Fall2010 - Your stats, here you're applying, where you get in, general questions/concerns

[solairne]

So let's start a topic where people list where they're applying, with what stats, and hopefully people can post their acceptance or rejection so others can see.

I'm applying from a University in Texas with a BA in French and German language.

3.645 GPA (on a scale where A- is 3.67, B+ is 3.33..... *gag*)

A lot of extracurricular language work

Auditing a few doctoral seminars on Old English morphology and syntax

Attendance at several Ling conferences, talks, presentations at several universities

1 presentation given

5 letters of rec.

1 year teaching experience

Study abroad

Several awards for achievement and several academic scholarships

Writing sample is an independent paper over V2 parameter transfer from German native speakers into English, conducted in Germany (about 19 pages)

I don't have any outside funding

I'm applying to (in order of preference):

McGill

MIT

UMASS-Amherst

Rice

I don't know if this is helpful to anybody, but from what I've gathered by asking around and scouring the Internet, admissions decisions are generally:

MIT - end of January through February

McGill - during late February to early March

UMASS-Amherst - before the end of March

Rice - not really sure, but it has a late deadline of February 1, so my guess is pretty late.

[ColorlessGreen]

Sounds like a good idea.

My BA's in Linguistics, with a double minor in Spanish and Japanese.

3.73 overall GPA, 3.95 major GPA, GRE somewhere in the 85th percentile.

In the Honors program, though not writing an honors thesis.

No conferences, study abroad, or teaching experience.

Worked as undergraduate linguistics tutor.

3 letters of rec.

Writing sample contrasts the decomposition of the phoneme [y:] post-coronally in stressed position with its unstressed counterpart in French loanwords from Middle English to the present day (15 pages without appendices).

No outside funding, more's the pity.

I'm applying to:

UMass (PhD)

Stanford (PhD)

Indiana (MA)

Iowa (MA)

Obviously my goal's to get into one of the PhD programs, but I'm trying to be realistic and apply for some MA programs as well. Unfortunately, I doubt my chances are that good. Holding out hope, though.

[solairne]

Sounds like a good idea.

My BA's in Linguistics, with a double minor in Spanish and Japanese.

3.73 overall GPA, 3.95 major GPA, GRE somewhere in the 85th percentile.

In the Honors program, though not writing an honors thesis.

No conferences, study abroad, or teaching experience.

Worked as undergraduate linguistics tutor.

3 letters of rec.

Writing sample contrasts the decomposition of the phoneme [y:] post-coronally in stressed position with its unstressed counterpart in French loanwords from Middle English to the present day (15 pages without appendices).

No outside funding, more's the pity.

I'm applying to:

UMass (PhD)

Stanford (PhD)

Indiana (MA)

Iowa (MA)

Obviously my goal's to get into one of the PhD programs, but I'm trying to be realistic and apply for some MA programs as well. Unfortunately, I doubt my chances are that good. Holding out hope, though.

Those aren't bad stats.

By a year of teaching experience, I mean 18 months as the French (upper and lower division) tutor for the University.

I'd imagine you'd have a pretty good shot at Amherst, maybe at Stanford, too.

Edited December 25, 2009 by solairne

[ColorlessGreen]

Those aren't bad stats.

By a year of teaching experience, I mean 18 months as the French (upper and lower division) tutor for the University.

I'd imagine you'd have a pretty good shot at Amherst, maybe at Stanford, too.

See, one of my letter-writers completely psyched me out by telling me about another student he's writing a rec for, a student whose research sounds amazing, who has actual teaching experience, and who already has an MA in Linguistics. Then he told me that student was applying to UMass as well. Yikes.

What's sad is that I'd been feeling pretty good right beforehand, when he was telling me all the great things he'd written in my recommendation. Now I don't know what to think, so I'm erring on the side of pessimism.

Your writing sample sounds really interesting. Second language acquisition is something I'm interested in, too, though I'm more interested in phonological acquisition than syntactic. Anyway, best of luck to you! Hopefully both of us will be reporting back in the spring that we got into several schools, and just have to decide which one to attend.

