Admission to Graduate Study in Linguistics

Entrance Requirements for the M.A. or Ph.D. Program

1. In conjunction with the admissions forms and documents required by the University of Georgia Graduate School, applicants should offer the following items:
   An undergraduate degree. Your degree need not be in Linguistics, but course work or experience relevant to Linguistics is strongly preferred. Applicants should at least have completed an undergraduate introductory survey course in Linguistics, or its equivalent. Students with a bachelor's degree may apply for either the M.A. (30 semester hours) or Ph.D. (45 semester hours) program; admission to the Ph.D. program for students with a bachelor's degree demands exemplary qualifications. Students with an M.A. in Linguistics or a closely-related field (including one from the University of Georgia) may apply for the Ph.D. program, and must complete at least 30 semester hours at Georgia. Students with an M.A. unrelated to Linguistics may apply for either the M.A. (30 semester hours) or Ph.D. (45 semester hours) program and should expect to complete requirements as if they had completed only an undergraduate degree. Admission is highly competitive. Successful applicants for the M.A. and Ph.D. programs typically have undergraduate GPAs well above 3.0. Applicants with graduate training are normally expected to have achieved at least a 3.5 GPA in previous graduate courses.
   
2. The general portion of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). While there is no official minimum score required for admission, successful applicants have normally achieved combined scores of over 1200 on the GRE verbal and math sections. Combined GRE verbal and math scores above 1300 are common, especially for students considered for research assistantships.
3. The TOEFL exam for non-native speakers of English. While there is no official minimum score required for admission, successful applicants have normally achieved a score above 600.
4. Three letters of recommendation. Forms for recommendations are included in the Graduate School application packet, but letters should be sent directly to the Linguistics Program office. Letters from professors and other academic sources are preferred.
5. Statement of purpose. You should compose a brief essay of perhaps 500 words which indicates why you want to study Linguistics at the University of Georgia. It should be sent directly to the Linguistics Program office.
6. Letter of request to be considered for an assistantship. You should send a letter directly to the Linguistics Program office which indicates that you wish to be considered for a research assistantship, a teaching assistantship, or both, and which suggests your qualifications for an assistantship. Students who hold Linguistics teaching assistantships normally do the bulk of their teaching in elementary foreign language or English composition courses.
7. A writing sample. If possible, your writing sample should be an academic essay, normally a paper submitted for a course. It can have instructor's comments on it.

Admission Schedule

Graduate students normally begin their course of studies in the Fall semester. You should submit your application to the University of Georgia Graduate School, and provide the additional items above to the Linguistics Program office, by January 1 before the Fall in which you wish to enroll. The Linguistics faculty cannot consider any application until the Graduate School certifies that all of the necessary documents (transcripts, etc.) have been received. Applications for admission in the Winter or Summer semesters may be considered by the Linguistics faculty, but competition for assistantships and other aid are only conducted during the admissions process for Fall.