Fall 2010, Fall 2011, or forget it?

[fred.alphonso]

Thanks for the input. For a handful of reasons, have decided to enroll in Fall 2011. All the best!

[rainy_day]

Should I just forget grad school and concentrate on finding work in the US while my wife is at grad school?

Unfortunately, no one else can answer that question for you. What do you want to do? Why do you want to go to grad school? Why do you want to continue working? Which option would benefit your career, in the long term?

I suggest a good, old fashioned pros and cons list.

[socialcomm]

Agree with rainy_day. If it's something you want to do for the right reasons, don't just forget it!

[jndaven]

My god, you got a 700/740 after studying for a week?! Yes you would probably get into all of these schools. You have a resume to die for and if you score that high it helps make up for a lackluster GPA. You also sound like you can write a good, focused essay, judging from your background and seemingly well written message board post. A place like Harvard or Princeton might be a stretch, but these sound definitely possible.

I guess you two aren't worried about money with both of you being in school? Cost of living can be a blow. I'm not sure I buy that your career would wither and die because you went to off to school. As long as you focus on maintaining your connections and leveraging new ones at grad school, I don't see the big deal. Do most executives in the positions you want have higher degrees? In my field they do, so I am willing to take the time out to check that box.

[fred.alphonso]

:?

[psycholinguist]

Based on what you report feeling here, I'd say you have no reason not to go to grad-school! Especially what with your wife planning to return to the U.S.

2. I feel like this entire process has been entirely too rushed (I only began in mid-August). Would I be best served to work another year while preparing for the GRE and thoroughly researching programs that offer the best fit?

This is a tricky one. I would recommend doing the GRE as soon as possible, applying to the programs that you already know interest you (if your wife is indeed going to be back over there in 2010), and then spend the time thinking about what you'd want from a grad-school experience. However, in my opinion the main advantage of taking a year off would be having the chance to visit the campuses and talk to people. Making the decision is so much harder without doing so.

[fuzzylogician]

However, in my opinion the main advantage of taking a year off would be having the chance to visit the campuses and talk to people. Making the decision is so much harder without doing so.

This is very true. However, if you already have a few places in mind that interest you, apply now and visit later, after you've been accepted. That way you won't "waste" a year, assuming your wife will start her program next fall. If you don't get in or don't like where you've been accepted, then you can try again in fall 2011. Start researching programs and consulting people right now so you can make the best possible choice of where to apply.

[psycholinguist]

This is very true. However, if you already have a few places in mind that interest you, apply now and visit later, after you've been accepted. That way you won't "waste" a year, assuming your wife will start her program next fall. If you don't get in or don't like where you've been accepted, then you can try again in fall 2011. Start researching programs and consulting people right now so you can make the best possible choice of where to apply.

That would be ideal, if visiting schools from Europe would be possible!

(Incidentally: hey, fuzzylogician! How's MIT been so far?)

[fuzzylogician]

That would be ideal, if visiting schools from Europe would be possible!

(Incidentally: hey, fuzzylogician! How's MIT been so far?)

I visited from Europe..

MIT is great, thanks for asking! I'm trying to wrap my head around actually having to solve 3 problem sets a week after only writing papers in the last 3-4 years, but I hope I'll learn a lot about the fields I haven't done any work on in the past 3 years (read, "phonology and syntax") and maybe even discover new interests! At the very least, I'm going to know a whole lot more about all kinds of things when this year is finally over.. I think right now so many things are happening all at once I'm too overwhelmed to take them all in. Mostly I miss my old life back home but am sure I made the right choice coming here. What are you up to this fall?

[psycholinguist]

I visited from Europe..

Heh, I know it's possible; I just don't know whether fred.alphonso in particular is able to.

MIT is great, thanks for asking! I'm trying to wrap my head around actually having to solve 3 problem sets a week after only writing papers in the last 3-4 years, but I hope I'll learn a lot about the fields I haven't done any work on in the past 3 years (read, "phonology and syntax") and maybe even discover new interests! At the very least, I'm going to know a whole lot more about all kinds of things when this year is finally over.. I think right now so many things are happening all at once I'm too overwhelmed to take them all in. Mostly I miss my old life back home but am sure I made the right choice coming here. What are you up to this fall?

Glad things are getting off to a pretty good start over there, despite the crazy intensity!

