if your interests are sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and the faculty at Oxford aren't doing that, why are you so hung up on it? 

On the American side of the house, I have repeatedly been told (including by faculty who sit on AdComs) that the strength of your SOP is very important in terms of determining your fit for the department. Did your writing sample or C/V have anything indicating your interest in syntax and typology? Those are the only other ways, at least in my application experience, to demonstrate your interests outside of the SOP. I'm not trying to be discouraging; based on what you say here your credentials are better than mine and it looks like you've worked very hard.

[misssherry]

The MPhil programme at Oxford is actually a taught course degree and they do offer an option for doing sociolinguistics. I am "so hung up on it" because I honestly didn't discover my interest in typology until after I submitted my application…...

 

My writing samples do include one paper on semantics, which is also one of their strongest field, so I hope that helps…… 

 

I am not quite sure how important SOP is for British universities and for a degree like that but…… oh well.

Not sure how much luck you'll have here, as this forum (and Gradcafe generally) appears to be very heavily focused on American universities with a few Canadian schools as well. Hopefully someone has information for you. Serious question, if your interests are sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and the faculty at Oxford aren't doing that, why are you so hung up on it? 

On the American side of the house, I have repeatedly been told (including by faculty who sit on AdComs) that the strength of your SOP is very important in terms of determining your fit for the department. Did your writing sample or C/V have anything indicating your interest in syntax and typology? Those are the only other ways, at least in my application experience, to demonstrate your interests outside of the SOP. I'm not trying to be discouraging; based on what you say here your credentials are better than mine and it looks like you've worked very hard.

[d-rex]

I understand discovering an interest after submitting SOPs: mine focused on my interest in Native American linguistics and I have since discovered that I'm also interested in Bantu tense/aspect morphology and syntax, which is completely absent from my SOP and a strength of two programs I applied to. 

So in a sense I'm in the same boat, as my writing sample is focused on the syntax of a Bantu language and I hope that helps me out; hopefully your writing sample does the same with semantics. Oxford is beautiful, my family is English and I visited there during a trip to the Motherland once. Best of luck, it really does sound like you've worked really hard to be successful in this field.

[misssherry]

Thanks for your kind words d-rex, it really makes me feel better when all this waiting has driven me crazy…… Good luck with your applications too!