[solairne]

See, one of my letter-writers completely psyched me out by telling me about another student he's writing a rec for, a student whose research sounds amazing, who has actual teaching experience, and who already has an MA in Linguistics. Then he told me that student was applying to UMass as well. Yikes.

What's sad is that I'd been feeling pretty good right beforehand, when he was telling me all the great things he'd written in my recommendation. Now I don't know what to think, so I'm erring on the side of pessimism.

Your writing sample sounds really interesting. Second language acquisition is something I'm interested in, too, though I'm more interested in phonological acquisition than syntactic. Anyway, best of luck to you! Hopefully both of us will be reporting back in the spring that we got into several schools, and just have to decide which one to attend.

From everything I've gathered from obsessing for the past year, it seems that you meshing with the faculty is the most important thing. The people whom I've spoken with have said that a BA/MA isn't as showing potential for good research and original ideas, but that it is ideal for a candidate to be somewhat up-to-date on current topics.

It seems like:

Mesh with faculty > research potential and demonstration > recommendations > grades > etc.

[fuzzylogician]

I don't know if this is helpful to anybody, but from what I've gathered by asking around and scouring the Internet, admissions decisions are generally:

MIT - end of January through February

McGill - during late February to early March

UMASS-Amherst - before the end of March

Rice - not really sure, but it has a late deadline of February 1, so my guess is pretty late.

Just to add my 2 cents, here's my timeline*. AFAIK it was the same for all admitted applicants; waitlisted and rejected applicants heard later.

- Jan 13: interview request, UCSC. Had phone interview with PI, later withdrew my application.

- Jan 23: interview request, UPenn. Had crazy conference call interview with two PIs, later withdrew my application.

- Feb 4, 10, 12: interview request, Brown. Contacted by three different faculty members regarding phone interviews; invited to attend open house (on Feb 28), eventually declined and withdrew my application.

(I withdrew my applications after I had been accepted by schools higher on my list. I thought I'd leave the competition in favor of other people who would be likelier to actually go to the other schools).

- Feb 6: accepted, UCLA. Open house: March 2-3.

- Feb 9: accepted, NYU. Open house: March 12-13.

- Feb 12: accepted, UMass. No open house.

- Feb 20: accepted, Rutgers. No open house.

- Feb 26: accepted, MIT. No open house.

(I'm pretty sure Berkley also had an open house some time between UCLA and NYU, which my friend attended)

Pretty much all of the departments notified admitted applicants before March, so they would have time to make travel arrangements. During the first two weeks of March a group of a 1-2 dozen admitted applicants were traveling around the country visiting the different schools. The schools that didn't have an open house just let you come whenever. They arranged for hosts and schedules at the respective departments, they all even had lunch/dinner/subway funding for everyone. All of the schools, except UMass, contributed towards travel expenses and together it was enough to cover cross-Atlantic and cross-US flights as well as other trip-related expenses for me.

* according to my email inbox.

Edited December 28, 2009 by fuzzylogician

[solairne]

Just to add my 2 cents, here's my timeline*. AFAIK it was the same for all admitted applicants; waitlisted and rejected applicants heard later.

- Jan 13: interview request, UCSC. Had phone interview with PI, later withdrew my application.

- Jan 23: interview request, UPenn. Had crazy conference call interview with two PIs, later withdrew my application.

- Feb 4, 10, 12: interview request, Brown. Contacted by three different faculty members regarding phone interviews; invited to attend open house (on Feb 28), eventually declined and withdrew my application.

(I withdrew my applications after I had been accepted by schools higher on my list. I thought I'd leave the competition in favor of other people who would be likelier to actually go to the other schools).

- Feb 6: accepted, UCLA. Open house: March 2-3.

- Feb 9: accepted, NYU. Open house: March 12-13.

- Feb 12: accepted, UMass. No open house.

- Feb 20: accepted, Rutgers. No open house.

- Feb 26: accepted, MIT. No open house.

