COURSE CURRICULUM

The Master of Science in Computational Linguistics is a 30-unit interdisciplinary graduate program jointly offered by the Departments of Linguistics and Language Development and Computer Science. It integrates linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence to prepare students for careers in natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, speech and language technologies, information retrieval, and other language-based AI applications. The program also supports preparation for doctoral study in computational linguistics, AI, linguistics, and related interdisciplinary fields.The curriculum includes 15 units of core coursework. Students complete Computational Linguistics I and II, along with a seminar in linguistics that provides advanced theoretical and research grounding. These courses build foundational knowledge in language structure, computational methods, and linguistic theory. Students also complete a Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) course, choosing between Graduate Technical Writing or a professional linguistics writing course, ensuring strong academic and research communication skills.In addition, students complete 9 units of electives selected with advisor approval. Electives may come from computer science, linguistics, or mathematics, allowing students to tailor their studies toward areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithms, formal languages, syntax, semantics, phonetics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, or probability and statistics. This flexible structure enables students to strengthen either computational or linguistic expertise depending on career goals.The program concludes with a 6-unit culminating experience, completed as either a thesis (Plan A) or a project (Plan B). Students work under faculty supervision in either the Linguistics or Computer Science department, completing research or applied work in computational linguistics or NLP. Overall, the program develops strong interdisciplinary expertise in language, computation, and data analysis, preparing graduates for both industry roles and advanced academic research.