Graduate Admissions
We welcome your application to our department, and hope you can join our community of scholars! Our admissions process requires a general application to the program instead of specific faculty members recruiting a student. Applicants who are accepted and who enter the program are free to work with who they choose and may, in fact, change their interests after entering the program. This allows students flexibility in their graduate program.
Yet, it also means that we evaluate applicants more generally in terms of their aptitude and how their interests match those within our department. In other words, we tend not to evaluate students just in terms of how well their interests match those of one specific faculty member.
The Department of Linguistics recognizes that it operates on the territory of the Seneca Nation, a member of the Haudenosaunee/Six Nations Confederacy. Because of this, it places a special priority on supporting research on Haudenosaunee languages that is in line with its overall mission and, in particular, research led by members of the Haudenosaunee nations.
To be considered for admission to a graduate program, applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent and have an academic record that suggests the applicant can successfully complete graduate work in linguistics. A master's degree is not a requirement for applying to the PhD program.
In determining qualifications for admission, attention is paid to academic achievements and grades, potential for research, transcripts of past academic work, letters of recommendation, and intellectual interest in linguistics and in our department as indicated by the statement of purpose.
All applications to graduate tracks must be made online.
Application Deadlines
Please note that there will be no PhD admission process in the Fall of 2025 (for enrollment in Fall 2026). Our inability to offer PhD positions for the coming year is a delayed consequence of funding issues that arose during the pandemic. It is unrelated to current circumstances, and we expect to resume our normal recruitment of PhD students in 2026 (for Fall 2027).
December 15: applications are due for all prospective PhD students wishing to be considered for funding.
Prospective PhD students wishing to be considered for funding are encouraged to consult the faculty listing to see which faculty have research interests that overlap with theirs and to contact them before applying to get feedback on their plans to pursue a PhD in the Department of Linguistics.
Please see here for information regarding funding for the current application cycle.
March 1: applications are due for all international MA/MS applicants and international PhD applicants with external funding.
Review of other graduate program applications will continue until processing in time for Fall admission becomes unfeasible.
April 1: all domestic MA applicants
Required Application Documents
- Online application.
- Transcripts. Copies of all B.A. and Graduate Transcripts (and certified English translations, if applicable)
- Statement of Purpose. Please tell us as what your training goals are and what career paths you envision to pursue with this training. In writing their statement, we ask that applicants try to answer specifically and exhaustively the questions in the following questionnaires: M.A. questionnaire; Ph.D. questionnaire. You’ll find additional instructions in the questionnaires themselves. Your responses to the questionnaire will guide the Linguistics faculty’s decision on your application. If our program is a good match for your interests and skills, the faculty will be the more likely to reach this conclusion the more informative your responses to the questionnaire will be.
- Writing Sample. Strictly required for admission to our Ph.D. program; desirable for admission to all graduate programs. The writing sample fulfills two separate roles in the admissions process: in addition to documenting the applicant’s skill in scholarly writing, it may document the applicant’s research skills. Research aptitude is a key admission criterion for the Ph.D. program. It is primarily assessed through evidence of research projects designed and (ideally) carried out by the applicant.
- Letters of Recommendation that assess your scholarly and research skills, provided by former instructors and advisors who have trained you. We require three letters for Ph.D. and M.S. admission and two (three recommended) for M.A. admission. Requests will automatically be sent to the professors you list in the recommendation section.
- Curriculum Vitae. Required for the Ph.D. program and the Computational Linguistics M.S. program; recommended for the M.A. programs. A brief standard tabular CV is sufficient.
- The GRE is required for applications to the M.S. program. The Department of Linguistics has adopted a GRE-blind admission process for the PhD and MA programs. Please if possible do not upload or transmit GRE scores with your application to these two programs.
Non-refundable application fee: $75
After you submit your UB graduate application, you’ll be prompted to make your payment online by credit card or ACH through Nelnet.
U.S. citizens or current permanent residents may request a fee waiver through the application portal after completing the graduate application and uploading all required materials.
International Admission Requirements
In addition to the above materials, all international applicants must also provide the following:
- English language proficiency test scores. Please request ETS to forward your English proficiency scores to SUNY University at Buffalo, institution code 2925 and attach a copy of your scores to your application. Please note that an acceptable English proficiency test must be taken within two years of the date you plan to enroll at U.B.
The minimum TOEFL score set by UB for admission is 550 paper-based, 79 internet-based, or 6.5 IELTS. However, the Linguistics Department Admissions Committee prefers a TOEFL score of 600 paper-based, 100 internet-based, or an IELTS score of at least 7.5. Accepted scores and exemptions are available on the Graduate School page. - Passport biographical page. Scan a copy of the page from your passport that includes your name, citizenship and date of birth.
- Financial form. Download the financial form for your program of study and follow the instructions carefully. You and the person(s) who will be paying your tuition should sign this form.
Accepted and Transfer Students
Accepted MA students who are interested in one of the departement's four areas of specialization have up to four years to complete their coursework and take the comprehensive exam. The majority of students complete the MA track within two years.
The PhD track consists of an MA phase and a PhD phase. Advancement to the PhD phase is conditional on satisfying the set MA requirements and performing adequately in the MA phase. Students who are admitted to the PhD phase but leave after satisfying the requirements of the MA phase will receive an MA degree. Students who decide to leave with the MA have the option of doing a set of comprehensive exams instead of the MA project/qualifying paper.
Linguistics MA degrees from other institutions are not equivalent to the MA at the University at Buffalo. However, applicants with graduate courses in linguistics from another institution can apply for transfer credit. All requirements of the MA phase at UB must be completed before advancing to the PhD phase. Students can obtain transfer credit of up to 36 credit hours, substantially reducing the amount of required course work.
With questions about the graduate application process, please contact the Director of Graduate Admissions.
