<p>Our daughter was accepted to the class of 2013 and is considering a second major (or minor or humanities concentration) in Linguistics. She sat in on a class last spring (semantics perhaps) but didn't have a chance to speak to any students or faculty about the program. We would be interested in getting the perspective of any current or recent linguistics students.</p>
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<p>Linguistics at MIT - I am not a student there, however I can say with confidence that MIT employs one of the most brilliant linguists ever to have lived, and the greatest linguist of our time, Noam Chomsky. Your daughter would be in the absolute best hands. Her graduate opportunities, if she distinguished herself as an undergrad, would be countless.</p>
<p>I wish her luck - how exciting!</p>
<p>Chomsky doesn't actually teach anymore, and try not to overstate it...the man basically invented the field but he is actually far from the best. From what I understand he is not very tolerant of people who disagree with his theories, which does not a good scientist make.</p>
<p>That said, I took the introductory linguistics course (24.900) and absolutely loved it. I didn't follow it after that (was busy with other subjects instead) but from my first impression plus things that I've heard I'm confident it's a great program. Your daughter should take the introductory course right away if she's interested: I believe it's a CI-H and a HASS-D, which is fancy MIT speak for saying it fills two requirements at once. If she likes the subject and the department she can continue in it and plan to make it her HASS concentration (also required). From there she can expand her plans to a minor or double major, depending on how other things work out.</p>
<p>I also took and loved 24.900 this past fall. It's a common class for freshman to take, and it's a manageable and fun HASS-D CI-H (though I hear it's not as good in the spring). I know someone who's a linguistics major, but it's exceedingly rare. She seems to like the department, though. Your daughter should definitely take that and see how she likes it, and continue on from there.</p>
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<p>Maybe he's just intolerant of dumb people who disagree w/ his theories. A man's allowed that much.</p>
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You heard right. On a previous thread, maybe five people acknowledged the inferiority of taking 24.900 in the Spring. Something about the professor being completely close-minded and crazy...</p>
<p>As for Chomsky - he DID invoke Godwin's Law the other day. Not sure if doing that a bad scientist makes...</p>
<p>is it hard to add a double major of linguistics? i mean, i know all double majors are gonna be more work, but i was thinking of trying to double it with chem or math…would this be doable without taking, you know, 8 classes a semester?</p>
<p>Double majors in general are hard, but science/HASS is one of the easier combinations because both majors have a decent amount of elective space and you can use 6 of your 8 required HASS classes towards the second major anyway.</p>
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<p>i’m taking 24.903 (semantics) right now, it’s hard as balls because i haven’t taken 24.900 or 901 or 902. but it’s pretty great… the professor is sabine iatridou, i think she’s excellent. there are maybe 20 or so people in the class.</p>
<p>Carmel,
thanks for the info. I have only heard about 24.900 up to now. How did you manage to start in semantics without any of the prior classes? And are you considering a course 24 major?</p>
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<p>i designated it as sophomore exploratory so if i fail i can just make it listener after the fact. i have a friend in the class and i thought her homework sounded interesting so i added it. 901 is not a prereq, 902 is not <em>technically</em> one but taking it would have helped me a lot. i just go to a lot of office hours. dunno what i’m majoring in but probably not 24. who knowzzz though</p>
<p>Interesting - I’d never heard of the “sophomore exploratory” option, but sounds like a great way to approach something a bit risky. </p>
<p>One of my questions about Linguistics at MIT is whether there are enough students studying it to have good class discussions and others to study with. I know the number of majors is typically small. It can get a bit old being in class with the same 3 or 4 students all the time in an extremely small program. It sounds as though there are a good number of students in the classes even if it isn’t their major if there are 20 in semantics. Is 24 a relatively popular HASS concentration?</p>
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<p>There are not many linguistics majors, and I don’t think there are huge numbers of minors (I could be wrong on that one), but in my experience it’s a <em>very</em> popular concentration. Also, if you get to advanced-enough classes, there are grad students.</p>
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<p>My (freshman) son also took the introductory Linguistics course and found it interesting and enjoyable. Re: Chomsky, I wouldn’t label all who disagree with him as dumb; he’s clearly one of the most opinionated and intolerant people in academia - though it’s a shame students can’t form their own opinion of him, now that he doesn’t teach regularly.</p>
<p>Obviously, if what I meant was that if you don’t agree with Chomsky, then you are dumb, I’d be a pretty intolerably ignorant person myself. I’m pointing out what I see a lot in reactions to intellectuals, that if they don’t take absolutely every hypothesis and every possible side of an argument seriously, then they are arrogant or opinionated or incapable of being objective. Nowadays everyone with half a brain thinks they’re entitled to an opinion about everything, even things they don’t know a wink about, and I’m of course including myself in this. At least I don’t expect my unsubstantiated opinions to be treated with the same reverence everywhere I go as someone who has studied the subject for most of their life. That’s not to say a well-learned guy can’t be wrong, but I just see this sense of entitlement and lack of respect so much I had to point it out earlier. And it really drives me crazy that those who are actually doing the disrespecting turn around and cry foul and indignant that they haven’t received due respect themselves.</p>