Students applying for admission to the M.A. program in linguistics will be considered regardless of the field of their previous training. Admission to the Ph.D. program requires a Master's in linguistics from the University of Iowa or its equivalent in coursework. The graduate application process has two steps: 1) Submit an online application to the Graduate College and 2) Upload required supplemental documents through a secure portal. After you submit your application, you will receive email instructions on how to establish your HawkID and password in order to access your Admissions Profile on MYUI, our online portal for students. The required supplemental documents include official transcripts of all previous undergraduate and graduate work, names and contact information for three individuals competent to judge your potential for graduate work and who have agreed to write letters of recommendation, scores from the general (aptitude) test of the Graduate Record Examination, a statement of purpose, and answers to a short list of questions from the Linguistics Department. Applicants from non-English speaking countries must also submit TOEFL scores. Entering students in linguistics whose first language is not English are also evaluated for English proficiency by the English as a Second Language staff upon arrival on campus and are required to take any ESL courses recommended as a result of the evaluation.


TOEFL iBT - Total score 81
TOEFL PBT - 550
IELTS - Overall score of 7 with no subscore less than 6