Last updated March 30, 2022
As part of my series on How to Fully Fund Your PhD, I provide a list of universities that offer full funding for a PhD in Linguistics. A graduate degree in Linguistics can pave the way for a career in academia or the private sector as a translator, computational linguist, forensic linguist or technical writer.
“Full funding” is a financial aid package for full time students that includes full tuition remission and an annual stipend or salary for the three to six-year duration of the student’s doctoral studies. Funding is typically offered in exchange for graduate teaching and research work that is complementary to your studies. Not all universities provide full funding to their doctoral students, which is why I recommend researching the financial aid offerings of all the potential PhD programs in your academic field, including small and lesser-known schools both in the U.S. and abroad.
You can also find several external fellowships in the ProFellow database for graduate and doctoral study, as well as dissertation research, field work, language study and summer work experience.
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Brown University, Department of Linguistics (Providence, RI): The graduate school offers incoming doctoral students five years of guaranteed financial support, including a stipend, tuition remission, health-services fee, and health- and dental-insurance subsidies.
University of California Santa Cruz, Department of Linguistics (Santa Cruz, CA): An informal promise is made to each student admitted to the PhD program that they will receive funding for the 5 years that it takes to complete the PhD.
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Linguistics (Honolulu, HI): The Department of Linguistics provides all PhD students with full support (a graduate assistantship that includes a stipend and a full tuition waiver) for eight semesters.
McGill University, Department of Linguistics (Montreal, Canada): Five years of funding for PhD students (covering living expenses, tuition and fees) is provided for successful applicants.
Northwestern University, Department of Linguistics (Evanston, IL): PhD students receive payment of tuition, either in the form of a departmental scholarship or an external fellowship that covers some portion of the cost of education, fully subsidized health insurance, and a stipend for a minimum of five years.
University of Pittsburgh, Department of Linguistics (Pittsburgh, PA): Funding can be renewed for up to a maximum total of 5 years for a PhD student and includes a fellowship covering all tuition and fees, full medical coverage and a stipend earned through assistantship.
University of Rochester, Department of Linguistics (Rochester, NY): The Department of Linguistics invites applications from students interested in pursuing a fully-funded joint PhD program in Linguistics focusing on cross-disciplinary training and collaboration. Students will have a primary focus in Linguistics, with secondary focus in another department in Arts, Sciences and Engineering.
University of South Carolina, College of Arts and Sciences (Columbia, SC): The Linguistics Program at the University of South Carolina makes the financial support for its graduate students a priority. All PhD students in the program are fully supported for 4 years.
Need some tips for the application process? See my article How To Get Into a Fully Funded PhD Program: Contacting Potential PhD Advisors.
Also, sign up to discover and bookmark more than 1,500 professional and academic fellowships in the ProFellow database.
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