<p>Hey, I'm currently a freshman definitely majoring in linguistics, definitely minoring in computer science and math, and possibly majoring in German. My ultimate goal is to go to grad school for computational linguistics. Now here's the problem. I also REALLY like languages and teach them to myself in my spare time. As I've never left the US before, I'd really like to study abroad in a country that speaks one of the languages I've been working on (Germany is what I've been thinking). My university also offers a joint major program in linguistics and certain foreign languages, German being one of them. If I study abroad in Berlin, the classes I'll be taking will pretty much fulfill the requirements for the German portion of the major. But if I do this, and I REALLY want to do it, I'm very likely to mess up my chances of completing honors research in linguistics and doing an honors thesis. This is also something I'd really like to do, in order to gain experience in research among other things. If I don't study abroad or study German, I'll be fine in completing the requirements necessary for the honors thesis. But then I'd really like to study abroad, and I definitely wouldn't mind having a degree in German. So there's my dilemma. </p>
<p>Now here's another problem. I would gladly do summer classes or even summer study abroad, but my school only offers financial aid for the academic year. Summer study would basically equate to a bunch of loans, and I don't want to do that. So from that, I come up with another idea: staying a fifth year. If I stay a fifth year, I'll be able to study abroad and complete honors in linguistics, and I'll also be able to gain more experience with computer science. But this might be a bad idea, given it could be a pain and would mean some more loans for me. Another problem is that I might not end up doing the honors thesis for linguistics or studying abroad, but I'd like to plan my classes for sophomore year in such a way that I can leave myself both options if I would really want to. I want to look competitive for grad school, have research experience, and also experience living in another country for a semester, but in order to do all this, I'll probably have to remain an undergrad for another year. </p>
<p>So basically, my question is, am I being silly about any of this? Is there anything I'm overlooking or placing too much importance on? Am I trying to fit too much into my undergraduate education? Or does staying a fifth year sound like a plausible idea that I should look into pursuing? Thanks for your time. I'm sorry this post is kind of all over the place.</p>
<p>Why don’t you talk to your departmental adviser who would be more knowledgeable about what you’re talking about in terms of goals and degrees. I would guess most of the posters on CC never heard of computational linguistics and have no advice to offer you.</p>
<p>Would you get any financial aid at all for your fifth year? I know my college charges the full sticker price after 4 years.</p>
<p>Studying abroad in Germany can be very cheap because German universities only charge 500 Euros (about $700) of tuition per semester. Here is another interesting tid-bit of information: due to changes in the state high school curriculum, the spring semester 2011 will start later than usual at Bavarian universities - on May 2. You might be able to spend the entire academic year at your home college and then enroll at a German university during your summer term (which happens to be their spring semester). If you go abroad in the summer, you also don’t have to worry about credits transferring or paying tuition to your home institution while abroad.</p>
<p>@Batllo - Because my departmental advisor hasn’t been helpful at all so far. I’m not really looking for a detailed, “This is what you should do” kind of thing, but rather for anything I might be overlooking or being foolish about. I’m just curious about different opinions and ideas. Ultimately, I’m going to try to find another, more helpful advisor in the future to ask. But until then, I still want to play around with different ideas.</p>
<p>@b@r!um - That’s a good question about the financial aid, and I’ve been wondering it. My spring semester here normally ends in mid May, so I don’t know if I’d be able to do the German study abroad. But I’ll definitely look into it. Thanks for the information!</p>
<p>i don’t want to take out loans either, and i’m the type of person that always ends up wanting to do too many things all at once. to me, being 50,000 in debt is way better than losing years of my life because of waiting until i have enough $ to pay on my own, etc. i’ve already lost 4 months trying to get a job so that i could transfer. i’d rather just start taking loans and continue next semester than wait until i can afford to do what it want.</p>
<p>sorry if that doesn’t come close to what you need. i didn’t read the whole post. good luck to you!</p>
<p>DAAD awards grants on a competitive basis to students who wish to study in Germany. I don’t know the details, but I’m sure they’re spelled out on the website, [url=<a href=“http://www.daad.org%5DHome%5B/url”>http://www.daad.org]Home[/url</a>].</p>
good luck to you!</p>