International or American?

[vonham]

I'm in sort of an unusual situation, and would just like some feedback on how I compare to the average American applying for linguistics PhDs. 

 

So I'm currently in Israel, and have been living here for 6 years (since I was 17). My high school education was in the states, in English (so I'm 90% sure I don't need to bother with TOEFL?). My parents still live in the states. 

 

So I'm currently doing my BA in linguistics in Tel-Aviv University. I am interested in applying to PhD programs (focus on sociolinguistics) in Linguistics in the US. The reason for this being: 1. I've sort of had enough with Israel 2. There aren't any straight to PhD programs in Israel for linguistics 3. There's barely any sociolinguistic research going on here. By chance we had a visiting professor here this year who's teaching it.

 

My main concern is that I just feel like American BA students have a lot more opportunity to build up an impressive resume. Like RAships and even publishing. Because everything here is so small, there is very little opportunity for BA students to take part in research, or participate in reading groups, present in conferences or anything like that. I myself try to be as active as possible in my department, and therefore I did manage to secure an RAship. I'm doing very little having to do with research though; basically I help my professor edit a series she's editing and do other office work. Not that I'm complaining; I'm grateful for the opportunity (especially since she's a pretty big name in linguistics), and at least on my CV it'll say "RA". My question is: Do you think the grad committee will take this into account? Should I mention this anywhere? How would I go about mentioning it? 

 

Another concern that I have is simply the timing of things. Our degrees here are 3 years. So I'm just finishing my 2nd year now, and want to go straight after this degree to the next. But our school year is october-july (including exam times which run all throughout July, and some are even if August if you need retakes). I'm a little worried that I won't be able to receive an actual diploma by Sept 2016, even if I have technically finished all of my course work and finished my degree. Has anyone had any experience with this? Will there be leniency in this regard? 

 

I'm also a bit concerned about my grades. In the 2nd semester of my 1st year I had some pretty bad grades because during exams a war broke out and I got called to reserve duty. Sounds weird I know, but it's the truth. So I wasn't able to improve my grades. One of my profs who had served on the committee at stanford said that committees are more lenient with grades from Israel because here we get no curve. Apparently in the states they really round up the grades so 4.0 isn't necessarily a 100 or whatever. Here it's whatever grade we get, we get. Currently my average is an 86, but my average for this year is a 92. I'm hoping for my average to be in the 90s but I just feel like I'm in such a disadvantage with all of the 4.0s I see on this site getting into programs lol. Also because the degree is only 3 years, and because of the timing and everything, by the time of the applications the only grades I'll have is 1st and 2nd year because 1st semester ends in Feb. ​Is this leniency with international grades a thing? Should I mention anywhere on my application the reason for my bad grades 2nd semester of 1st year?

 

My research interests are multilingualism, code-switching, immigrant communities. I'm doing my seminar paper, which will be my writing sample, on a code-switching and ethnic identity among English-Hebrew bilinguals in Israel. This, I think, will be the strongest point of my application. 

 

Another strong point is that here we don't have to take classes that aren't connected to our major (though 1st year we need to do a double major) so out of 120 hours of my degree, only 20 hours AREN'T linguistics.  

 

In terms of letters of recommendations.... the only professor who deals with sociolinguistics is a visiting professor (though I think he might stay here), who had just finished his PhD a year before. He said he would be happy to write me an LOR but that his lack of seniority might be put against me. On the other hand, all my other LORs will be from people who are dealing with things totally different in linguistics. I was thinking my department head (phonology, morphology) with whom I have a good rapport, and the professor I RA for, who is a leading name in language acquisition. Because of this, I feel maybe I should get my sociolinguistics LOR despite the fact that he doesn't have that many years in the field? The only other person I could think of is my phonetics professor, who I have less of a rapport with, but I do take many of his classes. 

 

I guess my last query is: Should I be applying as an American, or International student? Do I have a choice in the matter? 

