what kind of differences did you find between linguistics undergrad and linguistics grad school? i’m considering a master’s because i really love studying linguistics but im also terrified because other than “it’s harder than undergrad” i haven’t a clue what to expect
nice question !
1. definitely more reading involved . and you won’t be able to READ like you did in undergrad . skim, skim, skim ! i actually learned how to do that in one of my last undergrad ling courses, and it helped me so much ... some weeks we would have around 70 pages to inhale for a 250 word write up like ... yeah that’s not worth it lol
2. idk if it’s HARDER? it took me a couple weeks to feel out how my profs would grade me on the graduate level, but it wasn’t more difficult to me, just different. you spend a lot of time in undergrad regurgitating and summarizing, but graduate school is about analysis ! what is the author saying with this piece (relating to other work), how does this fit into current thinking, any flaws to this point of view, what do YOU think of this? and so on . your assignments and work feel a lot more personalized, and you start developing your own linguist ‘voice’.
3. you aren’t 100% a student anymore. if you are a TA/RA, well now you’re an instructor/researcher too (a PROFESSIONAL) .... you learn how to carry yourself as a colleague (rather than just a classmate) .. navigating the politics of the grad student lounge (keep your mouth shut and ears open lol). im pretty chill with my cohort, but i do know when to be more ‘official’. you’ll learn more about that balance in grad school.
4. there is no more handholding . not a lick of handholding . if you want to do something, you have to do it ! no one is going to try to convince you too hard to go after what you want ... grad school is a lot more freeform in terms of the paths you can take, and you have a lot more responsibility for how that develops. it’s daunting, but also very exciting ! be brave enough to try out different things, and also decisive enough to choose what works BEST for you in the end.
i hope this can give you some insight into what to expect!
{This is super obvi, but I'll add anyways for anon} there's more experimental activity. You might be doing term papers that are like lit reviews, but more term papers require data collection, lab assisting / RA (if applicable) and of course the thesis. You need to get comfortable with soliciting and collecting data