(I'm pretty sure Berkley also had an open house some time between UCLA and NYU, which my friend attended)

Pretty much all of the departments notified admitted applicants before March, so they would have time to make travel arrangements. During the first two weeks of March a group of a 1-2 dozen admitted applicants were traveling around the country visiting the different schools. The schools that didn't have an open house just let you come whenever. They arranged for hosts and schedules at the respective departments, they all even had lunch/dinner/subway funding for everyone. All of the schools, except UMass, contributed towards travel expenses and together it was enough to cover cross-Atlantic and cross-US flights as well as other trip-related expenses for me.

* according to my email inbox.

Those are some impressive admissions. If you don't mind, could you post your application stats.

Thanks for all the helpful information on dates!

[fuzzylogician]

On 12/27/2009 at 8:46 PM, solairne said:

Those are some impressive admissions. If you don't mind, could you post your application stats.

Thanks for all the helpful information on dates!

No problem. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions!

BA in linguistics: GPA 97 (out of 100)

MA in linguistics: 1 year abroad, GPA 1.15; second year back at BA institution, didn't have any grades yet at time of application.

GRE: 670V/740Q/4.5AW

TOEFL: 120

Worked on 4 projects as research assistant over the course of 2 years: 2 months; 6 months; 1 year; 1 year.

Got some mentions in acknowledgments but no publications.

At the time of application I hadn't worked on any of the projects for longer than 6 months.

1 smallish intl conference presentation + proceedings publication.

4 LORs. Only got the fourth because one of the original writes flaked and at some point said she wouldn't be able to write me the letter.

1 year TA experience: undergraduate Intro to Semantics, Advanced Semantics.

6 months experience working for a start up company as a "linguistics consultant."

5 languages (1 native, 2 fluent, 2 advanced).

basic classroom/research knowledge of 7 other languages.

Several merit awards during undergrad; one came with money, the rest were just honorable mentions.

Scholarship for year abroad, fellowship for second year of MA program.

Writing sample (formal semantics, not my publication). I think the paper was about 20 pages long, maybe a bit shorter. I know for a fact that my recommenders talked about at least 2 other papers in their letters and that some potential advisors went on my website and read some of the other papers I uploaded there (though they might have only done that after I was admitted).

I hope this helps you guys.

[solairne]

Thanks, that's really helpful!

I'd say overall I'm very happy with my candidacy for the programs with the exception that my school did not offer a BA in Linguistics (thus the French and German degree) and with the fact that I'm applying with a BA and not an MA. I wrote extensively in my SOP about my linguistics experience with attending several conferences at a few universities as well as one of my presentation on the effect of Norman French on English's lexicon and syntax.

From what I've gathered talking to a few students, especially at McGill, it's more important that you show familiarity and research potential than necessarily having a BA/MA in Ling. I'm sort of banking on that.

About what you said with the travel arrangements for viewing the school... is it that after you accept an offer, be it open house or on your own, you were expected to show up at the school some time in that spring semester for a meet and greet? Also since you're an international student, what was it like in terms of finding housing? I'm sort of worried about how I'm going to find a house or apartment to rent in either Montréal or Mass. with my living in Texas.

Thanks again!

Edit - does fluency in languages have any real impact on candidacy? McGill is in francophone Canada, and I'm hoping that me being francophone might give me an ever-so-slight edge.

Edited December 28, 2009 by solairne

[fuzzylogician]

From what I've gathered talking to a few students, especially at McGill, it's more important that you show familiarity and research potential than necessarily having a BA/MA in Ling. I'm sort of banking on that.

To the best of my knowledge that is true. Unfortunately, linguistics is not offered as an independent degree at a lot of universities both in and out of the US. Nevertheless, people from those institutions, who do the best they can with the resources they have at their disposal, are routinely accepted to top programs. That means, for example, that people usually have some knowledge of syntax and maybe phonology, but little to no knowledge in semantics. It happened to about half of the people in my year, and they had a hard time in semantics class, but they got the support they needed and finished in style.

About what you said with the travel arrangements for viewing the school... is it that after you accept an offer, be it open house or on your own, you were expected to show up at the school some time in that spring semester for a meet and greet? Also since you're an international student, what was it like in terms of finding housing? I'm sort of worried about how I'm going to find a house or apartment to rent in either Montréal or Mass. with my living in Texas.

