Self-study linguistics to an undergraduate level and then pursuing a PhD in it after?

I’m a graduate physicist but fell out of love with physics. Never acknowledged it until it was too late I'm now working in IT. I ended up with a mediocre grade in physics. Tbh I was emotionally stuck with physics because it was my childhood dream to become a professional physicist and work at CERN.

Here’s the thing: Languages and linguistics have always been my true love. Whenever I used to get bored of physics, I’d drown myself in groups and forums and I also taught myself a few languages to near fluency by the end of university. I got so obsessed to the point where I can probably take a linguistics exam now and get a better grade than if I was to take one in physics since I admittedly spent more time reading about syntax and morphology etc. than about eigenvectors. I’m also proficient in Python and know a thing or two about NLP.

I recently took a recreational trip to Oxford and whilst it was a nice trip, I couldn’t stop kicking myself for my academic failures, when I found myself surrounded by the brightest academic minds in the world. When I was driving home I kept thinking I needed a way to prove to myself I’m academically capable and I’m not an idiot.

I’m willing to do everything I can, squeeze every second of the day I have left from my 9-6 job, spend good money on good learning resources and seek mentorship from existing linguist friends, in order to reach an undergraduate level in linguistics. But where would I go from there? I then thought whether it was actually possible to start a PhD. But needless to say I won’t have a formal linguistics degree, and for financial reasons and considering my mediocre grades in physics I probably won’t qualify for a masters anywhere. If you’re a professional or academic linguist, I’m not by any means trying to discredit any of your academic achievements. It’s just me trying to prove to myself I’m still academia-worthy.

What do you guys think? How achievable is this ambition?

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

In terms of pursuing linguistics at the graduate level, I gather it's not really uncommon for people to go into linguistics from a variety of backgrounds as I understand (it's not an especially common undergraduate field). Plenty of people go in from language backgrounds (ancient or modern) or STEM backgrounds (e.g. maths or CS aren't uncommon backgrounds, nor is physics or engineering I think especially for e.g. experimental phonetics type stuff). You often aren't expected to have a background in linguistics before doing a masters degree in it.

However from what I've seen/heard, typically PhDs in non-STEM fields (like linguistics) very often expect you to have a masters degree (sometimes preferably "in hand" i.e. having already completed it) before embarking on the PhD, and I think it's probably typical they'd expect someone who didn't do linguistics or a degree with a language focus plus some linguistics content to do a linguistics masters specifically (if not in general). Therefore, you may realistically need to be looking at a masters in linguistics as the necessary prerequisite to a PhD anyway.

I'd therefore suggest just looking at masters courses in linguistics! It doesn't necessarily need to be at e.g. Oxbridge (although the Oxford MPhil and MSt Advanced Study strands do accept people from cognate degrees and all students on those courses do a core course in theoretical linguistics to get a background in linguistic theory necessary for further work in whatever areas they wish to specialise in), there are no doubt good linguistics departments otherwise too which also accept students from non-linguistics backgrounds (I believe for example UCL also accepts people from various backgrounds).

Without knowing what kind of result you got from your undergraduate degree and any other degrees you've gotten you'll need to look for yourself what the requirements are - you've just indicated "mediocre grades" but it's impossible to tell if this means "a mid-low 2:1" or "middling 2:2" or "scraped a 3rd". That said outside of e.g. Oxbridge often masters degrees are relatively less competitive than undergraduate courses (particularly in smaller/niche areas like linguistics I expect) due to the main limiting factor being ability to pay for the course typically.

It's worth noting if you're aiming to do a funded PhD eventually, you may realistically need a good 2:1 plus strong masters performance or a 1st in your original undergraduate course...?

Reply 2

ChillDawg

Original post

by artful_lounger

In terms of pursuing linguistics at the graduate level, I gather it's not really uncommon for people to go into linguistics from a variety of backgrounds as I understand (it's not an especially common undergraduate field). Plenty of people go in from language backgrounds (ancient or modern) or STEM backgrounds (e.g. maths or CS aren't uncommon backgrounds, nor is physics or engineering I think especially for e.g. experimental phonetics type stuff). You often aren't expected to have a background in linguistics before doing a masters degree in it.
However from what I've seen/heard, typically PhDs in non-STEM fields (like linguistics) very often expect you to have a masters degree (sometimes preferably "in hand" i.e. having already completed it) before embarking on the PhD, and I think it's probably typical they'd expect someone who didn't do linguistics or a degree with a language focus plus some linguistics content to do a linguistics masters specifically (if not in general). Therefore, you may realistically need to be looking at a masters in linguistics as the necessary prerequisite to a PhD anyway.
I'd therefore suggest just looking at masters courses in linguistics! It doesn't necessarily need to be at e.g. Oxbridge (although the Oxford MPhil and MSt Advanced Study strands do accept people from cognate degrees and all students on those courses do a core course in theoretical linguistics to get a background in linguistic theory necessary for further work in whatever areas they wish to specialise in), there are no doubt good linguistics departments otherwise too which also accept students from non-linguistics backgrounds (I believe for example UCL also accepts people from various backgrounds).
Without knowing what kind of result you got from your undergraduate degree and any other degrees you've gotten you'll need to look for yourself what the requirements are - you've just indicated "mediocre grades" but it's impossible to tell if this means "a mid-low 2:1" or "middling 2:2" or "scraped a 3rd". That said outside of e.g. Oxbridge often masters degrees are relatively less competitive than undergraduate courses (particularly in smaller/niche areas like linguistics I expect) due to the main limiting factor being ability to pay for the course typically.
It's worth noting if you're aiming to do a funded PhD eventually, you may realistically need a good 2:1 plus strong masters performance or a 1st in your original undergraduate course...?

Thank you for your reply. I guess that's good good news and bad news for me then - Whilst it's true that some universities may accept me with a physics degree, I actually got a 2:2. This is probably the biggest obstacle that I've got, sadly.Does this mean even if I were to go for a PhD, the chances of me do a funded PhD is close to none?

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by ChillDawg

Well I can't comment from personal experience, but from what I've seen other people doing PhDs etc say, it sounds like the odds of a funded PhD will be pretty slim with a 2:2 potentially even with a distinction at masters. Granted I think there is slightly less stigma for self-funded PhDs (which includes doctoral loan funding) in non-STEM fields although I think there is a bit still...?

I think regardless of the longer term, the first step would be getting onto a masters course and doing very well in it. While you're on the course you should be able to get much more specific advice about potential PhD plans and around funding etc from your department/tutor/etc, particularly as it pertains both to the field of linguistics generally and specifically the area(s) of interest for you research wise So perhaps start exploring the masters option to start with and see where it leads you. :smile:

That said it's worth bearing in mind, there's still no guarantee of a funded PhD even if you had a 1st in your undergrad as well (your research proposal will make a difference presumably), and equally there's no real guarantee of an academic position after because unfortunately I gather the opportunities are pretty limited in these kinds of areas (so it's good to have backup plans other than academia even if you do complete the PhD - although particularly for computationally oriented linguistics PhDs I gather it's not overly hard to transition into careers in research in tech companies like amazon/google/etc).

If you would rather not do the masters if you can't continue to a funded PhD though then maybe that's for you to do a little soul searching before committing to anything, and weighing up the pros and cons of the lack of guarantees (which might be a general consideration for academia broadly because it's not the most stable of employment trajectories even after doing a funded PhD as noted)...?