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Thanks for the reply thousands. Your advice is helpful, and your experience is encouraging cowgirl, I really appreciate that information. I'm hoping to spend most of August studying for the GRE. Thankfully, I'm a decent test taker, and I'm hoping to score as high as possible, even though from what I understand it's usually more of a weed-out factor than something that will tip the scales in your favor. I really appreciate the reply. To address a couple things you pointed out: my recommenders should be pretty strong (6 professors in the lang dep't reached out to me my during my last semester of undergrad, urging me to go to grad school, and many of them either wrote my law school recs or explicitly told me they'd write one if I went to grad school). Unfortunately, not all of them are linguistics-related, and idk how many are "big names" that will be known to the admissions committee, so that may be an issue writing sample could be potentially strong, but will require significant edits or (in the case of certain departments) perhaps a new paper aligning more with my expressed interests. As for some specific questions, to what extent should I mention interdisciplinary interests into my SOP? For example, although many of my interests are solely linguistics related, some of my interests overlap b/w law and linguistics, and I've thought about mentioning my interest In applying a potential advisor's work to a particular area of law (I feel this would also help explain the less than direct path to the Phd, like you mentioned), but I've also heard that interdisciplinary work is often ill-advised. Perhaps this is a case where I can reach out to profs beforehand and directly ask them how open they would be to this type of thing. Thanks in advance

Thanks for the reply . I probably should have clarified that I don't want to practice law (as for why I went to law school in the first place is a valid question and long story); linguistics is my true passion, and while some of my research interests overlap between law and linguistics, others are solely linguistics-related. While my dream job would be an academic position, my motivations for pursuing the PhD are not chiefly pragmatic; I simply believe I would be happy as a graduate student (I know that might sound naïve, but I'm pretty confident about that), to the extent that it would be worthwhile regardless of the outcome. As for where I'd be applying, I will definitely be applying to the program at the same university as my law school, though I'm also planning on applying to other schools whose interests likely match up better with my own.

Hi all, I had a question about gaining admission to PhD programs in linguistics with unconventional credentials. I am currently a JD student at a top 5 law school, and was hoping to complete a PhD either alongside or after the JD. I completed a dual degree in undergrad with BAs in humanities and a foreign language, as well as a minor in linguistics, and won most outstanding student in the language department my last two years. I took multiple grad-level linguistics courses, and worked as a research assistant for one of my ling professors. My overall GPA was a 4.0. After undergrad, I taught English abroad for a year before going to law school. My question is, without an MA and other normal qualifications, how feasible would it be to gain admission to a good PhD program in linguistics? I am planning on following the normal recommended advice of reaching out to potential advisors and carefully crafting my personal statement to each individual department, as well as casting a wide net to different programs, but was wondering if that would be enough. If not, what specific things might I do to help strengthen my case? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance