Re: CHAT: University Advice (was Re: A bit of advice)

Tom Wier wrote:

>As for good gradschools, that depends on where your interest lies.  I like
grammatical
>theory and historical linguistics, and one of the few places that's strong in
both
>those areas is UPenn, so that's my first choice. I'm also thinking about
UCLA,
>MIT and Berkeley and UT.
This seems much like the list of unis I applied to for graduate school: UCLA,
MIT, Berkeley, and U of Washington.

 The last I'm doing as only a backup, because you don't
>to want to have intellectual incest with the same place for both your
undergrad and
>PhD.
Well, it's what I'm doing.  Undergrad at UCLA and PhD.

  MIT I'm not sure I like, nor that I could get in, because everyone there
seems
>to take Chomsky's diktat as gospel,
That's the main reason I didn't go there.  That and the fact that I only made
the waiting list.  I had decided against it before the notified me that I
wasn't going to make the cut though.  The other reason was that they don't
work
on Native American languages like the other three schools do.

 and I've heard that Berkeley has had some really
>seriously negative infighting in the department in the last couple years --
something about
>two professors refusing to teach the other's students or something. Really
bad
and
>unprofessional.  But I've heard only good things about UCLA and UPenn.
Anybody
>want to give *me* advice now? :)
I'm just starting my graduate career at the end of this month, so maybe in a
while I'd have something more substantial to say.  However, I did two years as
an undergraduate, and was more than willing to come back.  That should tell
you
something, at least.  In fact, Washington fought pretty hard to get me in
terms
of money, and Berkeley certainly communicated with me on the subject probably
as often as UCLA did, and two of my professors at the time were on the
selection committee.







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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
  -- Kenneth Hale
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