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Arts & Humanities

PhD Linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

Programme overview

The Linguistics Section offers a demanding program leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics. The normal course of study is five years, including the writing of the dissertation. The orientation of the program is highly theoretical, its central aim being the development of a general theory that reveals the rules and laws that govern the structure of a given language and the general laws and principles that govern all natural languages.

Department: Linguistics and Philosophy  |  Duration: 5 years (normal)  |  Study mode: full-time  |  Location: Cambridge, MA, United States

Official programme page

Application information

USD 66,720 a year (2026-27). Standard MIT graduate tuition for 2026-27, 9-month academic year ($33,360 per fall/spring term; the 12-month figure including the summer session is $89,775). Same rate for all graduate students; excludes the $420 fee, health insurance, housing and living Source

Graduate applications are made to individual departments, which run their own admissions processes and timelines; online applications open in early fall and most deadlines fall around the end of the fall semester.

Graduate deadlines vary by department; most departments use the unified portal at apply.mit.edu/apply. Fee waiver requests are due November 18 for programmes with a December 1 deadline, December 1 for deadlines of December 15-23, and December 15 for deadlines in January or later. Funding offers are honoured until April 15.

Apply through the official page: https://oge.mit.edu/graduate-admissions/

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