Accreditation

SIL courses are fully integrated in UND's academic program and fully accredited by UND. Up to ten semester credits may be earned in each summer session and applied to a degree program at UND or transferred to another institution (undergraduate or graduate degree, as appropriate).

Admissions

Prospective SIL students must apply to the program and be accepted each summer that they want to attend. Students must also be enrolled in an appropriate status by UND (the SIL registrar will guide you through the process). Acceptance by SIL is conditional upon acceptance by UND.

New SIL students are expected to meet the following admissions requirements:

• Statement of purpose that matches what the program can provide
• Two years of college, university, or other post-secondary education
• Minimum 2.8 grade point average (GPA) or equivalent
• Native-speaker of English or demonstrated adequate competence in English Contact the SIL-UND Director for details. (For Deaf people, ASL interpreters are available on request, but a certain amount of written English proficiency is still required.)

Exceptions are sometimes made for students with unusual backgrounds or needs; contact the SIL-UND Director.

Students who want to continue for two or more summers are expected to maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA in SIL courses. In addition, students in the M.A. program must meet all requirements for continuing in that program.

Like all UND students, SIL students are expected to pass a safety and security screening procedure as part of their application to UND.

Graduate vs. undergraduate

SIL students who do not have an accredited 4-year undergraduate degree must register with UND as undergraduate students. Those who do have such a degree may register as either undergraduate or graduate students.

At UND, in order to take a course for graduate credit, the student must be enrolled as a graduate student and the course must be approved for graduate credit. Undergraduate students who successfully complete undergraduate SIL courses are allowed to register in certain graduate courses but receive only undergraduate credit.

All 500-level courses are graduate-level; some 400-level courses have also been approved for graduate credit (see course listings). Expectations of graduate students in 400-level courses are significantly greater than those for undergraduate students in the same courses.

Degree vs. non-degree status

Graduate students may take courses in either degree or non-degree status; many SIL-UND students choose the non-degree option, which allows them to take courses without entering a degree program. Even those interested in an M.A. at UND (see below) often attend their first summer as non-degree graduate students.

Undergraduate students, unless they are already pursuing a degree at UND, register for SIL courses in non-degree status. Undergraduate students may take up to 20 credits of SIL courses before being required to apply to UND as regular degree students.

The Master of Arts in Linguistics

For students who want a Master of Arts in Linguistics from UND, most SIL courses can be applied toward the degree. Indeed, the M.A. in linguistics may be completed entirely during the summers using courses offered by SIL; a small number of courses are also available to M.A. students in the fall and spring semesters.

Application to the M.A. program may be postponed until after one summer of graduate courses as a non-degree graduate student; up to 9 credits of such courses can still be used as part of the degree. Up to 9 credits may be transferred in from other institutions. A total of 32 credits is required, including 4 credits for thesis. (This is a summary description only; see the program description for details.)

Other degree and certificate programs

In cooperation with UND's Department of English, SIL offers an undergraduate minor in linguistics for UND students pursuing a bachelor's degree. For information, contact the SIL-UND Director or Professor Xiaozhao Huang in the English Department.

SIL courses may be used in other UND degree programs; see your advisor or the appropriate department for applicability.

SIL and UND are in the process of developing a graduate certificate program in Community-based Literacy as Applied Linguistics (subject to approval by the state Board of Higher Education).

Finally, some other colleges and universities (particularly in Minnesota) have undergraduate degree programs that accept SIL-UND courses in transfer towards a major, minor or concentration in linguistics. For information about these programs and their availability to you, please contact the SIL-UND Director.

Transfer credit

If you are interested in using courses from SIL-UND as part of a degree at another institution, you should check with the other institution about their policies on transfer courses. It is the institution that receives the credits that decides whether they will transfer at all and how they can be used (as undergraduate vs. graduate credit, as major vs. elective courses, etc.). This means that, even though SIL-UND courses are fully accredited, there is no guarantee that they will be accepted at your college or university.

If you want to transfer credit to another graduate program, keep in mind that graduate programs vary considerably in their specializations and emphases, and as a result credits do not transfer between graduate programs as easily as they do at the undergraduate level.

If you want help in trying to transfer SIL-UND courses elsewhere (e.g., copies of syllabi), contact the SIL-UND Director.

Transcripts

Since SIL classes are accredited by UND, grades are reported through the UND registrar's office. SIL does not issue transcripts. Present and recent students can get an unofficial report of their grades in SIL courses through UND's “CampusConnection” system, available from the UND home page. Official transcripts can be ordered from the UND registrar; see UND's page of transcript information.