Admissions

Deadlines

The priority deadline for admission and fellowship applications is January 15. Applications and all supporting documents (listed  below) must be submitted by that date in order to be eligible for fellowships.

The final deadline for admission applications is May 1st. Applications completed after January 15th, but by May 1st will be considered for admission only if space is still available.

Application for admission and all supporting materials must be submitted by these dates. Materials submitted after the respective dates will not be considered for admission.

Please direct questions to:

Rob Hether                                            and                             Prof. Elisabeth Krimmer
Graduate Program Coordinator                                              Graduate Program Chair
Phone: 530-754-8750                                                              emkrimmer@ucdavis.edu

Email:  robhether@ucdavis.edu 

Application Checklist

Click here to begin the online admissions & fellowship application:

  1. Application Fee: $135 domestic, $155 international.
    Application Fee Fellowship opportunities- 

    ELIGIBILITY

    In order to receive a waiver of the fee to apply to the PhD program in German, you must attest that you have financial need and apply for the fee waiver by December 15, 2024. The Graduate Admissions Committee in German has a limited number of application fee waivers to award and will award them on a first-come, first-served basis. If you wish to apply for the fee waiver, you may send a short statement of financial need to the Graduate Program Coordinator, Rob Hether, robhether@ucdavis.edu.

    If you are awarded this fellowship, it will be applied to your application after you have officially submitted your application to the program. After submitting the application (but before paying the application fee), please email Rob Hether, robhether@ucdavis.edu, letting him know you have submitted, so that he may add the fellowship to your application.

    Do NOT pay the application fee yourself; we cannot refund you the application fee if you pay it yourself.
    Important note: the UC Davis Graduate Studies office also offers a separate fee-waiver program, please click here for more information. While applicants may apply to both programs, they may receive only one waiver in total.

  2. Statement of Purpose (4,000 character limit including spaces)
    Please highlight your academic preparation and motivation; interests, specializations and career goals; and fit for pursuing graduate study at UC Davis.
    • Preparation and motivation may include your academic and research experiences that prepare you for this graduate program (for example: coursework, employment, exhibitions, fieldwork, foreign language proficiency, independent study, internships, laboratory activities, presentations, publications, studio projects, teaching, and travel or study abroad) and motivation or passion for graduate study.
    • Interests, specializations, and career goals may include your research interests, disciplinary subfields, area/s of specialization, and professional objectives.
    • Fit may include how your preparation, experiences, and interests match the specific resources and characteristics of the graduate program at UC Davis. Please identify specific faculty within the graduate program with whom you would like to work and how their interests match your own.
  3. Personal History Statement (4,000 character limit including spaces)
    The purpose of this essay is to get to know you as an individual and potential graduate student. Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. You may include any educational, familial, cultural, economic, or social experiences, challenges, community service, outreach activities, residency and citizenship, first-generation college status, or opportunities relevant to your academic journey; how your life experiences contribute to the social, intellectual, or cultural diversity within a campus community and your chosen field; or how you might serve educationally underrepresented and underserved segments of society with your graduate education.
    This essay should complement but not duplicate the content in the Statement of Purpose.
  4. Sample of written work: The sample of your written work should be in your proposed area of study (Linguistics or Literature), and it should be a research paper or critical analysis. It can be an essay previously submitted for a class. It will be submitted online during the application process.

Please make sure that all information in your online application is correct and that all statements & writing samples are revised/uploaded before submitting. No changes can be made to your application once it is submitted.

Financial Support:  You will automatically be considered for fellowships if you complete the online application for admission by the priority deadline (Jan. 15). 

Required Materials for ALL Applicants - Must also be received by the deadline

  1. Three letters of recommendation (from professors):
    The letters will be used for admission, TA and fellowship applications. During the online application process, you will be required to provide your recommenders' contact information, including email addresses. Your professors will be contacted to submit their recommendations electronically once you have provided this information.  No letters sent by mail/email will be accepted. Letters must be submitted online in the Apply Yourself system.
  2. Transcripts:  We require academic records from each college-level institution you have attended. You will be instructed to upload scanned copies of your transcripts after you have submitted your online application. For more details visit https://gradstudies.ucdavis.edu/submit-transcripts. Upon admission, an official transcript must be shown to graduate studies as a condition of admission, but may be retained by the student. Falsified records will be immediate cause for revoking any offer of admission and funding.
    International Applicants: Certified English translations of your transcripts must be uploaded along with the original-language transcript.

Additional Required Materials for International Applicants - Must also be received by the deadline

 

7. Applicants must submit TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo scores unless they have earned or will be earning a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree from either a regionally accredited or foreign college/university which provides instruction solely in English. See the English Language Requirement section for details. 

Typically successful applicants score significantly higher than the minimum. Applicants must score at least 26 on the speaking section to be considered for Teaching Assistant positions. Students scoring 22-25 must pass an additional English Exam when they arrive in order to be eligible to TA. 

8. Transcript Translations: As mentioned above, certified English Translations are required for all transcripts issued by the institution in a foreign language. Please upload both the non-English transcript and the English translation. For more information, please see the graduate studies website: https://gradstudies.ucdavis.edu/prospective-students/international-applicants.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Should my Statement of Purpose and Personal History statement be in English or German? We will accept either.  However, we recommend English so that the fellowship committee can read it. (The fellowship committee is composed of faculty from various departments.) The same is true for letters of recommendation.
  • Did you receive my materials? Once we have received AND processed your application materials, we will email you a courtesy notice to let you know if any items are missing. This will typically take about one week. It may take longer if it is very close to the deadline.
  • When I preview the application, it seems like I didn't fill in some of the information, but I wasn't asked. What should I do? Our graduate program opted out of asking some questions because we felt they were redundant. You will not be able to fill in the following sections: GRE Scores; Prior Experience; Prerequisite Course History; Future Interests or Goals; Resume/CV (upload).
  • Is funding available for international students? Yes. Funding is available for international students.
  • Is funding available for undocumented or DACAmented students? Some scholarships and loans may be available to undocumented students thanks to the California Dream Act. In order to work as a Teaching Assistant or Graduate Student Researcher, students must be authorized to work (by DACA or other means). To learn more, please visit the Undocumented Student Center website.
  • How do I apply for Spring admission? Applications for admission are accepted for fall quarter only.