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Admissions

IMPORTANT DATES

12 December 2023 – Preferred deadline for application; deadline for consideration for assistantships and fellowships.

 

Requirements for admission

The prerequisite for admission to the Dual (MA/PhD) Graduate Track in Hispanic Linguistics is completion of a bachelor’s degree and knowledge of Spanish.

  • A prospective student who already has an MA in Linguistics cannot receive a second MA in the same field, hence is not eligible for the Dual Track, and should apply directly to the Romance Studies PhD.  A prospective student who holds an MA in Spanish with a concentration in Linguistics (or the like) should also apply directly to the Romance Studies PhD.
  • A prospective student whose degree intent is a terminal MA in Linguistics with concentration in Hispanic Linguistics need only apply to the Linguistics Department.   If the student later wants to be admitted to the Dual Track before completing the MA, he or she must (1) contact the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) of the Department of Linguistics in order to petition to change to the Hispanic Linguistics concentration and (2) apply to the Hispanic Linguistics PhD track in Romance Studies.  If the student completes the MA and wishes to be admitted to the PhD in Romance Studies, he or she must apply to the Department of Romance Studies.
    • Please note: students who choose apply to enter the Dual Track via the second option – applying first to the MA and then to the PhD during the first year of the MA – are not guaranteed to be funded via assistantship.

 

Dual Track Admissions Flow Chart

 

Selection process for admissions

The Dual Track is served by the Directors of Graduate Admissions of each department.  It is the policy of the Graduate School that “[s]tudents must apply to and be accepted by both programs individually before beginning in the dual degree program. In a practical sense, this means that students should apply to both academic programs at the same time, or apply to the second program no later than during their first year of the first program. Dual degrees will not be awarded after the curricular requirements have already been met without initial application.’’ (http://handbook.unc.edu/dual.html, retrieved 2017, Mar. 20.) The applications will be considered separately by the admissions committees of the two departments.  Those committees will make the final decision about admission to each department.

A student who is not admitted by both departments is not admitted to the Dual Track, although they may still be admitted to the Department of Linguistics singly by a vote of that department’s admissions committee.

Please note that applications directly to the PhD in the Department of Romance studies (bypassing the MA) will not be considered without sufficient relative graduate-level experience in the field of linguistics (Hispanic or otherwise).  However, if the admissions committee in Romance Studies deems such an application otherwise worthy of consideration, they may direct the applicant to submit an additional application to the MA in the Department of Linguistics for full consideration as a Dual Track entrant.

Information and guidelines on the UNC-CH Graduate School admissions application are available at http://gradschool.unc.edu/admissions/instructions.html. Prospective students will submit their applications electronically to the Graduate School.  Applications are only accepted for study beginning in the fall semester of each year. Recommenders must submit their letters electronically through the online application system. We do not accept any recommendations on paper or via email.

 

Required application materials

Please be reminded that, for students applying to the Dual Track (jointly to the MA and the PhD), two applications must be submitted.  This means that two application fees must be paid, and that each recommender must submit two letters.

Students can expect to be fully funded for five years (through the PhD), usually by means of departmental teaching assistantships.  To be considered for competitive Graduate School fellowships, an applicant must have all materials in by the second week of December (actual date changes with the semester). This includes standardized test scores such as the TOEFL (please note that the GRE is no longer required), transcripts, letters of recommendations, statement of purpose, writing sample, and the audio file referred to below (all are to be submitted electronically). Prospective students do not send hard copies of transcripts when applying.  They are only uploaded into their application.  If admitted they will then have to submit hard copies of their FINAL transcript to the Graduate School only.

Please note that in addition to the application materials that the Graduate School requests, the Dual Track would like to receive the following three items:

  • A one-page statement (written in English) in which the student explains their reasons for pursuing a graduate degree in Hispanic Linguistics. They should also detail the areas of their proposed field.
  • A writing sample in Spanish, such as a term paper or a published article.
  • An audio file of a few minutes’ duration, on which s/he identifies herself by name in English; then speaks in Spanish about her professional goals and reads (also in Spanish) a short passage of her choice. The audio file is to be submitted to Lauren Lisinski, Graduate Student Services Manager, at romsgraduate@unc.edu. This last item is particularly important if the student is applying for a teaching assistantship.

 

IMPORTANT DATES

12 December 2023 – Preferred deadline for application; deadline for consideration for assistantships and fellowships.