<p>To help a friend of mine, I'm wondering if anyone here could give me a link or suggestions about what are the best U.S. universities for doctoral studies in linguistics. (Especially phonetics).</p>
<p>Thanks,
pyewacket</p>
<p>Someone I know with a strong math background applied to both Berkeley and Penn. In the end, he chose Penn because his interests more neatly dovetailed with those of a particular prof there. </p>
<p>The UMass-Amherst Linguistics department includes some very distinguished profs. MIT's linguistics used to be extremely high-powered, thanks to Noam Chomsky. I don't know what its standing is like now.</p>
<p>Don't know much about rankings, but a friend's daughter is in the Linguistics Ph.D. program at UChicago and has a world of opportunity. She currently has a year-long Fulbright to complete her research in South America, and also another Anthro prize (though she is not in Anthro). She is (was since in SA) currently living with husband on the west coast where her H is finishing a Ph.D. at a UC. Upon her arrival, she was immediately offered an adjunct faculty position, without asking. She has several major publications and has met many distinguished scholars in linguistics throughout the world. The bad news is she has been at it for about 7 years and has about two to go.</p>
<p>I don't know the rankings or any listing, but my sister-in-law got her PHD in Linguistics from Berkeley and went straight from there to a professorship at a college. I believe she was happy with her studies at Berkeley. She is now 38 and so she graduated from that program around ten years ago.</p>
<p>When I graduated from college in 1980, I was thinking seriously about graduate school in linguistics, so I asked a professor who had taught one of my courses for recommendations. If I recall correctly, he recommended Yale and U of Wisconsin. That's of course way out of date, but I suggest asking a professor who is currently in the field for recommendations. Phonetics was not my main area of interest, so the schools that were recommended to me may not have been best for that even 26 years ago. I think the strength of the program probably varies a lot depending on the specific branch of linguistics.</p>