<p>hello! :)</p>
<p>i'm a non-us student and i've graduated comparative linguistics as the only student of it in my country. so, the natural course of action was to continue my education (it's not really a careeer choice that'll make me rich :D). i wasn't satisfied with phd programs in europe (except for leiden, netherlands, but there're almost no scholarships there and i'm counting on that < $60000 financial aid) and i've decided to think about some ivy league colleges. i want comparative/historical linguistics, so harvard is my 1st choice, maybe yale and stanford, then brown (it's a bit more oriented on cognitive linguistics. i've taken a lot of courses on CL, so i could "settle" with that one, but it's the history of language that i'm interested in every day).</p>
<p>so, here's my first question - even though i already hold a master's degree in comparative linguistics and slavic languages and literature (double-major), is it possible for me to apply to harvard (or other college) graduate school (of (historical) linguistics)? i've noticed that there's no BA (3 years) + MA (2 years) + PhD (usually 3 years) system like in europe, but BA + 5 years of graduate school. and if it is possible, do i still have to "graduate" again or is there a chance i could just get into, i don't know, the last two years of the program? i guess that really isn't possible, but one can hope... :D will it at least give me a head start?</p>
<p>my GRE and TOEFL scores will be ok, i hope so. i'm fluent in at least 5 languages and i've taken courses on 15 other ones. i've studied a few myself. i hadn't been writing a lot, i've participated at one conference (the usual practice in my country is to concentrate on your exams and then start publishing after you graduate). i've acquired ~500 ECTS instead of 300 (180 for BA and 120 for MA) because i've taken lot of language courses and other courses from some other schools (geology, anthropology, programming etc.). i've got straight As on my MA level and a few Bs on BA (it was bound to happen :-/, i've taken at least 80 courses throughout my BA and MA). i got the highest academic reward from my university for my paper.</p>
<p>my mentor is a known linguist and i believe his letter of recommendation will mean a lot. i'm not quite sure about the other two letters - should i pick "more famous" professors or ones i believe are experts in my field of research?</p>
<p>the whole application process is quite expensive and i'm just a poor student, so i wouldn't want to waste a lot of money on paper work and stuff if there's no chance of me getting in (there's a whole bunch of myths in my head and i'm really scared and nervous about all this). so i'd really appreaciate your help, advice or comments. :)</p>