PhD Linguistics at McGill -- preparations

[lyra44]

Hello, I have a question that may be too specific but hopefully someone out there has some relevant experience/advice. I am trying to decide what to do as a literature student who would like to eventually complete a PhD in linguistics. Right now I am mostly looking into masters programs as it seems that it would greatly help me to complete a masters before even trying to apply to a PhD, but if someone has a suggestion of a PhD program that requires little background in linguistics, I'm game.

 

Here are my studies so far :

B.A. English and French literature at a small liberal arts school in the USA

Masters 1 & 2 in comparative literature at the Sorbonne in Paris (all schoolwork in French) -- I will complete my last year of this masters this year.

The program I am envisioning doing my PhD in is the Linguistics PhD at McGill, and they have a masters program as well, so I could possibly do one and then the other seamlessly. They do require some preparation in linguistics, so I would probably be referred to their qualifying year. Tuition for that year is about 16000, but once you get into the master, it is funded.

I am considering either auditing some linguistics courses this year or doing a full year of classes after the masters in order to give myself some background in linguistics. I feel I need at least a few classes in order to write a good statement of purpose, and I also will need letters of recommendation, and having some linguistics professors would be helpful. There is one program at a French university that looks like it would give me a full course load of introductory classes, it is at the L3 level, so that would be equivalent to re-doing a senior year of a bachelor's program, grade-wise.

There are also several masters programs across europe that require little to no preparation in linguistics, and I could alternatively do a masters in Europe and then apply directly to the PhD at McGill. The Masters in europe aren't funded but tuition is free or negligible. I am looking at several universities in Belgium, the Freie University Berlin, and a few universities in France. 

Does anybody here have experience with McGill and their Qualifying Year, or generally applying to the program? I am worried about it being very expensive if I have to do the qualifying year, which is why I am considering doing a masters elsewhere first. I'm also worried about not having a writing sample in English for the application to McGill (the european masters are fairly easy to get into and don't require writing samples or letters of rec). I'm just feeling very overwhelmed with all the different options across many countries and could use some help/advice.

 

links to programs : 

McGill : https://www.mcgill.ca/linguistics/graduate/admission

Berlin : http://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/en/izeus/master/bewerbung/Zulassungsvoraussetzungen/index.html

Belgium : 

https://uclouvain.be/en/faculties/fial/selection-et-admission-0.html

https://www.programmes.uliege.be/cocoon/20182019/en/formations/condac/P2ULIN01.html

https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/faculties/faculty-of-arts/studying-and-education/degree-students/programmes/

France

http://www.masterlinguistiquetours.com/Admision.html

http://www.univ-tlse2.fr/accueil/formation-insertion/odf-2016-2020/master-linguistique-cognition-communication-licoco--386439.kjsp

http://www.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr/fr/formations/offre-de-formation-2016-2020/master-XB/sciences-du-langage-SCLANG.14/master-sciences-du-langage-program-mna16-216/master-2-theorie-et-description-du-langage-et-des-langages-subprogram-master-2-theorie-et-description-du-langage-et-des-languesnouveau-parcours.html

L3 - Bachelor's year : 

https://formation.univ-paris-diderot.fr/formations/licence-sciences-du-langage