Graduate Admissions

Graduate Admissions Information

Royce Hall, viewed from just south of the Janss StepsThe UCLA Linguistics Department welcomes applications from students interested in pursuing the Ph.D. degree. The department currently has approximately 45 graduate students. The admissions process is highly competitive; those offered admission are provided with full financial support, with commitments up to five years. Support packages include tuition, fees, and salary or stipend, and normally involve a mixture of fellowship, research assistantship, and teaching assistantship.
Admission to the Graduate Program 

The admissions application is prepared and submitted online, through the website of UCLA’s Division of Graduate Education. General information about applying to UCLA for graduate study (such as the University’s requirements for admission) is also available at this link. Applicants must meet the University minimum requirements for admission (see also the Frequently Asked Questions for additional technical information).

Although the department offers both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, it normally admits only those students who plan to ultimately pursue a Ph.D. Students are admitted to begin residence in the Fall quarter only.

We assume a background roughly equivalent to a B.A. in Linguistics. This does not mean that the department will not accept applicants with little Linguistics background. Students lacking sufficient background may, however, need to complete preparatory or supplemental courses in their first year.

The typical class size of entering graduate students per year is about seven to ten. We make admissions offers to about 13-15 applicants per year, from an applicant pool of approximately 180.

Admissions decisions are made by an Admissions Committee composed of department faculty. It will be helpful if applicants include on their Statement of Purpose the names of particular faculty they hope to work with, since the Admissions Committee may solicit the opinions of those faculty in making their decision. You may find our list of active ladder faculty on our Faculty Profiles page.

We recommend you review our Graduate Program Overview page, which includes information about our Graduate Student Support packages.

The deadline for submission of applications for the Fall quarter is December 10 of the previous year. The UCLA Application for Graduate Admission for the 2026-27 academic year (for Fall 2026 consideration) will be available in September 2025 with a deadline of December 10, 2025. Please be sure to submit the application by the deadline, even if all letters of recommendation are pending. Your recommenders will still able to submit their letters after you submit the application.

The online application consists of the following:
  • A statement of purpose, explaining their background for graduate study in linguistics and their immediate and long-range goals in the field. Statements of purpose should primarily focus on intellectual interests and research plans, though autobiographical material can be useful where it is clearly relevant. You can find guiding questions for the statement on the UCLA Division of Graduate Education’s website here, under “Statement of Purpose”; 1,500 word limit for our application.
  • Three letters of recommendation, ideally from scholars who can attest to the applicant’s potential in linguistics and general intellectual qualifications. Letters from employers can also be useful where they supplement the letters from teachers.
    • If a recommender wants to submit their letter through Interfolio, enter the email address(es) provided by Interfolio for recommenders in the application. Instruct Interfolio to answer all questions on the recommendation forms with the option Dossier Service Completion.
    • In order to meet our application deadline, please do not wait for your recommenders to submit their letters before submitting the application. If all requirements of the application except the recommendations are complete, you may submit the application. Your recommenders will still able to submit their letters after you submit the application and you can send reminders to your recommenders via the application.
    • If your recommender is having trouble submitting their letter, please ask your recommender to contact onlineapphelp@grad.ucla.edu. Your recommender should include a detailed description of the issue and screenshots if possible.
  • Transcripts from each academic institution attended. You must upload one copy of current, unofficial transcripts. An unofficial transcript will be issued by the university or college registrar’s office but may be accessed through a student portal. An unofficial transcript may also be a physical, official copy that has been opened and scanned. Do not provide screenshots, degree progress reports, grade audits, or similar printouts as it will not count as an unofficial transcript. If possible, you should rotate the document or page(s) prior to uploading so that the text is upright for reading. Please see the “Admissions Materials” section below for additional information.
  • A research paper in linguistics (or a related field). This part of the dossier is very important, and is often given more weight in admissions decisions about admissibility than anything else, since it (potentially) provides evidence of the ability to pursue original research in the field. Please note that a literature review is less useful than an original research paper. If no paper in linguistics or a related field is available, it is better to include a paper in some non-related field, rather than no paper at all. Please upload the paper in the “Writing Sample” section of the UCLA application.
  • The University’s English Language Requirement applies to all applicants. Citizenship, U.S. residence and/or work experience are not substitutes for meeting the requirement. Exemptions to submitting TOEFL or IELTS scores can only be made for applicants who meet the criteria as listed on the English Requirements page on the UCLA Division of Graduate Education’s website. Please see the “Admissions Materials” section below for additional information.
  • UCLA’s fellowship application, found in online admissions application. It is useful to inspect the list of UCLA fellowships carefully, to see what you might be qualified for. Applicants are also encouraged to apply for as many extramural fellowships and scholarships as they are eligible. As part of the fellowship application, they require you to submit a Personal Statement: You can find guiding questions for the statement on the UCLA Division of Graduate Education’s website here, under “Personal Statement.” To a limited extent, the Admissions Committee uses the criterion of what students can be supported with available resources.
  • Although not required, it also would be useful to include with your application an informal list of the courses you have taken in your desired field. Add any information you think would clarify the kind of work you did, especially if the title of a given course does not reflect the actual course content. This information may be uploaded in the “Supporting Documents” section of the UCLA application.
  • Please note that the GRE is NOT required for admission to our program. Please do not submit GRE score reports to us, as they will not be considered.

