The Arts & Sciences-Graduate Combination Program is a program for those students who have fulfilled certain University and Arts & Sciences requirements and wish to combine major field and master's work to earn an M.A. in a shorter time than is usually necessary. The program is intended to allow students to develop the knowledge or skills normally needed for a master's degree. General supervision of the program is vested in the Dean of the Graduate School and the Vice Provost for the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences. Admission requirements are that the student have completed at least 135 hours of course work with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.50, and have completed all GEC requirements for the B.A. If the student meets these general criteria (or will have met these criteria by the end of the junior year), he or she should consult with the Undergraduate Advisor in Linguistics about the advisability of applying for the program.

If the decision is that the combination program would be advantageous, the student must apply to the Graduate School and should begin this procedure the quarter before he or she expects to complete the requirements for entry into the program. The student must be admitted formally to the Graduate School, with the approval of the Graduate Studies Committee of the Department of Linguistics. The Graduate School application process includes filling out the electronic application form for domestic applicants, which is available from the Graduate Admissions Office web page. There is a checklist of other admissions credentials that must be submitted to the Graduate Admissions Office and/or the Department of Linguistics Graduate Program Coordinator. If the student is admitted to the BA/MA program, the student must complete the Graduate School's Combined Undergraduate/Graduate Program form, which is available on the Graduate School's website. The form must be signed by both the department's Undergraduate Adviser and the Graduate Studies Chair and taken to The Graduate School, Room 247 University Hall.

Once admitted to the Combined BA/MA program, the student must choose, in consultation with the department's Undergraduate Adviser and the Graduate Studies Chair, a two person faculty committee to serve as the student's advisers. At least one member of the committee must be from the Department of Linguistics. The advisers will work with the student to determine a B.A. research paper topic and the specific coursework needed to complete the M.A. degree in accordance with the requirements outlined below. The B.A. research paper will typically serve as the basis for an M.A. thesis. The student's program must be approved and then supervised by the student's advisory committee. A copy of the approved Linguistics Department Combined BA/MA Program Form should be deposited in the Graduate School along with the Graduate School's Combined Undergraduate/Graduate Program form. (This form needs to be submitted to the Graduate School by the end of the first quarter of enrollment in the combined program, or by the end of the first day of classes in the first quarter in which the student takes the first course to be applied to the M.A. degree, whichever is sooner.) The student's BA/MA program should consist of at least four quarters of fulltime graduate level study.

A maximum of 15 credit hours in linguistics may apply to graduate credit while still an undergraduate. These 15 hours of 600-level or higher courses are counted simultaneously as senior and first year graduate courses. No more than 5 research hours, e.g. 693, H783, or the equivalent, may be included in these 15 hours. Because these courses are taken while the student is an undergraduate, prior approval must be obtained from the Linguistics Graduate Studies Committee and from the Graduate School to apply these credits to the master's degree. (The Graduate Studies Chair signs the Linguistics Department Combined BA/ MA Program Form to indicate that the GSC accepts the courses for this purpose.) The other graduate courses are taken while the student is in Graduate School and do not need prior approval.

Sections II.7.1-II.7.5 of the Graduate School Handbook describe other universitywide aspects of combined degrees, including the calculation of the cumulative GPA. Other general requirements for completion of the M.A. degree are described in the Graduate School Handbook in section II.5. Students who are close to completing the M.A. degree requirements should note especially the deadlines for filing the Application to Graduate form and for defending and filing the M.A. thesis or for writing and defending the M.A. exam.

A. BA/MA Program Admission Prerequisites

To be considered for admission to the Combined BA/MA Program in Linguistics, a student must have a minimum 3.5 GPA and have successfully fulfilled the requirements indicated in this section. That is, these are prerequisites for admission to the Combined BA/MA Program.

i. Introductory course:

Ling(H)201 or Ling270 or Ling601

ii. Advanced language requirement:

a foreign language course beyond level 104 (preferably at the 200 level)
or
Ling550 or Ling650.01 (Field Methods)

iii. Analytic prerequisite:

One of Ling280, Ling(H)286, Ling680, Ling(H)384, Philosophy 250, Mathematics 366 or 345, Statistics 135 or 145, Psychology 219

iv. Additional courses (10-15 hours).
At least two of:

Ling 500 or Ling 600.01 (Phonetics)
Ling 502 or Ling 602.01 (Syntax)
Ling 503 or Ling 603.01 (Phonology)

v. Research seminar (5 hours):

Ling 595 Undergraduate Research Seminar in Linguistics

B. Further Requirements for Completion of the Combined BA/MA

Other major courses (10-15 hours)
(These can be taken before or after admission to the program.)

i. Any of the following courses not already taken (0-5 hours):

Ling 500 or Ling 600.01 (Phonetics)
Ling 502 or Ling 602.01 (Syntax)
Ling 503 or Ling 603.01 (Phonology)

ii. Two courses from the following list (10 hours):

Ling (H)384 or Ling684.01 (Computational Linguistics)
Ling301 or Ling611 (Historical Linguistics)
Ling(H)371 or Ling615 (Psycholinguistics)
Ling383 or Ling683.01 (Semantics)
Ling(H)372 or Ling661.01 (Sociolinguistics)
Ling550 or Ling650.01 (Field Methods; may not be used concurrently to fulfill language prerequisite)

Senior year (min. 20 hours)
(Typically, the courses in iii and one of the courses in iv are applied toward the M.A.)

iii. Two-course sequence (10 hours) at the 600-level or above.
Sample sequences include:

Computational Linguistics: 684.01, 684.02
Field Methods: 650.01, 650.02
Historical Linguistics: 611, 801
Mathematical Linguistics 680, 681
Phonetics: 600.01, 600.02
Phonology: 603.01, 603.02
Psycholinguistics: 615, 871
Semantics: 683.01, 683.02
Sociolinguistics: 661.01, 661.02
Syntax: 602.01, 602.02

If one or both of the 600-level courses listed above has already been taken to satisfy any of the major requirements listed in sections A.iv, B.i, and B.ii, one or more additional graduate-level courses may need to be taken to make up the minimum of 75 credit hours for the combined degree.

iv. Research hours (at least 10 hours).

During the student's senior year, the student must enroll in at least 10 hours of research, e.g. LingH783(Honors research), Ling693, or the equivalent, under the supervision of the student's faculty adviser.

v. Research paper.

The student must successfully complete a research paper by the end of his/her senior year. The research paper typically forms the basis for the MA thesis. The paper will address a problem of linguistic interest and will generally include: discussion and motivation of the problem, literature review, pilot study results, directions for future research. Some students may select to develop this paper into an Honors thesis.

MA year (min. 30 hours)
(These courses should be taken after the student is no longer an undergraduate in order to count toward the minimum of 45 graduate credit hours required for the M.A. degree.)

vi. Electives (15 hours):

Coursework at the 600-level or above, determined in consultation with the student's adviser.

vii. MA Thesis Research (min. 15 hours):

Ling999 or the equivalent. A student doing a combined BA/MA degree is encouraged to complete and defend an MA thesis. The BA/MA thesis committee must be made up of two faculty members, one of whom must be from the Department of Linguistics. The student's BA/MA advisor is the chair of the thesis reading committee.

or

Master's Examination: In lieu of completing a thesis, the student may complete 15 additional hours of coursework at or above the 600-level, and take the Linguistics MA Examination.