Finally going to start preparing for PhD apps -- where should I apply??

[racataca]

So I am finally graduating with my MA after a million years of being in thesis limbo, and am looking at my next step, which is hopefully a doctorate. 

My thesis was on theories of language evolution and whether language and music evolved from a similar proto-musical faculty (looking at a lot of work by Jackendoff, Fitch, etc.), and tested the capacity of both Korean and non-Korean speakers to correctly interpret non-propositional information found in the rising intonation necessary to make a certain type of polar interrogative in Korean (where there is no syntactical or morphological change to indicate it's an interrogative).  Spoiler alert: everyone knows when your voice goes up, you're asking a question.* 

Anyway, I'm interested in continuing that type of work, but am also interested in the semantic processing of late second language learners, code switching, identity performance, and Korean linguistics in general (although I'm about an intermediate speaker).  I speak Spanish fluently, was a Peace Corps volunteer, have a 4.0 in my MA program, a 3.4 in my undergrad (rough), have taught ESL/EFL for a combined 8 years and have been teaching linguistics and pedagogy at a TEFL certification course for the past year.  I also presented a pretty mediocre paper re: Twitter, One Direction fans, and identity construction at a conference where I accidentally got into an argument with Mary Bucholz. 

I don't know how competitive I am as an applicant (haven't been published, my undergrad GPA isn't amazing), nor do I know what my dissertation would be on, but I want to roll around in linguistics research for the rest of my life, and I want to teach it to other people and impart passion into them too.  

So GradCafe people, I'm reaching out to you -- do you know of any programs off the top of your head you'd recommend?  I know I should try for the best program possible with the most funding, but I'm trying to keep it realistic given my credentials.  My professors are gunning for me, but surprise, I'm a millennial woman with major Imposter Syndrome. ?

*you know, barring all the other environments that would force rising intonation

Edited November 21, 2016 by racataca

[fuzzylogician]

Your interests are far enough removed from mine that I don't think I can give good advice on particular programs you should apply to, but my main suggestion is to go back to your thesis, flip all the way to the end, and start looking through the bibliography. Who are the people who are doing interesting and relevant work who you've cited? Where do they teach? Who do they work with and who do they cite in their papers? Where do those people teach? At those programs you've now identified, are there are least 2-3 people who you could work with? Are those programs located in decent locations and do they give their students decent funding? That's where you want to go. If you have specific questions about potential programs, once you've identified some, I may be able to help more. In the meanwhile, don't sell yourself short! Most people won't have publications at this point in their career. You have a good GPA and interesting experience. It sounds like you'll have good LORs. As long as you can write a compelling SOP, I think you'll have a chance at getting in! 

[Ziggy Finish]

Hi Racataca,

McGill University - Dominates the centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music - http://crblm.ca/ - this is the largest network of people working on the intersection of music, language and cognition. I don't know if you'll find a larger concentration of people working in your field or specifically interested int he neural correlates between language and music cognition. Caroline Palmer is a psychologist there who works on prosody and sequence production in music and language. However, the Dec 1st deadline for Psychology just past. If you speak French you can also access the CRBLM through the Université de Montréal and Université de Quebec a Montréal (UQAM), or in English through Concordia University - though only via Psychology since there is no PhD in linguistics at Concordia.