english language & linguistics degree

hey! i’ve applied for linguistics this year and already received 4/5 offers - one of which is from birmingham! from personal experience and what i’ve heard from others, my best piece of advice would be to start by making notes on your linguistic interests and then link them to any reading and experiences. reading doesn’t have to mean whole books, it can simply be a short article or i’d recommend podcasts if reading isn’t your thing, you can also mention those! then in terms of experiences, it can be as simple as noticing a difference between the way an individual speaks in comparison to the way they text, you can even link this to yourself! i’d recommend starting the ps with what actually interested you in the subject then work from there. don’t be worried if you don’t have lots of reading and/or experience to include, in this case i think that less is more, just make sure to analyse what you say and keep adding depth. also, don’t be afraid to make critical comments and bring up debates like prescriptivism vs descriptivism or nature vs nurture! admissions teams will be searching for those who can form an opinion on topics within the subject and articulate it well. make sure to sound genuinely passionate about the subject and emphasise your enthusiasm and willingness to study linguistics at degree level throughout your ps!

best of luck and let me know if you have any questions! <3

thank you - this was super helpful! i'm applying this week and hope to be as lucky with that bham offer 🙂

but one thing - do you think using 'I' too much as a sentence opener in your ps is necessarily a bad thing? i've been told different things such as you can overuse it, but i'm trying to keep my ps concise, simple and relevant to me - not taking an unnecessary, abstract approach especially with an english language degree. sorry if i've explained that in a confusing way haha, i'm not sure how else to put it

ty again!