All the schools except for Brown invited me for a visit after they had made their admissions decisions, so it was more like a sales opportunity for them than an interview opportunity for me. You're not expected to show up, but they offer funding so why not? I got someone to cover my TA sessions for two weeks and jumped on the opportunity. Seeing the places, meeting the potential advisors and grad students, getting to know the city, rent rates, transportation, etc. were all very helpful. I was having a very hard time choosing between UMass and MIT before the trip, but I had no more doubts after the trip. I also got to meet other people who were doing the visiting thing at some of the same schools at the same time, which was nice because we stayed in touch throughout the spring and summer and some became my colleagues later.

Re housing, do you mean during the spring visits? The schools arranged for grad student hosts at all of the places. I never had to pay for housing. They also picked me up from airports, got me tickets for the local transportation system and bought me lunch and dinner. Basically they payed for everything.

Edit - does fluency in languages have any real impact on candidacy? McGill is in francophone Canada, and I'm hoping that me being francophone might give me an ever-so-slight edge.

I don't imagine it's a big factor but some schools do like to diversify their student body (=e.g., have people speaking and working on languages that are not English). It definitely doesn't hurt, if nothing else.

Edited December 28, 2009 by fuzzylogician

[solairne]

To the best of my knowledge that is true. Unfortunately, linguistics is not offered as an independent degree at a lot of universities both in and out of the US. Nevertheless, people from those institutions, who do the best they can with the resources they have at their disposal, are routinely accepted to top programs.

That made me feel a lot better. haha

About the housing, I mean after you are accepted and been there and decide it's right for you. Like when you knew you were moving to Cambridge from overseas, how did you go about setting up housing for the fall? Airfare from Houston to Mass/Montréal isn't obscene, but it's not cheap, and I"m a little bit concerned with finding decent housing for when I have my Uhaul go up there.

Do you just buy an airline ticket, fly up and look around and sign a lease ahead of time?

[fuzzylogician]

About the housing, I mean after you are accepted and been there and decide it's right for you. Like when you knew you were moving to Cambridge from overseas, how did you go about setting up housing for the fall? Airfare from Houston to Mass/Montréal isn't obscene, but it's not cheap, and I"m a little bit concerned with finding decent housing for when I have my Uhaul go up there.

Do you just buy an airline ticket, fly up and look around and sign a lease ahead of time?

I knew I wouldn't be able to visit again before the start of the semester. What with the wonderful visa regulations I couldn't enter the country more than 30 days before the start of the program, and I was working until late August anyway. Airfare is also obscenely expensive, to the tune of more than $1000. Not to mention that moving from overseas meant that I had to buy everything new, so it's not like I had extra money to spend.

Given that, I took the time to get familiar with the neighborhoods I thought I wanted to live in at every place I visited in March. I walked up and down the streets and asked about housing prices. After I made my decision, I sent an email to the MIT grad student mailing list and asked for housing tips and if anyone knew of a vacancy in an apartment. One current grad who had just signed a lease for a 2 bedroom contacted me about becoming her roommate. We talked on the phone a few times and wrote some emails, and decided it would work. I signed the lease without ever seeing the apartment (thank goodness for google maps!). It worked out, thank god. I left home with exactly 2 suitcases of my stuff. I moved into an empty apartment on Sept 1, and basically bought/got everything I needed in the next two weeks. It wasn't fun, but it's possible, with the help of some friends.

Some other students also answered my original email and gave me good advice about locations, prices and lists to look at (craigslist and an MIT internal list). From what I gather it should be possible to find an apartment in Cambridge in 2 weeks at the end of August, though it might mean making some compromises.

If I were you I would go out and look at the places in person, since you're already in the States. It's definitely worth the money, if you can afford it.

[rising_star]

About the housing, I mean after you are accepted and been there and decide it's right for you. Like when you knew you were moving to Cambridge from overseas, how did you go about setting up housing for the fall? Airfare from Houston to Mass/Montréal isn't obscene, but it's not cheap, and I"m a little bit concerned with finding decent housing for when I have my Uhaul go up there.

Do you just buy an airline ticket, fly up and look around and sign a lease ahead of time?

