<p>Hi there! I've been lurking on CC for a while now, and decided it's time to become a member. I'm a high-achieving student (but aren't we all on this website?) and looking at UChicago and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. I want to major in Linguistics (with a possible double major in Computer Science). The problem is that with only two schools, if I don't get into either one I'm in a bad spot. So my question is what are other good schools for linguistics? I heard from a professor at Chicago that Emory and UT Austin are good schools. Is that true? Preferabally I'm looking at schools in warmer places (because Chicago and Michigan are COLD) with a lot of financial aid, because I'm poor, but I'm afraid not poor enough to qualify for some things (annual family income is around $30,000 with 3 kids, we live somewhere with a high cost of living.) I was thinking about UCLA, but the cost seemed too high and they don't have much financial aid. It's also important to me that student life be fun. I've been in school for 3 years now and I'm ready to not be so stressed out. I don't mean like parties and stuff, though. Preferably somehwere I could actually form meaningful friendships.</p>
<p>TL;DR: What are good undergraduate Linguistic schools?</p>
<p>Would the OP please verify whether you mean āLinguisticsā or āLanguage Studiesā? Both great fields, but slightly different and before we say much more I just wanted to verify.</p>
<p>If you want a good program with a strong linguistics department, you could apply to USC. You might get good merit aid depending on how good your stats are.</p>
<p>TN.
Is that University of South Carolina or Southern California?
A snapshot of my stats:
4.0 GPA
35 ACT
gifted
top scores in linguistics olympiad, national french and latin exams
weak ECs though, besides the study abroad thing.</p>
<p>Thatās helpful, Beantowngirl. Do you know of any specifically that are maybe not so difficult to get into? Iāve decided I donāt want school to run my life, I just want a school with a good linguistics program that wonāt be like MIT or something really demanding. Something more relaxed would be nice.</p>
<p>Shoot for MIT, but other schools worth looking into are Harvard (due to its proximity to MIT) Penn, Chicago, Stanford, USC (SoCal.,) Brown, and Cornell.</p>
<p>As for public universities, you might be eligible for the Regents scholarship at UCLA and Berkeley. (iām not sure if youāre required to be a California resident for these scholarships, but based on what i could find, I donāt think so.)</p>
<p>You should also probably find some safeties with good reputations for linguistics and merit aid in addition to these.</p>
<p>Iāve heard MIT is only good for graduate linguistics, though? Iām only looking at undergrad for now. Besides, I think thatās a bit of a reach. I really donāt need a HYPS-type school, something more laid-back overall would be good, as long as the linguistics specifically is good.
Also, does anyone know anything about Emory linguistics?</p>
<p>Emoryās course offerings in linguistics (Spring 2013 & Fall 2013) are rather limited. I donāt see any courses in computational linguistics, either in the fall/spring listings or among the course descriptions. Their strength seems to be in āsociocultural approachesā (descriptive and historical linguistics). </p>
<p>With a family income of $30K you should qualify for generous need-based aid from selective private schools.</p>
<p>Good schools for a high-need student interested in computational linguistics<a href=āin%20rough%20order%20of%20selectivityā>/u</a></p>
<p>MIT, Stanford
UPenn, Swarthmore<em>, Amherst College</em>, Pomona College*
Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, USC, Michigan**
Brandeis, University of Rochester
Hampshire College* ā¦ and possibly your state flagship (depending on where you are)</p>
<p>Criteria: Overall college strength (in the kinds of things USNWR measures); need-based financial aid coverage; strength in linguistics/compling; research activity in compling/NLP; location with respect to internship opportunities in compling/NLP/language technology. </p>
<ul>
<li>LACs (Pomona and Swarthmore have fairly strong linguistics programs of their own; all 4 of these LACs are consortium schools that allow cross-registratration at neighboring schools)</li>
</ul>
<p>I donāt think you have too many good safety options if you want to concentrate in this area and also need a lot of aid. Some of the strongest linguistics programs are at big state universities (UMass-Amherst, UCLA, Berkeley, Ohio State, Texas), which usually have only limited financial aid for OOS students (**Michigan may be an exception). Tiny Hampshire College is an out-of-the box suggestion. Its open curriculum would give you a lot of flexibility to put a program together. You could take courses at neighboring UMass-Amherst (strong in computational linguistics). On average, it covers about 97% of demonstrated need. Itās much less selective than the others (but not an absolute safety especially if you donāt show much interest and submit a decent essay).</p>
