Chicago linguistics graduate

When completing the application form , it is of benefit to the applicant to be as specific as possible in describing their research interests. General comments are of relatively little use. Applicants are encouraged to discuss specific linguistic subject matters that they are interested in.

We have received in years past interesting discussions of, for instance, the relationship of signed languages to spoken languages; the status of the Specified Subject Condition; evidence that English is creole-like with a Celtic substratum; grammatical tone in Twi; and the semantics of idiomatic expressions.

The department looks forward to broadening the list of topics of interest to our applicants. If an applicant knows faculty members with whom they might work, the latter's names should be given as well. The faculty of the Linguistics Department would be happy to answer any questions that prospective students may have. In keeping with its long-standing traditions and policies, the University of Chicago, in admission, employment, and access to programs, considers students on the basis of individual merit and without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national or ethnic origin, handicap, or other factors irrelevant to fruitful participation in the programs of the University.

P rogram Statistics. Search Search. Why Study Linguistics? Home Graduate Admissions. The graduate program in linguistics, which culminates in a PhD degree, is intended to be completed in six years. The University of Chicago operates on the quarter system. Graduate students normally register for three courses per quarter, for three quarters per year.

Students generally take three to four years of coursework. Students must take eight foundational courses selected from fourteen available options , a methods course, and three additional graduate-level courses in linguistics.

All of these must be taken within the first four years, and six of them during the first year. In addition, all eight foundational courses must be taken during the first two years. In the second and third years, students continue taking courses and write two qualifying papers under faculty supervision.

In addition to these major landmarks, students are required to satisfy a non-Indo European language requirement and to pass a reading examination in an additional language other than English. In years two and three, when students are writing qualifying papers, they must also take the Research Seminar course. Upon completion of the qualifying papers and course and language requirements and defense of a dissertation proposal by the end of the fourth year students are admitted to candidacy for the PhD; the only remaining requirement is the dissertation.