Master's Program, Funding

[zaichik]

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!

[red_crayons]

I was also an undergrad bio major who wanted to do linguistics. I was lucky to be at a school with a solid linguistics department and a linguistics major. Many of the faculty repeatedly stressed to those of us interested in linguistics that relatively FEW schools have majors in linguistics, and that solid coursework and specific interest could overcome a major in a different field when applying to linguistics grad programs.

Eventually I found a way to combine my interests in biology/health and language. I took linguistics and literature classes AND finished my biology major. Now I'm going to be looking at food and pharmaceutical advertising (using my biology background and agriculture research experience) through the lens of literary theory (=why do we say what we say?) and hopefully discourse analysis (=more qualitative/ethnographic side of linguistics).

If you have any neurosci background, there's always the cognitive science angle on language, which fits well with your interest in language acquisition.

Since you're still in school, find a couple ling professors to lend you books. See if you can stay in your college's town through the summer, and really glom onto them for the next 5 or 6 months. Read what they recommend, and find times to talk about it and build a rapport through the summer. Making and keeping up connections will do a lot to help you find the right academic niche. Plus, it could possibly lead to becoming involved in research, or a letter of recommendation.

I didn't apply in linguistics though, so this is just my two cents!

[liszt85]

I majored in Physics (and went on to complete a masters). I did 3 linguistics courses, one of them a grad level course, and my professor was really happy with the way I thought about stuff and wrote me a recommendation. I also had a nice writing sample from a term paper I did for that grad level course which was pretty decent for somebody who didn't have a background in the field. I got into Northwestern's PhD program in Linguistics (with full funding, because everybody who gets admitted gets full funding and at the same level). So as long as you show demonstrated interest, your major doesn't really matter because they will assign you enough coursework to make up for the deficit. It will be tough because some of your classmates will have had a lot of background..you may feel lost sometimes, but if you're really interested, you will overcome all those difficulties. A background in the sciences/engg helps according to the professors at NU who were in touch with me. Some of their most successful students had been ones that had come in with math based backgrounds for instance.

[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.