zaichik

Thank you for the responses, experiences, and insight thus far. I'm glad to know that my background won't necessarily be seen as a liability. Red_crayons, I've taken your advice and contacted the few professors at my school who are involved in linguistics/language. Liszt, if you don't mind my asking, are you working on a PhD with the same concentration/in the same area as that of your Master? I'm asking because I don't know how flexible I'm allowed to be. For instance, a program with a concentration in Applied Linguistics sounds very appealing to me, but would that hold me back from getting a PhD with a historical emphasis, which I'm also interested in, later on, or vice versa? Thanks again for all of the help. I greatly appreciate it.

Hello, I'm new to the forum and have a couple of questions about pursuing a graduate degree in linguistics. I'm an undergrad who's about to finish up my bachelor's degree in the biological sciences, but I've always been interested in language and its structure, acquisition, and so on. I didn't major in a linguistics-related field because I had plans to go into a health-related profession, but my heart was never in it, so I'm now trying to save myself from a future of unhappiness. While I haven't taken a formal course in linguistics yet, I plan to do so in a few months. I've also read an introductory book on the matter, have taken introductory classes in a couple of languages, and often find myself perusing language-related journals, hence my reason to shift gears now. I understand that I probably couldn't compete against applicants with prior background or degrees in the field in regard to applying for PhD programs, which seem to be more generous funding wise. I wouldn't object to going for a master's -- I love the idea, in fact -- but I'm worried about accumulating debt while being unsure of employment prospects later on. Does anybody have any experience with obtaining a master's and receiving full tuition-remission? Are there any schools that guarantee this or are generally willing to help master's students? It seems that PhDs receive priority. I know that programs vary widely, and that my GRE (which I haven't taken yet) score/GPA will play a role, but right now I'm just looking for a solid list of schools to research. Thanks for the help!