This has been covered a lot in other areas of this forum, so poke around over in "City Guide" and "Officially Grads". Personally, I moved across the country for my PhD. I relied on advice given here, elsewhere on the internet, and from current graduate students to identify neighborhoods and places to live. I then flew out in June (my first trip to the city) to hunt in person and found a place that way. The place ended up not working out (crazy roommate, which sucked because the location was great) but I then leaned on current grads after moving to help me find somewhere to move.

For my MA program, it was much easier because I moved to a city about 80 miles from where I have family. So, I stayed with family while apartment hunting. I ended up finding my roommate through the local alternative weekly newspaper. She and I are still friends a few years later and I'll be going to her wedding next year.

[solairne]

This has been covered a lot in other areas of this forum, so poke around over in "City Guide" and "Officially Grads". Personally, I moved across the country for my PhD. I relied on advice given here, elsewhere on the internet, and from current graduate students to identify neighborhoods and places to live. I then flew out in June (my first trip to the city) to hunt in person and found a place that way. The place ended up not working out (crazy roommate, which sucked because the location was great) but I then leaned on current grads after moving to help me find somewhere to move.

For my MA program, it was much easier because I moved to a city about 80 miles from where I have family. So, I stayed with family while apartment hunting. I ended up finding my roommate through the local alternative weekly newspaper. She and I are still friends a few years later and I'll be going to her wedding next year.

I'm not that concerned with the roommate situation as my partner is moving with me. So it's just a matter of actually finding a place to live, especially since we have 2 dogs and a good amount of furniture. I think I'll just put some money away and try to fly up sometime in May to sign a lease for July. Not ideal, but at least I can check the places out.

[pointaken]

I think I'm kinda in a different boat here since I'm applying for Master's programs, some in teaching, but here are my stats.

University of Maryland

BA in English, Minor in Spanish

Full-Ride Academic Scholarship

University Honors (no thesis)

3.70 GPA

640V/710M/5.0AW

Languages: Advanced in Spanish, Basic Level French and Tagalog

Foreign Experience: Studied abroad in Spain Fall 2008

Teaching Experience: Volunteer TA for an Adult ESL program (2 semesters), Designed/Taught undergraduate leadership course (1 semester)

Writing Sample: Analyzing the humor of "That's what she said," also discusses the history of the joke and it's role in The Office. (not really related to what I want to study, but I don't have any other paper written in English remotely related to linguistics that's long enough and good enough)

Applying To:

Teaching Programs

Fulbright ETA program in Spain

Spanish Government Language and Culture Assistant Program

Graduate Schools

UCLA: M.A. Applied Linguistics

Georgetown: M.S. Applied Linguistics

Teachers College: M.A. Applied Linguistics

Pitt: M.A. Applied Linguistics

Boston U: M.A. Applied Linguistics

Illinois: M.A. TESL

USC: M.S. TESOL

NYU: Dual Cert TESOL and FLE

The dream would be to take a Fulbright or a grant from the Spanish government, teach there for a year, then return for graduate school in 2011. Most of my schools don't do deferrals, but it's easier to apply now and then just reapply next year--I won't have to repay application fees and it's not like I'll be less qualified after teaching a year. But yeah. My interests lie somewhere in between theoretical studies and straight up teaching, so I've applied to a range of Applied Linguistics and teaching programs. I figure that I'll just figure it out. My girlfriend's applying to grad school in Chemical Biology (or Biological Chemistry, depending on the application), so it would be great if we end up near each other when I get back from Spain. I don't know if the Masters will lead me to apply for PhD programs when I'm done, or if I'm going find a job after...we'll see.

I should hear back in March or April from most places. No interviews for these Masters programs. I find out about first cuts from Fulbright at the end of January, and the Spanish govt program has rolling admissions.

Edited December 28, 2009 by pointaken

[ColorlessGreen]

I think I'm kinda in a different boat here since I'm applying for Master's programs, some in teaching, but here are my stats.

...

Writing Sample: Analyzing the humor of "That's what she said," also discusses the history of the joke and it's role in The Office. (not really related to what I want to study, but I don't have any other paper written in English remotely related to linguistics that's long enough and good enough)

...

