telianathegreat

This is my second application cycle -- I got one acceptance last year but received no funding, so... basically a rejection. It was incredibly demoralizing, but this time around, I had the advantage of an additional year of research experience, more clarity on what I wanted to study, and a better understanding of the process, so I've done better. Based on what happened last time vs. this time and the things I did differently, I do think it's mostly fit. Let's be honest: if you're applying to PhD programs, you love school, and you're probably good at it. All of us can offer those "general conditions" you mention, so fit is really the main thing that distinguishes applicants (barring super crazy awesome experience/skills that some people have). Last time, I was honest about my research plan. I had a very, very flimsy statement of purpose. This time around, even though I'm still not all that certain what I want to research beyond "sociolinguistics... maybe something to do with sociophonetics?" I made up a thing that I was interested in (within the realm of what I actually want to do), called out professors from the department more in-depth in my SOP, and contacted POIs to get on their radars. I've still obviously received a bunch of rejections, but I've been accepted to three schools with funding! So it's clearly not a terrible strategy. I guess to answer your question, I think the appearance of fit is the most important thing. So if you show in your application that you fit with the program and the admissions committee buys is, you stand a good chance of being admitted. Like so many things, it's all about appearances. The people who tailor their statements and resumes the best are going to get the positions (as long as they're generally qualified). Maybe that's cynical...

Thanks, fuzzylogician! You're always very helpful. I would definitely say the fit isn't super clear with this school, so that makes sense.

So I've been lurking here this whole season, but I haven't really posted since last year. I got an e-mail today in which a professor asked me if we could Skype to "talk with you some more about your application" for 10-15 minutes. Do you guys think this is an interview? It seems too short. I'm just confused because I didn't have an interview for this program last year, and they notified everyone (accepts, waitlists, and rejections) via e-mail. Maybe they're trying something new? It's hard to know how I should prepare to talk with her.

I'm sure users on here can give you more specific advice, but I would suggest doing what I did to find programs: look through the list of linguistics programs on Linguist List and just skim through their websites to see what research interests the professors have. It takes a long time, but then you know for sure that you've found all of the programs that could fit your interests.

You're absolutely right. I just asked.

Okay, they got back to me and basically didn't directly answer the question I had asked, which was whether the visit affected my chances of admission: "This is an informal visit for you to get to know us a little and vice versa. So, if you can't come we will just have to wait until the Fall to meet you, should you decide to come here. The visit therefore does not affect admission." ???? I'm reading this as that we're admitted, but I'm worried that I'm biased towards thinking that since I'd like to be.

Glad I'm not the only one who was confused!

Thanks -- I felt that it was too large as well. I looked on their website and they have about 25 grad students total, so they're definitely not admitting 22. I'll definitely write back and ask, then!

Hi everyone, I'm trying to figure out what's happening with one of my PhD applications. On February 13th, I asked about the admissions process, wondering whether all interview requests are sent out at the same time. They responded that not everyone was interviewed, and that we would know whether we had been accepted by "the end of next week," which would have been February 22nd. I didn't hear anything. Today, a month later, I got an e-mail addressed to 22 "Prospective Incoming Students" about an "informal visit" being organized on March 22nd. It ended with "Looking forward to hearing from you and we are excited at the prospect of you joining our program." Is this an acceptance or a continuation of the application process? Any thoughts? I wish they had been more clear!

This admissions season, I applied to 5 PhD programs in Ling and one MA program. So far, I've been rejected from 3 PhD programs and haven't heard from the other 2 (although, I haven't received an interview, so I'm thinking my chances are pretty much zero). The MA people just e-mailed me today and offered me a qualifying year because I don't have the right background. I'm feeling pretty frustrated at this point since I do have an undergraduate degree in linguistics, pretty good grades (A- average), and great GRE scores. At any rate, it's a qualifying year that would allow me to re-apply to this program with no guarantee of admission even if I passed all the courses. Does this seem worthwhile? Does anyone know anything about qualifying years? I'm thinking I might just try to cut my losses and do research for a year or two.

Hi everyone, I've just been rejected from a few PhD programs, and I haven't heard back from my other programs, but other people have received interviews (or even acceptances) from them, so it's not looking good for me to go to grad school this year. It seems like applying straight out of undergrad is pretty tough since you're competing against people who have master's degrees or who have had real jobs. Next year I'll have my honors thesis done, a real degree, and some work experience, so I hope that will help. What I'm wondering now is what I should do this coming year. I plan on applying again next year, but what could I try to do to most strengthen my application? Try to work in a lab? I'm a linguistics major with a psychology minor who has taken developmental psych, so I'm thinking that maybe I could be a somewhat competitive applicant for language acquisition or child/infant cognition labs, though that's not really what I want to do (sociolinguistics). Are there other things I should be trying to do? Any advice?

Hi everyone, I'm a senior currently applying to PhD programs in linguistics. I'm specifically focused on sociolinguistics, but I don't have much more of an idea of exactly what I want to study. Obviously I have a lot of ideas of things within sociolinguistics that I like and am interested in, but it's hard to narrow it down to one. Will this be an issue? Should I try to come up with a specific topic to mention in my SOPs? I guess I'm not sure how specific they expect me to be beyond the subfield that I am interested in... Thanks in advance for your help!