Yale University | Postdoc and PhD fellowships on linguistics, cognitive science, and AI

Prospective PhD students

I, along with my colleagues, will be considering applications for PhD students who would start in the Fall 2026 semester. I can advise PhD students through either the Yale Linguistics Department or the Yale Computer Science Department. For either program, you should apply through the centralized Yale PhD admissions website.

For both departments, admissions decisions are made by the department as a whole, not by individual faculty. If you are interested in working with me, please list me as a potential advisor on your application; if you do so, I will be guaranteed to see and read your application. There is no need to send me your application or CV separately from the official application process. There is also no need to email me to express your interest, unless you have a question that is not answered here; emailing me will not affect your chances of acceptance.

You can only apply to one department at Yale. Think carefully about whether Linguistics or Computer Science would be a better fit for your interests. More broadly, you should also think carefully about whether doing a PhD is the right decision for you. Many people love the experience (I did!), but it is not for everyone, and it is a big commitment—so it should not be decided upon lightly.

I would be most excited to work with applicants who are interested in both linguistics and computation; e.g., using computational modeling to answer questions from linguistics (such as questions about how humans learn or process language), or using theories from linguistics as the basis for evaluating computational models. If you are purely interested in the engineering side of NLP (e.g., how can we improve performance on applied language tasks?), working with me might not be the best fit.

If you are applying to the CS Department, note that my name does not appear on the list of potential advisors in the application form. Do not be alarmed by that—just make sure to mention my name in your statement of purpose. If you do so, I will be guaranteed to see your application. The reason that my name does not show up on the list is because the list only includes faculty whose home department is CS, whereas my home department is Linguistics, but I am nonetheless able to advise students through CS.

Prospective postdocs

The Yale Department of Linguistics seeks candidates for a Postdoctoral Associate in Computational Linguistics, who would work under the guidance of Professor Tom McCoy. Applicants should have a background in Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Computer Science, or another discipline related to computational linguistics. The applicant’s research agenda should relate to the use of computational methods to understand human cognition and/or the use of insights from linguistics and cognitive science to advance artificial intelligence; applicants who are purely interested in artificial intelligence, without a connection to linguistics, would not be a strong fit for this position. Potential research directions include developing computational models of language learning (e.g., neural networks or Bayesian models) or analyzing the linguistic representations of large language models; see https://rtmccoy.com/research/ for more discussion of potential research topics.

Qualifications

The applicant must have received a PhD before their start date. They are also expected to have a background in the application of computational methods within linguistics or cognitive science. Applicants will be judged based on their prior achievements and their fit with the faculty mentor’s research interests.

Process to apply

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Applicants should supply three things: (i) An up-to-date CV; (ii) exactly two writing samples (e.g., two papers that you have written); and (iii) a one-to-two paragraph summary of the applicant’s research interests. The research summary can be informal (e.g., it could just be a bulleted list) - the goal is simply to provide a sense of what topics or questions the applicant might want to work on during a postdoc. Please send these materials via email to tom.mccoy@yale.edu; the subject line of the email should contain the phrase “Postdoc application” and your name (e.g., “Postdoc application: Alex Smith”).

Selected applicants may be asked to also provide two letters of recommendation, but these should not be submitted with the initial application.

Contact

If you have any questions not answered here, contact tom.mccoy@yale.edu.

Application and more details: https://rtmccoy.com/prospective_postdocs/