In addition to the university requirements, the Department imposes three requirements for course enrollments.
Every graduate student must enroll in 0 credits of LIN 600 Colloquium in Linguistics. Unless you are a first-year student, you do not need to do anything for this class. But a large enrollment allows us to book a room for LIN 600, which we can then use for colloquia and other events each Friday afternoon. Also, it’s a good canary in the coal mine for class enrollment: enroll in LIN 600 in early August, and if the enrollment system gives you an error, we’ll have several weeks to talk to the Registrar and fix whatever problem you are encountering.
Students who are about to be advanced to candidacy should not enroll in LIN 600 right away. Once their advancement has been processed, they can safely enroll in LIN 600. If you are enrolled in LIN 600 while your advancement is being processed, it could slow down your advancement. If in doubt, wait with enrolling in LIN 600 until week 2 of the semester.
Our PhD program has only four required courses:
It is expected that every PhD student completes all these courses during their first year in the program. In truly exceptional circumstances beyond the student’s control (e.g. a scheduling conflict with another course highly relevant to the student’s research interests), the GPD may grant the student permission to postpone one of those courses to year 2. This is entirely up to the GPD’s assessment of the student’s unique situation, and decision are made by the GPD on a case-by-case basis.
For students with an exceptionally strong background, the GPD may agree to waive one of Syntax 1 or Phonology 1, but this is rare and highly dependent on individual circumstances. No waivers are granted for Syntax 2 or Phonology 2.
The Syntax and Phonology sequences form the very foundation of our program, and it has been the Department’s experience that deviations from that sequence tend to negatively affect the student’s trajectory in the program and their development as a scholar.
G3 or G4 students: If you want to audit an LIN course, you should enroll for 0 credits.
This is for multiple reasons: