If you pursue a doctor's degree in linguistics, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #82 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 10 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for linguistics students pursuing a doctor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 214 doctor's degrees in linguistics to qualified students.
DEBUG: After cleaning major_slug = "foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics"
DEBUG: Before URL cleaning = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After TrimSuffix = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After HTTPS placeholder = "HTTPS_TEMP_PLACEHOLDERwww.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After slash cleaning = "HTTPS_TEMP_PLACEHOLDERwww.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After URL cleaning = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: offers_url is valid, proceeding to fetch data
DEBUG: No offers_data.offers found, showing generic ESYOH widget
Choosing a Great Linguistics School for Your Doctor's Degree
The linguistics doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to linguistics students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of linguistics students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized linguistics related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for linguistics students working on their doctor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Linguistics Doctor's Degree Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "foreign-languages-linguistics//linguistics-comparative-literature//linguistics"
DEBUG: After cleaning major_slug = "foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics"
DEBUG: Before URL cleaning = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After TrimSuffix = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After HTTPS placeholder = "HTTPS_TEMP_PLACEHOLDERwww.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After slash cleaning = "HTTPS_TEMP_PLACEHOLDERwww.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After URL cleaning = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After cleaning major_slug = "foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics"
DEBUG: Before URL cleaning = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After TrimSuffix = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After HTTPS placeholder = "HTTPS_TEMP_PLACEHOLDERwww.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After slash cleaning = "HTTPS_TEMP_PLACEHOLDERwww.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
DEBUG: After URL cleaning = "https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/linguistics-comparative-literature/linguistics/offers.json"
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).