Me, I've started an MA in cognitive psychology, working mostly on reading and lexical-decision tasks. It's fine, but I've already started missing hardcore linguistics badly enough that I no longer have any question as to which field I want to do my Ph.D. in. Even though I'll probably be in school for an extra three years if I start over in linguistics, I don't care. I am going to stay around for a year and finish the MA since I'd like to have the background in statistics and experimental design that I'm going to be getting, but I'll also be reapplying to linguistics programs in the meantime. And continuing to hang around the board, of course! * grins *

[fuzzylogician]

Me, I've started an MA in cognitive psychology, working mostly on reading and lexical-decision tasks. It's fine, but I've already started missing hardcore linguistics badly enough that I no longer have any question as to which field I want to do my Ph.D. in. Even though I'll probably be in school for an extra three years if I start over in linguistics, I don't care. I am going to stay around for a year and finish the MA since I'd like to have the background in statistics and experimental design that I'm going to be getting, but I'll also be reapplying to linguistics programs in the meantime. And continuing to hang around the board, of course! * grins *

Psycholinguistics is such an exciting field! Their experiments sound like so much fun, I'm sure they're going to make a lot of progress there in the next 5-10 years. Glad to hear you've made a decision (but why an extra three years?).

Good luck!!

[psycholinguist]

Psycholinguistics is such an exciting field! Their experiments sound like so much fun, I'm sure they're going to make a lot of progress there in the next 5-10 years. Glad to hear you've made a decision (but why an extra three years?).

Good luck!!

Thanks! Well, despite my username, I haven't actually decided whether to specialise in psycholinguistics or language-change (I love both), but regardless, at least I know what kind of department I want as a home-base. Cog-psych has its moments, but it doesn't totally grip me the way linguistics does. I do really enjoy reading about topics such as visual perception and music-cognition and mental imagery, but I don't get a steady flow of inspirations for potential projects related to these things, and the linguistics-related ideas I'm still having these days are feeling uncomfortably incongruous.

If I were to stay on and do a Ph.D. in psychology, I'd be here until 2013 or so; it's a four-year program. I'm looking primarily at Canadian programs in linguistics, though, and they require an MA before the Ph.D., meaning that I would probably need six years after this one to get both done. Good thing I like the grad-student experience in general, at least if the last month is any indication! Heh.

[fuzzylogician]

If I were to stay on and do a Ph.D. in psychology, I'd be here until 2013 or so; it's a four-year program. I'm looking primarily at Canadian programs in linguistics, though, and they require an MA before the Ph.D., meaning that I would probably need six years after this one to get both done. Good thing I like the grad-student experience in general, at least if the last month is any indication! Heh.

Eh. Applying two years in a row and doing grad work in between must be a real pain in the neck...but better spend an extra three years in grad school than get a degree in something that doesn't excite you! I've heard some programs give you an MA after the first year, have you looked into that possibly being recognized by the ling departments? I know at least here at MIT, and at a few other places in the US I applied to last year, admitted applicants had all sorts of backgrounds - including some with little-to-no prior formal education in linguistics. I'm less familiar with Canadian schools but that might be an option worth considering. Anyway, good luck!!

[psycholinguist]

Eh. Applying two years in a row and doing grad work in between must be a real pain in the neck...but better spend an extra three years in grad school than get a degree in something that doesn't excite you! I've heard some programs give you an MA after the first year, have you looked into that possibly being recognized by the ling departments? I know at least here at MIT, and at a few other places in the US I applied to last year, admitted applicants had all sorts of backgrounds - including some with little-to-no prior formal education in linguistics. I'm less familiar with Canadian schools but that might be an option worth considering. Anyway, good luck!!

Thanks again! It's not so bad, actually; this year I don't need to redo the GRE (my scores were fine), and I'm so eager to get back into linguistics that my SOPs are pretty much writing themselves. For a few applications, I don't need to set up accounts and passwords again because I can just reuse the ones I created last year. And sending in paper applications this year, since I'm no longer in the States, is going to be one heck of a lot easier. I could even visit a couple of campuses this autumn and winter, which was not the case last year since I was far too busy and geographically isolated to do so. The only really annoying thing is having to pay for the applications again.

One of the programs I'm going to be applying to does take Ph.D. candidates straight from BAs in linguistics, but the rest require MAs in linguistics first, including my top choice. I haven't decided whether to apply to any American linguistics-programs this year, though; the ones that interest me the most are all University of California ones, which (as I discovered last year after having to turn down UCSD because I couldn't afford it), wouldn't be able to give me much financial support.

(Apologies to fred.alphonso for taking over the thread! * laughs *)