Thank you for your interest in working with me!

Prospective PhD students: I, along with my colleagues, will be considering applications for PhD students who would start in the Fall 2025 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: I will be hiring a postdoc to start in the Fall of 2025 (the exact date is flexible). For more information, please see https://rtmccoy.com/prospective_postdocs/.

Prospective undergraduate researchers: If you are interested in conducting a research project with me, please email me. Note that I may not be able to work with undergraduates at institutions other than Yale.

Prospective Master’s students: I am not accepting Master’s students at this time.