<p>I have a balanced list of schools that's pretty solid, but I want to make sure that I haven't missed any "hidden gems," so to speak. Disregarding location, selectivity, etc., what schools meet ALL of the following criteria?</p>
<p>1) Must be an LAC; i.e. <3000 students.
2) Strength in English.
3) Strength in CS.
4) Strength in creative writing OR offers linguistics (at least a minor).</p>
<p>Any suggestions?</p>
<p>What’s on your list?
Do you have Williams/Amherst/Swarthmore/Middlebury/Pomona/Davidson?</p>
<p>My list is irrelevant, although I do have several of those schools on it. I’m interested to see what LACs are considered strong in both English and CS, without any possible bias.</p>
<p>Reed…Bryn Mawr…Bowdoin</p>
<p>Swarthmore College</p>
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</p>
<p>1475 students</p>
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</p>
<p>Tied for Yale as largest undergrad producer of future English lit PhDs (per 1000 graduates) in the United States.</p>
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</p>
<p>Very strong. Offering both a BA in Computer Science and BS in Engineering with a computer engineering concentration.</p>
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</p>
<p>I don’t think creative writing courses are a particular emphasis, but writing certainly is and the college produces significant numbers of writers of all ilks, most famously - I suppose - James A. Michner - who donated publishing rights to all of his works to the College.</p>
<p>Linguistics is a particular specialty of the College. In fact, the President of Swarthmore for the last 16 years is a linguist. Interestingly, Swarthmore Linguistics professor, Donna Jo Napoli, is a very successful fiction writer. Her books for children and young readers have won numerous awards and been translated into dozens of languages. She is somebody you might want to e-mail with questions about linguistics and writing at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.donnajonapoli.com/]donnajonapoli.com[/url”>http://www.donnajonapoli.com/]donnajonapoli.com[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Keilexandra</p>
<p>There is always bias, and it is not irrelevant to us. If you don’t post your list we will be influenced by whomever posts first, we will also spend our time looking up the same schools, multiply repeating your work. Why should we waste our time in your effort to reach an unobtainable goal?</p>
<p>FWIW I found “Must be an LAC; i.e. <3000 students.” to be odd. There are some LACs with more than 3000 students (Bucknell), and there may be some non-LACs with less than 3000 students (Brandeis comes close) that meet your other requirements.</p>
<p>I got this stupid piece of advice from students at every LAC I visited:</p>
<p>THOSE ARE SOME GREAT CHOICES, YOU WON’T GO WRONG.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! nmparents, just posting my list wouldn’t do much good because I’ve considered and eliminated many other colleges for various reasons; and some of the schools on my list don’t meet the above criteria. But if you like, the full list including maybe’s:</p>
<p>Yale
Pomona
Amherst
Williams
Swarthmore
Brown
Cornell
Oberlin
Macalester
Grinnell
Wesleyan
Vassar
Beloit
U of Rochester
Haverford
UDel</p>
<p>And I’d prefer a smaller LAC; Wesleyan is on the large side for me.</p>
<p>Barnard I think meets your academic criteria, if you properly leverage off its association with Columbia. However, that might also give it a feel larger than its nominal size.</p>
<p>Not sure if you’ve considered Bryn Mawr or not… our lists were very similar and I hadn’t added it until the very end because of the “all girl” thing, but I added it anyway and I am soooo glad. And it’s less reachy than Swat and Hav, so if you’re really interested in the Tri-Co, it’s worth a try. </p>
<p>Requirements:
1300 undergrads
[English</a> Department: Home](<a href=“http://www.brynmawr.edu/english/]English”>Literatures in English)
[Bryn</a> Mawr College: Computer Science](<a href=“http://mainline.brynmawr.edu/]Bryn”>http://mainline.brynmawr.edu/)
[url=<a href=“http://www.brynmawr.edu/creativewriting/]BMC”>Creative Writing]BMC</a> || Creative Writing Program<a href=“And%20BMC%20students%20can%20also%20major%20in%20Linguistics%20at%20Swarthmore”>/url</a></p>
<p>I’m really really really hoping to take an intro CS class next semester- they’re supposedly spectacular.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr has jumped on and off my list (mainly due to the women’s college part), but if its academics meet my criteria, I’ll definitely give it another long look. Finding LACs strong in both English and CS isn’t easy!</p>
<p>I know one Oberlin’CS major who got a Goldwater Scholarship as a junior. He specifically wanted to study CS within an LAC environment. He double-majored in a Humanities topic. His mind is like a sponge and he could engage on any topic. </p>
<p>He told me one reason he liked Oberlin was that the interdisciplinary dialogue among students never quits. He also felt that CS teaching was excellent, as the faculty prides itself on teaching undergraduates. He found summertime research work at research-based universities (downside of studying CS at an LAC), so he was in position to apply for a Ph.D. in CS upon graduation, which he did. </p>
<p>Oberlin has a very popular Creative Writing major, but check if that means it’s hard to just take those courses as a non-major. Their English department is top shelf, but I think I’ve heard that about every LAC on your list. If I were you, I’d read the English department course catalogue in all the schools, looking for a writer’s voice there that appeals to you. Best wishes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the anecdote. I do like Oberlin a lot, although I’ve heard that the CW classes are hard to get into for non-majors. Strong English at LACs is common, but the trick is to find strength in CS at the same school.</p>
<p>And I have found course catalogs very enlightening, at least for English (the CS ones all sound the same, since I don’t have any particular research interests). For instance, Grinnell dropped on my list after catalog research because I felt that their English course offerings were too traditional.</p>
<p>Haverford College seems to have everything you’re looking for… </p>
<p>1) 1200 students.