 

Sorry this was so long and thanks for taking the time out to read! I would really appreciate any response; even if just for one of my queries. I'm just sort of on my own with this, since most Israeli students apply for a PhD in the states only after they've done their MA  

 

 

[Karoku_valentine]

Should I be applying as an American, or International student? Do I have a choice in the matter? 

You are American, since, I assume, you have an American passport. That is out of the question. However, you will write on your application that you studied everything in Israel.

 

My question is: Do you think the grad committee will take this into account? Should I mention this anywhere? How would I go about mentioning it? 

You should say everything is smaller in Israel and you want a bigger exposure, bla bla, use the "smallness" of Israel as a compelling reason to study in United States. They do know Israel is small, but many Americans acknowledge this country as a place with very smart and hardworking people, unlike most countries, which were formed just because people happened to be there.

 

Has anyone had any experience with this? Will there be leniency in this regard? 

No idea. My degree was 4 years. However, I have read in several places that Indians are not allowed in American programs because of the three year degrees (mostly read it in application pages, but I have no idea if they easily make exceptions).

 

 ​Is this leniency with international grades a thing? Should I mention anywhere on my application the reason for my bad grades 2nd semester of 1st year?

The American committees do know things are different in other countries. I got 93 (out of 100) and I ranked first in my class (we do not have any curve, the second place was 89). The two times I was admitted, I got full scholarships/funding.

 

Also, you should ask a letter of recommendation to the professor who is related to your field.

[EthanL]

First off, I'd base your International/American status on your citizenship. If you have dual, use your American citizenship to your advantage. Unless, that is, there's a clause in the application agreement/terms and conditions that states this explicitly. Some schools may have specific policies about this. 

I think your citizenship will be the primary determinant in when you can start here. If you have to apply for a visa, you're likely limited to starting Spring of 2017.

 

Another concern that I have is simply the timing of things. Our degrees here are 3 years. So I'm just finishing my 2nd year now, and want to go straight after this degree to the next. But our school year is october-july (including exam times which run all throughout July, and some are even if August if you need retakes). I'm a little worried that I won't be able to receive an actual diploma by Sept 2016, even if I have technically finished all of my course work and finished my degree. Has anyone had any experience with this? Will there be leniency in this regard? 

 

I've just had to deal with this in my grad school app. I graduated in May and needed to get my application complete ASAP by sending in a confirmation of degree completion, GPA, but my graduating class was so large that they wouldn't have diplomas finished by mid-July. After my final grades were calculated and submitted, my final GPA was visible in an unofficial transcript, but they also wouldnt process official transcripts until mid-June.

Instead of having to wait all summer, the Dean of my department wrote an official 'Certificate of Degree Completion' stating that I have completed all requirements for graduation and that my final GPA was X/4.0, and then had the Registrar notarize it. I sent that in immediately and received my official acceptance from the grad school. 

So basically, an official diploma is not required, as long as you can get administrator to confirm your degree completion. 
I suppose universities handle these things differently, though. You could start emailing admissions departments now to see how they'd handle this.

[Elizabeth4now]

You should definitely go for it and apply. Find the programs you're interested and email them your questions. Sure you have a chance! They are also interested in having international students. Unless you're an american citizen, you will need to take TOEFEL or something like it.

[xolo]

Since you want to study Linguistics you can leverage your paper on bilinguals, so I agree this is strong and somewhat unique. Bilingualism is a big topic in the US. Assuming you are bilingual, this makes the story even better. I agree with the previous posts, perhaps consider applying as a US person but play up what makes you stand out. 

[danica1]

I graduated from a European university, with a meager resume due to a similar situation to yours. There was no grading curve, and I also did fairly poorly in my first year because I was the sole provider for my family at the time and had to work a lot. Many institutions don't care about your first year anyway, but you can note it in your SOP just in case. I also asked one of my professors to address the grading system of my university in her letter of recommendation, although my diploma supplement also explicitly mentioned this. However, I noticed that some of the universities I applied to clearly didn't pay much attention to the diploma supplement, as they e-mailed me to ask me questions that were already answered in my paperwork. You can boost your resume by working outside of the university. I did substitute teaching, and that definitely helped a lot. I also mentioned all relevant course research projects I had done over the years.

