Re: OT: Linguistics Study

And's suggestions are very good. It's definitely possible to get
letters from non-academics, and I'd rather get good letters from odd
recommenders than waive or reduce the requirement. At least in the US
graduate admissions is much more skewed to professors picking the
kinds of students they want to work with (sometimes literally, each
student has to have at least one professor who thinks they would want
to work with them). So letters matter a _lot_. The professors
generally pick, not some bureaucrat in admissions, which is very
different from ugrad.

Get letters from impressive people that you know. I recommended a
former co-worker to
a PhD program and Oxford (and she got in) -- I have an academic
affiliation (but not
much of one, on a part-time basis), and I had never taught her -- but
I was able to say that she is smart, creative, hard-working, and
would make a good student. An enthusiastic letter from someone who's
credible (even if unusual) is better than a lukewarm one from a
"standard source".

20-odd years ago, I also wrote a college recommendation for a high-
school student that I knew -- I was just a recent college grad.
Again, I was able to say very true things about his motivation and
learning. I won't claim I got him in, but he was accepted, so my
recommendation probably helped and didn't hurt...

The more impressive the recommender the better, but their ability to
credibly sell you as a thinker and worker are most important.

That said, there is often some prejudice about older graduate
students -- they're less likely to be cheap labor or top academic job
candidates once they finish, because their academic careers will be
much shorter. But this is not insurmountable. Not all professors are
motivated by their own self-interest.

    -- David

On Jul 20, 2007, at 10:50 AM, David Peterson wrote:

> On Jul 20, 2007, at 4:43 AM, And Rosta wrote:
>
>> Jeffrey Jones, On 20/07/2007 08:47:
>>> I've run into a major snag (besides the financial issue): all the
>>> linguistics departments I've looked into require three letters of
>>> recommendation. My undergraduate degrees were obtained twenty-
>>> five years ago. Any ideas?
>>
>> Unless America is different from Britain, I would advise finding
>> out which member of the linguistics staff is in charge of
>> admissions, and contacting them to explain that you're very
>> interested in linguistics & in studying on their programme, but
>> you have run into this major snag. If the place treats students
>> properly, they'll sort out the snag for you. If they don't sort
>> out the snag, then you can find somewhere better to study.
>
> Sound, sound advice.  They might do one of the following:
>
> (1) Waive the requirement.
> (2) Ask for letters from a current or recent employer.
> (3) Reduce the number of letters.
>
> It should be able to be worked out, though.
>
> -David