Explore how people learn, use, and shape language across cultures and communities.
Linguistics at Iowa offers a dynamic, interdisciplinary education that reveals the inner workings of language and its impact on everyday life. Students explore core topics like phonology, syntax, and language acquisition while engaging with innovative areas such as constructed languages, experimental methods, and cognitive science. Whether you're fascinated by how children learn to speak or how language influences social interaction, the program equips you with both theoretical insight and practical skills.
The program empowers students to connect language study with real-world applications and meaningful careers. With coursework linked to fields like education, UX design, translation, TESL, and data science, linguistics opens doors far beyond academia.
PLEASE NOTE: Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Linguistics can be completed with a 2+2 plan. It is NOT guaranteed that the Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Linguistics (Teaching English as a Second Language) can be completed with a 2+2 plan.
Student Responsibilities
Review the responsibilities required to become and remain eligible for the 2 Plus 2 Guaranteed Graduation Plan.
Eastern Iowa Community Colleges checkpoints
- Complete all requirements for the AA degree.
- When transferring to Iowa, present a cumulative transfer grade-point average (GPA) of at least 2.00 from all colleges attended.
University of Iowa Checkpoints
- Complete LING:3000 Introduction to Linguistics during the first semester of enrollment at The University of Iowa.
- Complete the UI courses required for this major and maintain a 2.00 Major and University of Iowa grade-point average.
- Complete at least half of the remaining semester hours needed for your major and degree during each of your two years at Iowa. (A total of 30 semester hours is required for the Linguistics major and 120 semester hours for the BA degree.)
A current schedule of UI courses is available online via Iowa Student Information Services (MyUI).