<p>Chicago is fabulous but among āpeerā schools for compling, I think UPenn is a better choice (not only for course offerings but also for its location).</p>
<p>For what you want (Linguistics + CS), I think the great choices with good financial aid are. These schools are all very strong in both linguistics and computer science </p>
<p>Chicago
Stanford
Penn (Dual degree program)
Johns Hopkins (Linguistics is in the cognitive science department but is real linguistics)
Cornell
Brown</p>
<p>The closest thing to a safety with good financial aid that you will find is the University of Rochester. </p>
<p>Rice has both Linguistics and CS and is in a warm place, but itās not clear how well the two departments work together, as compared to UChicago where there are faculty with appointments in both departments. </p>
<p>Brandeis is like liberal arts college with 4 faculty members who do computational linguistics. I donāt think youāll get as much out of that as the universities. </p>
<p>A couple of other choices that are worth looking at:
University of Pittsburgh has decent linguistics and you may be able to get a full ride there if you apply early enough. You also have some access to CS classes at CMU next door. </p>
<p>Ohio State offers some full rides, has a nice honors college and has a great Linguistics department. I think the full rides are very hard to get though. </p>
<p>Michigan unfortunately offers very little financial aid to OOS students.</p>
<p>The Hampshire idea was very intriguing. I never thought of using Hampshire as a back door to get financial aid to get access to UMASS for linguistics. UMass is among the very best for linguistics.</p>
<p>These arenāt mutually exclusive. I suggested it because it has a top program, is likely to give you very good aid, and a good undergrad education. The only reason Iād suggest avoiding MIT is if you want to do graduate studies there.</p>
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<p>Like others have opined, itās difficult to find quality linguistic programs with less competitive admissions, which will likely give you a lot of aid. You do have some good options at your disposal though. I still recommend applying for UCLA and Berkeley to see if you get Regents at either, or both.</p>
<p>Wow! You guys have helped so much! Thank you all, this is my first post on this forum and usually on forums like this (in general, not for college stuff) I only get a response or two, so thanks!</p>
<p>Computational linguistics (natural language processing) is an exciting field that attracts significant research funding. Still, itās a niche area. Major RDT&E hubs (government/academic/corporate) are located in California, Massachusetts, and the DC-Philadelphia-Pittsburgh triangle. In choosing a college, I suggest taking a holistic view that considers not only course offerings but also internship opportunities.</p>
<p>Chicago historically has had one of the countryās first and best linguistics departments. The College always has valued interdisciplinary connections, so Iām sure you could put a good program together that covers theoretical linguistics, computation, and language study. However, for all of 2013-14, it apparently offers only one course in compling (LING 38600). Furthermore, I donāt think the south side of Chicago is one of the countryās most happening places for corporate/government RDT&E in this area. </p>
<p>Brandeis is a smaller less selective school than Chicago. However, in 2013-14 it offers undergraduate courses in Programming for Linguists and Mathematical Methods in Linguistics. Related undergraduate courses listed in the catalog cover Modal, Temporal, and Spatial Logic for Language; Fundamentals of Computational Linguistics; Computational Semantics; Information Extraction; and Natural Language Processing Systems. Related graduate courses include Statistical Methods for NLP and Automatic Speech Recognition Systems. Waltham MA, I would think, is better situated for internships than Hyde Park.</p>
<p>Iām not saying Brandeis should be your first choice, or even (necessarily) that Iād choose it over Chicago. However, it seems to be a pretty good āmatchā option.</p>
<p>Would you be okay with looking at a liberal arts college? Pomona would basically give you a full ride with no loans if you got in [based on your income], and we have a very strong linguistics program. Weāre also in a warm, sunny location, and unlike other small liberal art colleges we donāt feel as small (weāre in a consortium with 7000 students)</p>