2) Strength in English.
3) Strength in CS.
4) Both a Linguistics program and Creatve Writing minor program available through Haverford’s relationship with Bryn Mawr</p>
<p>I was about to suggest Swarthmore, but I see I’ve been beaten to the punch!</p>
<p>I’ll add that Swarthmore’s linguistics program is superb. It shares courses with Bryn Mawr and Haverford, so your choices are broader than most LACs (even universities, where the linguistics departments are typically very small). I believe you can even cross-register at Penn, which has a top linguistics program (Noam Chomsky received his PhD there), but don’t quote me on that. The faculty are all interesting, especially Donna Jo Napoli–I don’t know whether you’ve read any of her books, but she was one of my favorite authors when I was younger, and she seems like a really neat professor. Alumni seem passionate about the program. The research, also, is very interesting, and you have access to all the students’ theses. The requirements for the major, also, are different, especially the non-Indo-European language study requirement. Definitely apply if you’re interested in linguistics.</p>
<p>Edit: beaten to the punch again! interesteddad is right, you should email Donna Jo Napoli if linguistics is truly your thing.</p>
<p>Kenyon has an excellent English program.</p>
<p>Knox has a good Creative Writing program, but I am not sure about CS</p>
<p>pointoforder: I’m thinking about Haverford, but troubled by the relatively strict distribution requirements and rumors of minority ostracization. But definitely considering all three colleges in the Tri-Co.</p>
<p>glassesarechic: Kenyon was my first love, but it doesn’t offer a Computer Science major. Sigh.</p>
<p>orygunmum: Yep, Knox is renowned for creative writing–not so much for CS, though.</p>
<p>By the way, I’m a CS/linguistics double major myself. Funnily enough, for the longest, I wanted to major in CW (since I’ve been writing since I was 6), but when I found out that it’s not usually a major (a minor, most of the time), I decided I wanted to major in English. Eventually I added psychology, then decided English wasn’t for me and substituted linguistics, then decided psychology wasn’t for me and substituted CS. I’m pretty set on linguistics/CS now. While I didn’t apply to any LACs (I very very nearly applied to Swarthmore, as well as Williams), I did make sure to use linguistics as my general yardstick in evaluating which colleges I wanted to apply to. As such, I would really encourage you to look into universities as well. MIT seems to fit your interests well; according to this</p>
<p>[College</a> Search - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT - Majors](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>it offers Creative Writing and English language/lit (MIT’s site says it offers a major in writing and a major literature). MIT has a top linguistics program and a top CS program.</p>
<p>Stanford also offers top programs in English, linguistics (better than MIT’s department, IMO), and CS (also better at Stanford than MIT, IMO), with a minor in CW, which is also a strong program. These universities, while large, offer small undergraduate experiences. ~75% of Stanford’s courses have fewer than 15 students, which is roughly the same as many LACs. It does have more large classes, but it guarantees small discussions to supplement them, and you’ll take intro seminars and writing/rhetoric classes that are fewer than 15 students. Plus, the linguistics program in particular is small, so your classes will typically be small as well if you major in it.</p>
<p>Also, check out Chicago (very LAC-like for undergrad, rigorous, top programs in linguistics and English, strong in CS as well), Penn (top linguistics, good in CS, very strong course offerings in computational linguistics, if that’s your interest), and Cornell (not as small as the others, but top 10 in English, CS, and linguistics).</p>
<p>Good luck with your search–I’m always glad to see others interested in linguistics. If you have any questions re: the major(s) (or any other questions you might have), feel free to PM me. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions, kyledavid! It’s not clear from this thread, but MIT is emphatically NOT for me. With the exception of CS and math, I hate science. I did look into Chicago, but am turned off by the Core.</p>
<p>My interest in the above-mentioned four subjects are in listed order; 75% set on being an English major, doubled with perhaps CS. Creative writing and linguistics are interesting side pursuits. For me, I think the LAC environment outweighs relative weakness in linguistics. Curious–where did/are you attend(ing)?</p>