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Admissions

Deadline:

January 1st

All application materials must be submitted by January 1 for matriculation the following August (Fall semester).

Students who submit their application after the January 1st deadline may receive secondary consideration, but cannot compete for assistantships or other financial aid from the department.

Applications are not accepted for Spring or Summer admission.

We recommend that you submit your application a few days before January 1st to allow for processing time.

PROCESS

Applicants to the Department of Linguistics must initiate their application directly with the Graduate School. Please be sure to fulfill all Graduate School requirements as well as all of the department-specific requirements below.

No recommendation can be made for applications that are labeled "incomplete" by the Graduate School. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure the completion of their application, but the department will attempt to alert applicants about missing materials.

If you ever have questions or concerns about your application, please contact us at linguistics@uga.edu.

Requirements

PLEASE NOTE: GRE scores are NOT required for applications or for funding.

If you would like to include your GRE scores in your application anyway, please have official GRE scores sent directly from ETS to the Graduate School using institution code 5813.

An undergraduate or graduate degree.

An applicant's degree(s) need not be in Linguistics, but coursework or experience relevant to Linguistics is strongly preferred.

Applicants with a bachelor's or master's degree unrelated to linguistics may apply for either an MA or Ph.D., but admission to the Ph.D. program for such applicants demands exemplary qualifications.

Applicants who possess an M.A. in Linguistics or a closely-related field may apply for the Ph.D. program and complete a reduced course load.

Academic transcript.

You will have the opportunity to upload unofficial, scanned transcripts as you apply on the Graduate School's website. If you should need to submit further unofficial transcripts, please email them to gradadm@uga.edu.

In the event that you are recommended for admission, you will be asked to provide official transcripts to the Graduate School. If possible, electronic versions of official transcripts are strongly preferred, emailed to gradadm@uga.edu.

Official hard copies will be accepted if they are in a sealed envelope and mailed directly to

Office of Graduate Admissions

The University of Georgia Graduate School

Brooks Hall

310 Herty Drive

Athens, GA 30602

Successful applicants for the M.A. and Ph.D. programs typically have undergraduate GPAs well above 3.0. Applicants with graduate records are expected to have earned at least a 3.5 GPA in previous graduate coursework.

The TOEFL or IELTS exam for non-native speakers of English.

This requirement can be waived for applicants who hold a degree from a university whose language of instruction is predominantly English.

There are other limitations on this waiver, so applicants should be in touch with the Graduate School at gradadm@uga.edu if there are any questions.

While there is no official minimum score required for admission, international applicants who wish to be funded by the department must possess a speaking score of 26 (TOEFL) or 7.5 (IELTS).

Have official scores sent to the Graduate School using institution code 5813.

Three letters of recommendation.

Letters from professors and other academic sources are highly preferred, though other letters will be accepted.

Letters will be elicited from your recommenders via email through the Graduate School's online application process.

Statement of Purpose.

Compose a brief essay of about 500 words which indicates why you want to study Linguistics at the University of Georgia. You will be prompted to submit this during the Graduate School's online application process.

A writing sample.

Writing samples should be academic in nature and are normally a paper submitted for a course. Submissions must be in English. You will be prompted to submit this during the Graduate School's online application process.

Résumé or CV.

Since we wish to consider all applicants for all University-wide fellowships, scholarships, and assistantships, applicants should provide a résumé listing their previous educational and research experience. You will be prompted to submit this during the Graduate School's online application process.

Proof of financial support.

International students must provide proof that they can fund their education before they can be offered admission. You will be prompted to submit this documentation during the Graduate School's online application process.

For information regarding how much money an international student must prove they have, please contact Graduate Admissions at gradadm@uga.edu with any questions. 

Awards may be used as support in this form, so students may choose to wait until decisions have been made regarding competitions for funding before submitting this form. International applications will be marked complete and prepared for review with the understanding that the financial statement will be submitted later in the process.

Domestic students may also wish to provide a financial statement, but domestic applications will be considered fully complete without this document.

For details about award specifics and how you may tailor your letters to aid us in nominating you for specific awards, please see the financial assistance section of this website

You are also encouraged to look for financial support from other relevant departments while pursuing a degree in Linguistics, though you will have to contact those departments directly in order for them to assess your qualifications.

Linguistics students have been awarded teaching assistantships in departments that house specific languages, such as English (first-year composition), German & Slavic Studies (German, Russian), Romance Languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish), Comparative Literature (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese; also Swahili and other African languages), as well as other units like the Intensive English Program (for non-native speakers).

Students have also been successful in finding employment on campus in other capacities.

Support Linguistics at UGA

Your donations to the Department of Linguistics will support research and travel opportunities for students and faculty and other initiatives to enhance students' education in linguistics. Please consider joining other friends and alumni who have shown their support by making a gift to our fund. We greatly appreciate your contributions to the success of our programs!  

EVERY DOLLAR CONTRIBUTED TO THE DEPARTMENT HAS A DIRECT IMPACT ON OUR STUDENTS AND FACULTY.