 

I am starting a PhD program in the fall, and they automatically gave me until late August to send in my M.A. diploma and transcripts, as I had indicated in my application that I wouldn't graduate until June (officially graduated yesterday, btw. Woo!). You should definitely e-mail the universities you're interested applying to to get more information. I was surprised to find that their application processes and requirements are very different. I was in a weird situation as I got my green card in the middle of application season, and so my early applications I submitted as an international students and the later ones as a domestic student. Some of the universities told me that if I got my GC before the application deadline, I wouldn't have to submit my TOEFL scores, others wanted them anyway because I didn't get my degree from an English-speaking university.

[fuzzylogician]

So I'm currently doing my BA in linguistics in Tel-Aviv University. I am interested in applying to PhD programs (focus on sociolinguistics) in Linguistics in the US. The reason for this being: 1. I've sort of had enough with Israel 2. There aren't any straight to PhD programs in Israel for linguistics 3. There's barely any sociolinguistic research going on here. By chance we had a visiting professor here this year who's teaching it.

 

You don't really need to justify your decision to apply to PhD programs in the US. Everyone from all over the world does that, because they are recognized as the best, and also (not coincidentally) the ones that have the most resources. It's important to keep this in mind when you write this section of your SOP. There is no need to explain how you are tired of Israel or how there isn't enough socio for you. You should stay completely positive and simply explain why the schools you are applying to are the best choices for you to pursue your education and do the kind of research you are interested in.  Putting another school/country down won't earn you any points.

 

 

My question is: Do you think the grad committee will take this into account? Should I mention this anywhere? How would I go about mentioning it? 

 

Yes, research experience -- as well as initiative and drive -- are taken into account. Definitely mention it on your CV, under research experience. There are ways to build this into your SOP,  but you should find a way to say you learn something new and grew as a linguist. If you can't say that with a straight face, maybe it's better to concentrate on other aspects of your application, like what drew you to sociolinguistics, what your research interests are, and details about your seminar paper research,. 

 

 

Has anyone had any experience with this? Will there be leniency in this regard? 

 

I'm sure there is a way to work it out. I think there is a way to get a letter saying that you have fulfilled all the requirements for the degree, and it will be officially conferred on date X. I had a similar issue after I finished my PhD and got such a letter, which worked for basically everything important (there were some minor hassles but not necessarily relevant for you). This is the kind of thing that it would be good to contact specific schools about, to ask for their policies. Some schools may be more flexible about finding ways to make it work than others. 

 

 

​Is this leniency with international grades a thing? Should I mention anywhere on my application the reason for my bad grades 2nd semester of 1st year?

 

The admissions office is experienced at dealing with students from different countries and understanding their grading systems. If your transcript doesn't provide some kind of explanation of the grades, you might consider submitting one as a supplementary document. In your case, though, I don't think this will be necessary. Tel-Aviv University is actually quite well known for producing strong PhD candidates, so people will recognize both the school and the meaning of the grades. As for explaining low grades, it's always hard to answer. I would be inclined not to explain anything in this case, for three reasons. First, your grades don't sound that low to me. We're talking about just one semester in your first year, so we also don't have a problem of a trend. Second, you don't want to sound like you're making excuses. Third, you don't know how the 'reserve service' explanation will be understood by people; it's unusual and it exposes you to potential bad treatment because of political reasons (of course, unbeknownst to you). I wouldn't do it. 

 

 

My research interests are multilingualism, code-switching, immigrant communities. I'm doing my seminar paper, which will be my writing sample, on a code-switching and ethnic identity among English-Hebrew bilinguals in Israel. This, I think, will be the strongest point of my application. 

 

Another strong point is that here we don't have to take classes that aren't connected to our major (though 1st year we need to do a double major) so out of 120 hours of my degree, only 20 hours AREN'T linguistics.  

 

Yep, I agree that these could be great assets for your application. 

