limnieng

I heard the graduates linguistic program at UCLA is great.

Is it difficult for a international student from Singapore to be admitted into a graduate program at UCLA? What are the chances?

Any other universities to consider?

limnieng

Help.....? Anyone.....?

spencer11111

UC Berkeley? Other top US schools?

Oxbridge?

limnieng

How are the graduate linguistics or applied linguistics program at these universities, and how difficult is it for a international student to be admitted into these programs? In order of difficulties please.......

spencer11111

i don't know... i am no expert on this field.... I can give general advice abt UK/US uni admission, having applied to both side for undergrads.

but are you currently studying in NUS?

limnieng

Graduated in 2005 with Masters in Chinese Studies by research. 2nd Upper Hons for B.A. Received Dean's List commendation for every semester of study. GPA of about 3.75.

spencer11111

So is that NUS or NTU?

i don't think linguistics or applied linguistics program are exactly hard to enter because they are not the most competitive courses around.

Sam Lee

Agree with joshua007 on open admission policy. In fact, some graduate programs like engineering/math need internationals so badly that the TOFEL score required is actually less than that for undergrads. Are you applying for PhD or Master? PhD programs, in general, are significantly more competitive (tuition is usually covered though, unlike Master programs).

limnieng

I'm targeting for a PhD program. Besides the general reputation of the university, I think we also have to consider the subject-based reputation of the grad school program.

That's why I mentioned UCLA as a possible good grad school for linguistics. Based on internet resources, it appears that UCLA would be ranked around 3rd place for their grad linguistics program and 1st if we exclude non-academic factors such as funding and student demographics etc (phds.org, data from NSF). MIT and Stanford would be on top.

MIT is for formal grammar or theoretical linguistics which is not my cup of tea, I do functional grammar. I also think both MIT and Stanford would be out of my league. So UCLA would seem a natural choice.

However, I don't trust net-based resources that much and would very much prefer to hear the word from the man on the streets, prefably US students who understands the system.