We are not the only linguists at UCLA.  There are graduate programs in English, Indo-European Studies, and specific foreign languages, each with separate admission processes. Please contact these departments directly for information about applying to their graduate programs.

Admissions Materials

Virtually all admissions materials (statement of purpose, research paper/writing sample, transcript etc.) are to be uploaded to the online application. Please contact the Graduate Student Affairs Officer if you have any questions.

Transcripts

Transcripts from U.S. institutions

Current, unofficial transcripts are acceptable for the purposes of the application. An unofficial transcript will be issued by your university or college registrar’s office but may be accessed through a student portal. An unofficial transcript may also be a scan of a physical, official transcript. Degree progress reports, grade audits, or similar printouts do not count as unofficial transcripts. Acceptable unofficial transcripts from U.S. institutions must have all of the following:

  • Have the word “transcript” on the document
  • Have the name of the institution attended or are attending
  • Include the student’s name, program of study, and major of study
  • Include a term by term breakdown of each course taken with its corresponding units and grade*
  • Be clearly legible

*This requirement is waived only for those applicants who attended institutions that do not use a traditional grade or grade point system. For those institutions, there must be a note on the unofficial transcript that states that the institution does not assign grades or grade points.

Transcripts and academic records from institutions outside the U.S.

Please carefully review the UCLA Division of Graduate Education’s website for degree and academic record(s) requirements. Scans of physical transcripts and academic records or unofficial transcripts are acceptable for the purposes of the application. If available, please also upload a copy of the degree certificate/diploma along with the transcript. Third-party evaluated transcripts, such as evaluations provided by World Education Services (WES), do not count as a transcript. Unless academic records and diplomas are routinely issued in English by the institution, the records in their original language must be submitted with an authorized, complete, and exact English translation.

All academic records must show the dates of enrollment; the subjects or courses taken, together with the units of credit or time allotted to each subject and, if rank is determined, rank in the total class or group. The records must also include a complete description of the institution’s grading scale or other standard of evaluation. Maximum and minimum marks and the steps between them must be indicated.

Official transcripts and academic records

Submission of official transcripts and academic records are not required for application purposes. Only applicants who are admitted and formally accepted the offer of admission are required to submit official final transcript and academic records showing degree conferral. Instructions regarding the submission of official records will be sent by the the department to applicants who are admitted and formally accepted the offer of admission.

English Language Requirement

The University’s English Language Requirement applies to all applicants. Citizenship, U.S. residence and/or work experience are not substitutes for meeting the requirement. Exemptions to submitting TOEFL or IELTS scores for admission to UCLA can only be made for:

  • Applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited university located in the United States or in another country where English is the sole language of instruction according to the World Higher Education Database (WHED).
  • Applicants who are in the process of completing a bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited university located in the United States or in another country where English is the sole language of instruction according to the World Higher Education Database AND will earn the degree before the start of the Fall 2026 quarter (September 21, 2026).

If you do not meet the exemption criteria, valid (unexpired) TOEFL or IELTS scores are required. TOEFL and IELTS scores are considered valid for only two years. The scores must be valid at the time of application submission. The University does not accept scores from other tests, such as the Duolingo English Test.

Please see #5 in the Frequency Asked Questions section for information regarding the timing of receiving scores.

  • TOEFL: The minimum score to be considered for admission is 87 on the TOEFL. UCLA does not currently accept MyBest TOEFL scores. The institution code for UCLA is 4837. The linking of TOEFL scores between ETS and the UCLA application only begins after an applicant submits the UCLA application. It may take 5 or more business days after you submit the UCLA application for the TOEFL status on your application to automatically update.
  • IELTS: The minimum overall band score to be considered for admission is 7.0 on the IELTS. Applicants submitting IELTS scores must:
    1. Enter their IELTS scores in the “Test Scores” section of the UCLA application, and
    2. Upload a PDF copy of their IELTS score report, if available, in the “Supporting Documents” section of the UCLA application (the copy may be used for application review purposes but receipt of the official score report is still required), and
    3. Arrange their score report to be sent to the UCLA Department of Linguistics by physical mail (address below). It may take 1 to 2 weeks following receipt of mailed scores for the department to manually mark scores as received on your application. [Note: Department staff will be remote from December 15-23, 2025. The Department will also be closed from December 24, 2025 to January 4, 2026 due to the University’s winter campus closure, and many other offices on campus will be closed during that time. Mailed scores delivered after December 12, 2025 will be processed after campus closure.]

Address for IELTS score delivery to the Department of Linguistics
ATTN: Graduate Student Affairs Officer
335 Portola Plaza
3125 Campbell Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543 (USA)

Frequently Asked Questions
  1. How many years is the Linguistics Graduate Program?

The normative time to complete the program is 5 years. The department offers both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, and all students are expected to complete program requirements at both levels. You may review our Current Graduate Students page to review the normative timeline and requirements for our program.

2. What if I’m an international applicant and do not meet the eligibility criteria to be exempt from UCLA’s English Language Requirement?

UCLA does not accept exception requests to waive the English Language Requirement for applicants who do not hold a bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited university located in the United States or in another country where English is the sole language of instruction according to the World Higher Education Database. You will need to take and submit TOEFL or IELTS test scores with your graduate program application.

3. Where can I find more information on the graduate application fee waiver?

Please review the University’s fee deferral and waiver requirements and the “Fee Waivers” section in the Admissions FAQs for eligibility requirements and required documentation. Please do not send documents or waiver/deferral requests via email to the department. All required documentation outlined in the policy must be uploaded to the “Fee Waiver” section of the UCLA application for a request to be considered. If you qualify for multiple deferral or waiver types, only one request type should be selected to prevent any technical issues with the fee deferral/waiver review.

4. If I do not meet the criteria for a fee deferral or waiver, can I submit an exception to the department?

Unfortunately, the university does not accept exceptions to the criteria for fee waivers or deferrals. These are set at the university level. Our department does not grant individual fee waivers or deferrals if eligibility is not met or for reasons outside the University’s policy.

5. When will my TOEFL/IELTS scores be marked as received?

The process for TOEFL/IELTS scores to be marked as received only begins after an applicant submits the UCLA application.

TOEFL

The automatic linking of TOEFL scores between ETS and the UCLA application only begins after an applicant submits the UCLA application. The timing of when scores are automatically verified depends on:

  1. personal information listed on the UCLA application and the TOEFL/ETS registration exactly matches, including special characters and spaces in your name, and
  2. scores were sent to the correct school code (4837), and
  3. the date of UCLA application submission, and
  4. the ETS database refresh date.

It may take 5 or more business days after the UCLA application is submitted for an application to automatically update. Before inquiring about the status of TOEFL scores, please: 1) check that #1 and #2, above, are true, 2) wait at least 5 business days after submitting the UCLA application, then 3) recheck the status by logging back in to the application. If scores are not marked as received by then and #1 and #2 are true, please contact the Graduate Student Affairs Officer with your application reference ID number and your TOEFL test registration number. [Note: Department staff will be remote from December 15-23, 2025. The Department will also be closed from December 24, 2025 to January 4, 2026 due to the University’s winter campus closure, and many other offices on campus will be closed during that time.]

IELTS

Receipt of IELTS scores is a manual process that may take 1-2 weeks following receipt of mailed scores sent to the department.

  • If you had arranged your score report to be physically mailed to the department to the address above and scores are not marked as received on the application 3 weeks after delivery to the department was noted as successful by the delivery service*, please contact the Graduate Student Affairs Officer with your application reference ID number and a PDF copy of your IELTS score report. The copy may be used for application review purposes while waiting to receive the mailed score report. [*Note: Department staff will be remote from December 15-23, 2025. The Department will also be closed from December 24, 2025 to January 4, 2026 due to the University’s winter campus closure, and many other offices on campus will be closed during that time. Mailed scores delivered after December 12, 2025 will be processed after campus closure.]
  • If you did not arrange for IELTS to mail your score report to the department and did not upload a PDF copy of your score report in the UCLA application, please contact the Graduate Student Affairs Officer with your application reference ID number and a PDF copy of your IELTS score report. The copy may be used for application review purposes but receipt of the official score report is still required. [Note: Department staff will be remote from December 15-23, 2025. The Department will also be closed from December 24, 2025 to January 4, 2026 due to the University’s winter campus closure, and many other offices on campus will be closed during that time. Mailed scores delivered after December 12, 2025 will be processed after campus closure.]