 

 

In terms of letters of recommendations.... the only professor who deals with sociolinguistics is a visiting professor (though I think he might stay here), who had just finished his PhD a year before. He said he would be happy to write me an LOR but that his lack of seniority might be put against me. On the other hand, all my other LORs will be from people who are dealing with things totally different in linguistics. I was thinking my department head (phonology, morphology) with whom I have a good rapport, and the professor I RA for, who is a leading name in language acquisition. Because of this, I feel maybe I should get my sociolinguistics LOR despite the fact that he doesn't have that many years in the field? The only other person I could think of is my phonetics professor, who I have less of a rapport with, but I do take many of his classes. 

 

So we're agreed that the two famous people who know you well should write you letters. Who will grade your seminar paper/writing sample? If possible, the person who reads it should write you a LOR, it will help showcase your strength and background with socio. 

 

Out of the socio prof vs. phonetics prof, I have a couple of questions. Is the phonetics prof well-known internationally? Is the socio prof's PhD from a well-known school, and does he seem to be doing well now that he has graduated? I would be inclined to have the socio prof write you the third letter, since you already have two from more famous people and I think it will help to have one from someone in your subfield. However, if the socio prof doesn't know you well and therefore can't really say much about your potential to become a sociolinguist, and on the other hand the phonetics prof does know you well, then I think you need to go with the phonetics prof. We're still talking about people within linguistics, it's not like you are asking for letters from unknown people from other fields.

 

 

I guess my last query is: Should I be applying as an American, or International student? Do I have a choice in the matter? 

 

If you are an American citizen, you apply as an American. There will be places to indicate that you did your BA abroad. Since you went to high school in the US, you shouldn't be required to do the TOEFL. 

 

 

Sorry this was so long and thanks for taking the time out to read! I would really appreciate any response; even if just for one of my queries. I'm just sort of on my own with this, since most Israeli students apply for a PhD in the states only after they've done their MA  

 

My guess is that for most things, your situation is no different than MA students' situation, with the exception of being less experienced. That's why many students with 3-year degrees do MAs in the first place. If you don't get admitted to a good program with funding next year, I would suggest considering starting an MA in Israel. You can apply during your first year and leave the MA mid-way through if you get into a good PhD program (they won't like it, but you can do it). This will solve some technical issues with your transcript/degree and also help with the issue of experience. 

 

Good luck!

[vonham]

Thanks for your responses, everyone! fuzzylogician your post made me feel a bit better about things, like I have an actual chance . 

 

I definitely want to keep my SOPs as positive as possible. I guess unless someone asks, I won't mention my first year grades. Once applying,  I'll contact the departments to ask them about the timing of it all. I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't automatically mean I can't apply, or something like that. 

 

The person who's grading my seminar paper is my sociolinguistics professor. He did graduate from a very good school, and I think he has the best idea of how I go about research, and can speak best about me as a candidate. His hesitancy though, made me rethink. I still think I'll go with him, though, because now that I think about it it's not like my phonetic's professor is that well known (he doesn't present often, or even have that many publications). I'll definitely stick with my sociolinguistics professor; especially because he graduated from a program that I'm looking to apply for. 

 

If I don't get into any programs I'll definitely stay here and do my MA; it'll be cheaper and I really do love the linguistics department here (we're like family here). 

 

Anyways thanks everyone for the responses! 

 

Just one more question that I have: How far in advance should I start contacting potential advisers? What should be included  in these emails? Pretty sure this question's been covered, but I couldn't find the thread, so if someone could point me in the right direction that'd be great. 

[fuzzylogician]

I should say I still think it might be hard to get into a good program with essentially just two years of an undergrad education. It's worth a shot, but I wouldn't be too surprised if you don't get the admissions or the funding offers you would like. I think you will have a stronger case once you've graduated. This is why many students from countries with 3-year degrees at least start a Masters before applying for PhDs in the US. 

 

Re: LORs, I suggest having another conversation with the socio prof about who you should ask for LORs. Maybe if it's clear to him that (a) you have no other socio prof to ask, and (b ) you will have letters from other more famous profs, he will be less worried. Or he might have some other thoughts. I would say it's worth asking. While you're at it, ask for his advice on applying to grad school more generally. Since he's a recent graduate he will probably have relevant thoughts, especially with regard to his own school but not just.