My interests lie somewhere in between theoretical studies and straight up teaching, so I've applied to a range of Applied Linguistics and teaching programs. I figure that I'll just figure it out.

Just curious - what are you intending to study? I know Applied Linguistics is different from Linguistics, but although both are taught in the same department in my undergrad school, I haven't actually taken any of the applied classes. Do your interests include the theory behind 2nd language acquisition (and if so, syntax or phonology?), or TESL, or both? Or are you interested in something altogether different?

[pointaken]

Just curious - what are you intending to study? I know Applied Linguistics is different from Linguistics, but although both are taught in the same department in my undergrad school, I haven't actually taken any of the applied classes. Do your interests include the theory behind 2nd language acquisition (and if so, syntax or phonology?), or TESL, or both? Or are you interested in something altogether different?

My interests lie somewhere near the intersection between SLA theory (mainly syntax) and the teaching/learning context. I'm interested in gaining a strong background in second language theory and working to see how to translate that into pedagogical applications. For my spanish linguistics course this semester I read a bunch of studies that delved into the context of learning/acquisition: study abroad vs. domestic classroom teaching, different types of classroom experiences (immersion vs. non-immersion), etc., and I've gotten interested in how that influences the learning/acquisition process. There's a professor at UCLA who has some interests in service learning as a context for SLA, which sounds fascinating to me. I'm also taking a course in English grammar pedagogy for ESL next semester, just to see what the current methods are. I don't where graduate school lead me exactly--some things I could see myself doing is helping run an ESL/FL program here in the US, or working in creating curricula and lessons materials; I also fully expect myself to be in front of a classroom at some point.

I would have added a major in linguistics, but I didn't have time because I discovered my interest in it too late. Heck, up until this past year I still thought I wanted to teach high school English lit and composition, and before that, I was a freshman Engineering major .

Edited December 29, 2009 by pointaken

[psycholinguist]

I have an honours BA in linguistics with minors in cognitive science and music.

GPA: 3.72 (A-).

Undergrad honours thesis

Two presentations - one at a conference, one at a casual departmental event

Study-abroad semester

A little bit of data-organisation at a language-acquisition lab

One semester of graduate work in cognitive psychology (...which taught me that I don't want any degrees in cognitive psychology)

3 letters of recommendation

Applying to:

University of Toronto

McGill

University of Western Ontario

Edit - does fluency in languages have any real impact on candidacy? McGill is in francophone Canada, and I'm hoping that me being francophone might give me an ever-so-slight edge.

Montréal is very bilingual, but McGill is overwhelmingly English-speaking, so I don't think it would make a big difference to your application in general. However, considering that we're linguists, additional languages are always a good thing, and knowing French is a big help when it comes to navigating the city, etc.

[psycholinguist]

I would have added a major in linguistics, but I didn't have time because I discovered my interest in it too late. Heck, up until this past year I still thought I wanted to teach high school English lit and composition, and before that, I was a freshman Engineering major .

Heh! A lot of linguists I know - myself included - are former aspiring engineers. I think it's just a testament to how analytical we tend to be. (For a couple of years in high-school, all I wanted to do was engineering. Then I took honours physics in eleventh grade and didn't get along with it. Which forced me to rethink my plans. Thank goodness I did, though, because I'm so happy in linguistics. w00t!)

[solairne]

Heh! A lot of linguists I know - myself included - are former aspiring engineers. I think it's just a testament to how analytical we tend to be. (For a couple of years in high-school, all I wanted to do was engineering. Then I took honours physics in eleventh grade and didn't get along with it. Which forced me to rethink my plans. Thank goodness I did, though, because I'm so happy in linguistics. w00t!)

Psycho, didn't you apply last year to McGill? Are you reapplying?

Edited December 29, 2009 by solairne

[pointaken]

Heh! A lot of linguists I know - myself included - are former aspiring engineers. I think it's just a testament to how analytical we tend to be. (For a couple of years in high-school, all I wanted to do was engineering. Then I took honours physics in eleventh grade and didn't get along with it. Which forced me to rethink my plans. Thank goodness I did, though, because I'm so happy in linguistics. w00t!)

