If you want to study an additional language, then you can do so in your elective space in the third year. The Linguistics programme has the special provision that you are allowed to take four first-year courses in your elective space, as long as these courses form a coherent language proficiency track. Thus, for instance, if you are a speaker of Spanish, and you would like to maximize your breadth of language mastery, you could take Czech in your first year and Arabic in your third year. By the way, the Language X of the first year is an obligatory part of the Linguistics programme, and the elective space in the third year is free.

Upon completion of this programme, you can opt to do a Master's or you can enter the job market right away. Please find more information on this on the 'After graduation' page. Examples of closely related Master’s programmes include the one-year MA General Linguistics programme, and the 2-year Research Master's Linguistics and Communication.

Just like all of the other Faculty of Humanities programmes, this programme will start in September. It is not possible to start at a different time. 

In June of year 1 there is the First Year Group project, in which you, together with three fellow students, can use your knowledge of the first-year courses to answer a research question in an experimental study involving human participants. In June of year 2 there is the course Linguistic Theories, in which you answer your individual theoretical research question on the basis of everything you know from your first two years and the deepening provided in that course. In April through June of year 3 you will be writing your BA thesis on any linguistic subject you like, perhaps inspired by the specialisation course that precedes it and that draws you into one of our research groups. Those are the three big projects; you will write shorter research papers and proposals in various other courses as well.

A linguistics degree is incredibly versatile. Graduates have been known to continue into various fields, including but not limited to academics, teaching, research, and many other areas that may not seem related to Linguistics at first glance. Linguistics teaches you many important skills that are widely applicable, as well as providing you with a strong background for further study in an MA or research MA programme, for example.

The community of students and staff involved in the Linguistic programme at UvA is very close-knit and personal. Almost everyone knows each other, and there is little distance between students and lecturers. This fosters a strong positive learning environment. The study association for Linguistics and Sign Language Linguistics, VOS, is also very much involved in creating a warm, inviting community for Linguistics students.

Finding housing in Amsterdam is often difficult because of the high demand with regard to student accommodation, but by starting your search on time and putting in some effort, students usually succeed at finding something. Many students find accommodation by word of mouth or social media. First-year Bachelor's students who live more than 40 kilometres away from Amsterdam are given priority, which greatly increases their odds of finding accommodation.