A little worried

[nathdep]

Hello everyone!

I have some questions about funding in regards to the University of Iowa MA program in Linguistics. I've posted to the Decisions forum recently but I thought it might be a good idea to post here as well.

In a nutshell, I have been very anxious about the whole grad school application process. I've applied to seven different schools and have received rejections from three of them already. I did, however, get accepted to the University of Iowa for Linguistics. To give some background, I was contacted much earlier than expected (3 days before the deadline) and also before all of my letters of recommendation were in. They couldn't, however, make any promises on funding and wouldn't be making any decisions until early March.

I ended up calling the department and was referred to the director of admissions. I sent her an email expressing my concern about receiving funding since I come from a low income family and because I am a French and Spanish major as opposed to a linguistics major. I am aware that they give most of their aid in the form of assistantships which require a background in linguistics which I do not have. That was a week ago and I have not received any emails back.

I am a novice when it comes to understanding funding for grad school.  i'm not sure at all how much of a chance that I have in receiving funding considering I will be entering into the MA program. Considering it costs nearly $25,000 a semester to attend there, it would be next to impossible for me to afford to join the program. This makes me nervous considering I've received rejection letters from other schools and because I'm very interested in the Linguistics program at the University of Iowa.

I spoke with one of my professors about what he thought my chances were in getting funding and he seemed hopeful. He thought it was a good sign that I was contacted so early without my application being complete. He said that being in the first wave of students alone boosts my chances of getting funding. He also told me that I shouldn't really have to worry as they may have funding later on. I'm very unsure about this because of the fact that even one semester costs so much.

My main question is whether or not it would be worth calling the director of admissions again. I'm not really sure if it would necessarily change the committee's decision if I described my situation to her considering I'm sure the majority of accepted people are in the same spot I'm in. Also, I don't want to annoy her considering I've already been told that funding is competitive and that decisions will not be made for about another month.

Is it possible that I might just be getting anxious for nothing? I don't want to expect to get funding if I'm not because I don't want to get my hopes up/run into problems from assuming I'm more than likely going to receive aid. I'm so new to all of this and am also the first person in my family to go to college so I rely on people on here and my professors to give me some advice. I also need to keep in mind that even though I've received some rejections, I'm still waiting on a few other schools. My professor seemed to think, though, that the ones I'm waiting on don't usually give out too much financial aid.

Here are the other schools I applied to:

U of Indiana - Bloomington (PhD French Linguistics) - rejected

Middlebury College (MA Spanish) - rejected

U of Maryland - College Park (MA French) - rejected

U of Wisconsin - Madison (MA Spanish linguistics) - waiting

U of Missouri (MA Romance Languages) - waiting

SUNY Albany (PhD Spanish Linguistics) - waiting

[TMP]

I'd wait.  See what others have to say and if you receive better funding at other places and you still want to go to Iowa, you can let the DGS know.  S/he may come up with a better offer or leave whatever s/he has on the table.  You've done what you can-- you told your sotry and emphasized your interest in the program.

Unlike the PhD, you don't have a deadline of April 15th to follow.  Unless a program imposes a deadline, you have plenty of time to figure out what you wish to do.

In the meantime as you wait for various decisions to be made, start looking around Iowa City and figure out the cost of living and what kind of money you'd need to make ends meet while in graduate school.  Also, check in the state residency; does Iowa offer in-state tuition after a certain period of time if your intent is to study and not work in the state of Iowa?

 

 

[rising_star]

Yes, it's possible you're getting anxious over nothing. They'll contact you when they make a decision. In the meantime, if you really want to go to U of Iowa, you may want to see if either the French or Spanish departments hire MA students as TAs. If they do, perhaps you can apply there as a backup in case you don't get funding from the linguistics department.

[nathdep]

@TMP

I did confirm with the school that if I were to be a TA, they would consider me to be an in-state resident and pay in-state tuition (if the assistantship doesn't already pay for everything). I plan on looking into apartments in the near future but I don't want to get my hopes up if I don't get the funding.

@rising_star

When I talked to the assistant director, she did say I should check into the Spanish and French departments to maybe get funding through an assistantship with them. I haven't yet because I would imagine that they already have their own students to give funding to. I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask though.

I know that it is very possible I'm getting anxious for no reason but after getting rejected from 3 schools already, I'm entering panic mode and getting more pessimistic. Another possibility that I meant to ask is whether or not it would be worth going without funding with hopes of getting it after the first semester. I know that, after reading the funding information on the department's website, taking certain courses allow students to teach more classes through teaching assistantships. I also know that on the site it states that research assistantships are reserved mainly for incoming students. They also say in another section that they reserve money specifically for new students. I'm still unsure though that I might not make the cut.

I know I shouldn't be so anxious and be more optimistic since there are quite a few things working in my favor but it's my nature to be anxious about everything. Hopefully I'll get another acceptance letter in the near future to compare my options. Essentially, I fear that I might have to make the very hard decision of either paying $25,000 a semester to go to Iowa or not go to grad school at all.

[rising_star]

I'm not really sure why you wouldn't go ahead and at least look up the procedures for applying for a TA position in French or Spanish. It doesn't hurt to fully explore your options.

That said, if it ultimately comes down to paying $25K a semester to go to grad school or not going at all, I would choose the latter. You can ask admissions committees if they're willing to share info about why you were rejected once the application cycle is over. Based on what you've said, the lack of linguistics coursework may be hindering your applications. If that's the case, then you could take more linguistics courses at a community college or local university and apply again in a year or so.