You don’t need to have ever taken any courses in computer science or computational linguistics. We do expect our students to have some familiarity with programming, though you certainly don't need a degree in computer science or related field. For students without programming experience, we suggest working through a free course such as Udacity's Intro to Python, Harvard/edX's CS50 or CS50P, or a textbook such as Python for Linguists.
Although we require students to have basic proficiency with Python before they begin courses in our program, you don't need to have this self-study completed by the time you submit your application. If you're working on a plan of study to reach the required level of proficiency before courses start, simply include a description of your plan in your personal statement.
The average time to completion is two years or 5-6 terms. We offer courses during fall, spring, and summer terms.
Please see this page for a description of core courses and recommended electives. Students in the online program may take electives in other departments with the approval of the program director. While the number of offerings continues to grow, students in the online program are currently limited to fully online (i.e., asynchronous) offerings available through the Arizona Online campus.
We recommend that students enroll in 2 courses per 15-week term, but tackle the courses one at a time in a back-to-back fashion. If you need to take the program slower and enroll in just one course per term (meaning you would be in class for 7.5 weeks and then not the next 7.5 weeks), that’s certainly possible, but keep in mind that not all of the program courses are offered each semester.
We don't place students in internships, but the HLT faculty are available to advise you as you evaluate prospects you identify yourself.
Students admitted to the program are added to a forum where faculty, alumni, and current students can discuss the program and share internship opportunities. Many of our students have had success finding internships using the following sites:
Finding the right internship often takes time, and the form that the process takes can vary from country to country.
GRE scores are not required as part of your application to the online program.
This situation is not uncommon when it's been a number of years since applicants completed their undergraduate studies. What we hope to see in the letters is an evaluation of your academic preparation for our program. If you can't locate previous instructors to provide this evaluation, then it's reasonable to see if a current work supervisor or even a work peer can provide an assessment that would reflect how well you might do in an academic program. Points that we're looking for include your ability to learn new skills, your ability to handle work with deadlines, your tenacity or dedication, or (specific to our program) your ability to program. In short, we do want to see what someone else thinks of you, but if you're no longer able to get a recommendation from someone who knows your work in an educational context, your recommenders don't need to be limited to past instructors.
The purpose of the writing sample is to let the admissions committee answers questions like, Can you write in English in a professional way? and Can you build a logical argument and express yourself clearly? Typically, the kinds of writing that would let us evaluate these things include assignments from formal courses. If you have a document you've written as part of your current work that you're able to share, or even a blog post that might let us see these things, that would suffice if you don't have a class paper you can submit. It's also acceptable for you to write something new for the writing sample, but we don't intend for this to take up a large amount of your time. If you're able to write something on a topic that is central to one of the areas that the HLT degree program focuses on, either a linguistic analysis (ie, not a literature analysis), or a discussion of a coding project, that would be best. These two particular types of writing are typical because many students start our program with either a background in linguistics or a background in programming, which our plan of study then builds on; seeing how an applicant writes in one of these areas gives us the best picture of how a student might do in the HLT program. However, if you don't have a background in either of these areas, then any kind of topic that allows us to see how you build a logical argument for a particular claim will be acceptable.
It doesn't help us see your true writing ability if the document that you submit as your writing sample was composed by an AI tool. The personal statement should include details that are specific to your history and your own goals, and generating a personal statement that does not reflect these doesn't help us understand who you are as an applicant. Writing a document and then using grammar checkers like Grammarly is fine, as long as the content of the documents that make up your application is something that you yourself came up with.
Except where differences are noted, the same policies apply to our online program that apply to the in-person program. Like our in-person program, our online program is currently only designed for students to begin their study in the fall term each year. In contrast to the in-person program, however, applications for the online program are accepted on a rolling basis until July 20, for students who plan to start the academic year in August. Although applications are accepted through up to this date, we encourage students who are interested in the online program to submit their applications as early as possible.
You can begin the process by speaking with an enrollment counselor from UA Global:
UA Global can also answer questions about the total cost of the program.
The Graduate College requires international students to demonstrate a minimum proficiency of English. You can find more information about general requirements here:
Please see the following link:
Arizona Online provides information about the total program cost on their website.
Eric Jackson is directing the online MS in HLT for the 2024-25 academic year. Eric is available to chat about the program via Zoom or email (ejackson1 AT arizona DOT edu). You may schedule an appointment with him using this link.