Linguistics at Wash U

My son is very interested in linguistics and I was wondering if any of you had any info in how good the program at Wash U is.

I am a sophomore at WashU double majoring in Linguistics and Psychology (with a minor in Speech and Hearing Sciences). The Linguistics department is small, but the professors are incredible and really care about their students. There lots of opportunities to get involved with professors’ research

Oh, that is very good to know. It sounds great. Sometimes a small department can be a benefit. Can I ask how small is “small”. How many professors in the dept. and about how many students in the major each year? Research opportunities sound perfect. He will apply next year to be in the class of 2021.

At WashU, Linguistics is an interdepartmental program (i.e. not a stand alone department); incidentally, some of the professors overlap with another awesome interdepartmental major, Philosophy- Neuroscience-Psychology (or PNP as its called at WashU). I’d encourage your son to email Professor Hyde for further info as far as numbers, etc- he’s one of the best! His email is at the bottom of this page (https://linguistics.wustl.edu/) which also highlights the yearlong lecture series sponsored by the department

For future students who are considering linguistic classes, Hyde is a nice teacher and all and a good person to contact for info but outside his introductory linguistics class (170) i would not advise him as a teacher. He’s funny but not particularly great at teaching and plays favorites a lot. You can get away with his 170 class because it is super easy and requires very little studying.