Admission Requirements

To be considered for admission, applicants must have:

  • A Bachelor of Arts or equivalent degree from an accredited institution with a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.75 for all undergraduate work and 3.0 based on the last two years of the B.A.
  • Completed at least 12 semester hours of linguistics prerequisites including courses equivalent to Articulatory Phonetics, Phonological Analysis, Morphology and Syntax, and Sociolinguistics. All prerequisite courses must have been completed with a minimum grade of B.
  • Completed at least 6 semester hours (or equivalent) of a foreign language. If the applicant does not meet this requirement, they can take courses in a foreign language concurrent with their graduate studies. However, any credits earned toward the foreign language requirement will not be included in the total hours needed to complete the M. A. degree.
  • Submit an academic paper (e.g. undergraduate term paper), 10-20 pages in length, which demonstrates the student's ability to address an academic topic and follow a style guide convention.
  • Students who are not mother-tongue speakers of English must meet the following English language requirement: (i) a minimum IELTS score of 7.0 on all bands (Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking) or (ii) a TOEFL score of 100iBT (with the Writing section assessed at no lower than 27 points).
  • Two academic references.

Admission Deadlines

The application deadline for the Fall entry each year is April 15th. Applications after this date will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and will continue to be accepted and admission will be granted as space allows


Transfer Credit

Students may transfer up to 18 semester hours of graduate level credit into the program from other accredited institutions. Transfer credit must be in the area of linguistics and must not come from a degree which has already been conferred. The registrar and program chair will determine which courses may be transferred and from which institutions at the point of admission.


Prerequisite Courses

All the linguistics prerequisites (not including foreign language courses) can be completed in the summer session preceding admission at the Canada Institute of Linguistics.  The summer session is a full semester of university credit condensed into an intense 9-week program, offered at a significantly discounted tuition rate ($371/sh in 2024). 

The MA Linguistics prerequisite courses offered in the summer are:

LING 210 Language and Society
LING 310 Articulatory Phonetics
LING 330 Phonological Analysis
LING 360 Morphosyntax I

The summer session is also a great way to check out TWU and the MA Linguistics program before committing to the degree program.

To attend the summer session, incoming students are required to submit a separate application to CanIL. To find out more about the summer session or to apply, go to the CanIL summer session website or email admissions@canil.ca.  Financial aid is also available for the summer session.