 

Re: contacting potential advisors: I guess I am not up to speed on this one. I can tell you it's not required (I got admitted to various places without contacting anyone, and I know others with similar stories). There are multiple threads on this issue, though probably not linguistics-specific. I suggest searching in the Applications forum for keywords like "contacting potential advisors" or "contacting POIs" (person of interest). 

 

From a quick search, I found this in the linguistics forum: 

 

And there are tons of things if you search in the Applications forum. See here.

 

I suggest starting with some general advice threads. They cover this question along with others you might not have even thought to ask. 

[beefgallo]

By the way, there is a new straight-to-PhD program in the Tel Aviv University Linguistics department that started this year - if that is a main reason for you searching for a program in the states, maybe you should find out more about this program.

[vonham]

By the way, there is a new straight-to-PhD program in the Tel Aviv University Linguistics department that started this year - if that is a main reason for you searching for a program in the states, maybe you should find out more about this program.

It's more a matter of a lack of profs with my research interests in the department or in the country (my sociolinguistics prof was supposed to be there for this year only, decided to stay another year but I don't know if he'll stay after that and I don't think he could advise a doctorate) 

 

But that's really cool! I wonder why no one's mentioned it to me yet? My department head is always trying to convince me to stay in the department instead of going abroad, and I would think she would mention something like that to me. Super cool, though

[tspier2]

It looks like most of your questions have been answered, so I'll just make my usual offer to look at the SOP and/or writing sample. By the way, we have a very good program at Tulane University and only admit students who are fully funded. We have a nice mix of domestic and international students, and applicants can be accepted straight from undergrad (like me). Good luck!

[beefgallo]

 

But that's really cool! I wonder why no one's mentioned it to me yet? My department head is always trying to convince me to stay in the department instead of going abroad, and I would think she would mention something like that to me. Super cool, though

 

I just know that it's really new. And that it's a program of TAU and HIJ, and that there are six sub-fields, I can't remember all of them. but I know that there is a usage-based concentration, which might fit your interests. And a cognitive/neuro direction which probably won't. I think you can discuss the usage-based direction and get more information from Prof. Ariel

[vonham]

It looks like most of your questions have been answered, so I'll just make my usual offer to look at the SOP and/or writing sample. By the way, we have a very good program at Tulane University and only admit students who are fully funded. We have a nice mix of domestic and international students, and applicants can be accepted straight from undergrad (like me). Good luck!

 

Thanks for the offer! Funny you mention Tulane University; I was just looking at their website! If I understood correctly it's an interdisciplinary website? There seems to be a heavy concentration on anthropological linguistics and language contact; super cool! I'll definitely look more into the program since it peaked my interest (and I'll admit I've always harbored a fantasy of living in Louisiana....not that I've ever been there ) 

 

I just know that it's really new. And that it's a program of TAU and HIJ, and that there are six sub-fields, I can't remember all of them. but I know that there is a usage-based concentration, which might fit your interests. And a cognitive/neuro direction which probably won't. I think you can discuss the usage-based direction and get more information from Prof. Ariel

 

Thanks I definitely will! I have yet to take a class with Prof. Ariel, since intro to pragmatics was filled last year, which sucks. I'm hoping to take that class next semester. 

[tspier2]

Thanks for the offer! Funny you mention Tulane University; I was just looking at their website! If I understood correctly it's an interdisciplinary website? There seems to be a heavy concentration on anthropological linguistics and language contact; super cool! I'll definitely look more into the program since it peaked my interest (and I'll admit I've always harbored a fantasy of living in Louisiana....not that I've ever been there ) 

 

Exactly right! We're very interdisciplinary, and there's a wide variety of interests reflected by our graduate students (as I'm sure you saw on the website). New Orleans is a fantastic place to live. If you have any questions about the program, the university, or the city, feel free to drop me a PM!