Language Degrees Online

Students apply for admission to the Doctoral Program in Linguistics after they have completed a Master’s degree in Linguistics or a closely related field. The student selects an advisory committee of four Graduate Faculty members, including at least three from the Linguistics Program. The fourth member may be from the Linguistics Program, or from another department. The student typically chooses one member of the committee who agrees to act as the student’s advisor. The student and advisory committee structure a Program of Study that includes a total of 72 semester hours containing 60 hours of coursework and 12 hours of Dissertation Research. The 60 hours of coursework may contain linguistics course hours from the student’s Master’s Degree. The Graduate School must approve the program of study.

The current requirements for progress towards the degree are as follows. When the student has completed the coursework specified in the Program of Study, he or she takes a General Examination. This examination includes both written and oral defense components and is intended to demonstrate the student’s breadth and depth of knowledge in areas contained in the Program of Study. The examination is written and judged by the student’s advisory committee.

Having successfully passed the General Examination, the student starts work on a dissertation under the direction of one of the members of the advisory committee. The student works with the dissertation advisor to construct a proposal that typically includes an Introduction, Review of Literature, and detailed Methods to be followed in the proposed study. The advisory committee meets with the student to make suggestions regarding these aspects of the student’s dissertation project.

The student completes the dissertation research project with direction from the dissertation advisor. The document is then submitted to the full committee for evaluation. The student orally defends the dissertation in a meeting of the full committee. The Dean of the Graduate School assigns a representative to take part in this examination process.