Haha, for me, taking AP Physics in high school was what made me want to do Engineering. Then I took Calc 2 and 3 and built a hovercraft and decided I was sick of math, did not want to leanr fluid mechanics, and despised working on team builds...which ruled out the kind of engineering I wanted to do (aerospace).

In other news, I just sent off my applications to Georgetown (M.S. Applied Ling) and Illinois (M.A. TESL). Just need to finish off USC (rolling), Columbia (Jan 15), and NYU (Feb 1). My girlfriend submitted her last application last night; then again, she's always been more on top of things than I am.

[psycholinguist]

Psycho, didn't you apply last year to McGill? Are you reapplying?

Yep and yep. I was feeling profoundly torn between psychology and linguistics, so I applied to a bunch of programs in each field - including McGill's in both. Got almost all rejections, and I could only afford one of the two schools I was accepted to, so I went off to the other, the University of Waterloo, to do an MA in psychology. Almost immediately my old ambivalence was resolved; I started missing linguistics terribly, and discovered that I would much prefer to be working with language-data than with reaction-times. Furthermore, it started looking as if reconciling my revised academic goals (i.e. Ph.D. in linguistics) with the MA in psychology was going to be really difficult; one of my LOR-writers said that if I couldn't do anything close to linguistics for the psychology MA - and I couldn't, since no one at Waterloo really does anything non-developmental that really qualifies as psycholinguistics - he wouldn't be able to account for why I went off to get that degree there. So I actually ended up leaving the program and now have a Real Job™ to go to until I can get back into linguistics. Totally can't wait to, though!

[psycholinguist]

Haha, for me, taking AP Physics in high school was what made me want to do Engineering. Then I took Calc 2 and 3 and built a hovercraft and decided I was sick of math, did not want to leanr fluid mechanics, and despised working on team builds...which ruled out the kind of engineering I wanted to do (aerospace).

In other news, I just sent off my applications to Georgetown (M.S. Applied Ling) and Illinois (M.A. TESL). Just need to finish off USC (rolling), Columbia (Jan 15), and NYU (Feb 1). My girlfriend submitted her last application last night; then again, she's always been more on top of things than I am.

w00t! Best of luck!

[solairne]

Yep and yep. I was feeling profoundly torn between psychology and linguistics, so I applied to a bunch of programs in each field - including McGill's in both. Got almost all rejections, and I could only afford one of the two schools I was accepted to, so I went off to the other, the University of Waterloo, to do an MA in psychology. Almost immediately my old ambivalence was resolved; I started missing linguistics terribly, and discovered that I would much prefer to be working with language-data than with reaction-times. Furthermore, it started looking as if reconciling my revised academic goals (i.e. Ph.D. in linguistics) with the MA in psychology was going to be really difficult; one of my LOR-writers said that if I couldn't do anything close to linguistics for the psychology MA - and I couldn't, since no one at Waterloo really does anything non-developmental that really qualifies as psycholinguistics - he wouldn't be able to account for why I went off to get that degree there. So I actually ended up leaving the program and now have a Real Job™ to go to until I can get back into linguistics. Totally can't wait to, though!

Have you done anything to beef up your application? How do your interests mesh with the faculty at McGill and by whom do you want to be advised?

When did you hear back last year? We have until end of February or so to wait, right?

[psycholinguist]

Have you done anything to beef up your application? How do your interests mesh with the faculty at McGill and by whom do you want to be advised?

When did you hear back last year? We have until end of February or so to wait, right?

My GPA has increased, I've finished an undergrad thesis (which will serve nicely as a writing-sample), my LORs will be stronger, and my SOP actually makes sense now. I want to do language-change and dialectology, so at McGill I'm the most interested in the work of Charles Boberg and the Dialectology and Sociolinguistics Lab.

When you hear from the programs depends on a lot of things. Linguistics-departments tend to meet all together to talk about prospective grad-students (this is in contrast to, say, psychology, in which individual faculty-members pick their own grad-students), so it could be anytime. Some programs I heard from at the end of January; others not until March. Rumour has it that in general when it comes to admissions-decisions, verdicts that were easily reached by the committee (whether acceptances or rejections) are sent out first, with the middle-range ones left for later.