Advising

You must consult with the graduate advisor, or your personal advisor, if you have selected one, during the registration period of each semester, in order to lift your advising hold in the online registration system. Keep your own copy of the MA Record of Progress and share it with your advisor when you meet during each enrollment period. The advisor addresses questions about transfer credit, substitution of prior coursework for required MA courses and course selection. The graduate assistant will send regular email bulletins concerning deadlines for Graduate School filings (e.g., the MA Candidacy Application). But be sure to consult the Graduate School website for forms and information about deadlines, as well as the Graduate School Rules for information about rules and policies governing graduate education at CU (including the continuous registration requirement).

Managing your MA Credits

  • If you believe you have satisifed an MA requirement through coursework taken prior to starting the LING MA program, you must formally request a requirement waiver from the graduate advisor. This process will require you to submit the syllabus of the prior course. For any required MA courses that are waived, you must earn an equal number of credits in elective LING courses.
  • After your first semester of the MA program, you may transfer up to nine credits of graduate coursework from a prior academic experience, if those credits were not used toward a prior degree. This is an official transfer process, regulated by the Graduate School, that is distinct from the requirement waiver process described immediately above. The transfered credits, if accepted, will appear on your CU graduate transcript and will count toward the 30 required for the MA. Use the transfer of credit form and follow the instructions given there; the graduate advisor must sign off on this form prior to submission. 
  • Students who elect to write a thesis must take at least four and at most six hours of thesis credits, which can count toward the 15 elective credits required for the MA.
  • You may apply up to three hours of upper-division undergraduate credits toward the 15 elective credits required for the MA. You must, however, make certain that the course content meets the approval of the graduate advisor or your thesis advisor. Language-learning courses and undergraduate courses that replicate content offered at the graduate level cannot be used for this purpose.
  • You may apply up to six credits of coursework outside Linguistics toward the 15 required elective credits. 
  • An overall GPA of 3.0 is required in all courses for MA and PhD students
  • A minimum grade of C is required for any course to count towards the MA degree

Language Prerequisite

Knowledge of a language other than one’s native language, at a level of proficiency at least equivalent to the third year college level, is a prerequisite to admission to the MA. Passing at least one college-level language course at the third year level or above with a grade of B or better satisfies this requirement. Alternately, passing two years of college-level language courses in two different languages with a grade of B or better satisfies this requirement. If your language proficiency is not the result of formal study, see your advisor about arranging an evaluation of your skills. International students whose education has been primarily in a language other than English may count English as their foreign language at the MA level.