Linguistics

Advising and Registration Procedures

We describe here the procedure that the Linguistics Department follows for advising its majors.

Every linguistics major is officially assigned an advisor -- Wayne Cowart, Judy Kegl, or Dana McDaniel. Who your official advisor is probably depends on who signed your change-of-major form when you declared the major. However, your advisor assignment is irrelevant to our advising process, which works the same way for all majors. All majors may approach any or all of the three professors for advising.

Linguistics majors are encouraged to contact Wayne, Judy, or Dana any time they have advising questions. The kind of questions you have should determine which advisor you contact:

Dana is the general advisor. She will answer any scheduling and transcript questions -- which courses you need, which courses to take when, how many credits you need, what you need to complete the core, what you have left to graduate, etc. The best way to reach Dana is by E-mail: dana.mcdaniel@usm.maine.edu.

Judy answers questions about careers in ASL and interpreting. In particular, you should contact her if you are in the ASL/Interpreting track (or are considering that track) and want to know about certification, possible careers, or assessment of your skills in ASL and interpreting. The best way to reach Judy is by calling the Signed Language Research Lab: 780-5957, or 780-5933 TTY.

Wayne answers questions about graduate school and language-related careers other than those involving ASL and interpreting. In particular, you should contact him if you are in the general major (or are considering that option) and have questions about graduate programs in linguistics, or if you are in the speech and language track (or are considering that track) and have questions about graduate programs, undergraduate prerequisites, certification, and careers in speech/language pathology. The best way to reach Wayne is by E-mail: cowart@usm.maine.edu. You can also reach him at 780-4477 or through the Linguistics Office at 780-4989 (780-4069 TTY).

When you begin thinking about graduate school applications, please review the recommendations here.

We do an official round of advising before preregistration each semester. Around two to three weeks before preregistration, we send an e-mail message to all majors. (This is one reason to be sure that we have your most current E-mail address of file. If your address changes, be sure to contact the Linguistics Office (780-4989 voice, or 780-4069 TTY, or cowart@usm.maine.edu) right away.

As is explained in the e-mail message, you first send Dana an e-mail with a list of the courses you plan to take and any questions you have. You may want to consult the online degree audit before getting in touch with Dana (this facility has changed recently; search the USM web site for 'degree audit' to locate the current link). Keep in mind that this report is an unofficial advising tool and is not always reliable, but you should know if it shows deficiencies in your record. If you have no questions and Dana sees no problems with your list of courses, she e-mails you your RAN number, which you use to register over the web. If you have questions, Dana either answers them or forwards the questions to Judy or Wayne (if the questions are on "their" topics, see above). We will either answer your questions by e-mail or we will set up a meeting with you to answer them. Once your questions have been answered, Dana will send you your RAN number by e-mail. You then register online at http://www.usm.maine.edu.

For more information or to report problems with this page, please contact Wayne Cowart: cowart@usm.maine.edu.