<p>What are your criteria for assessing the strength of a given language or linguistics program at a university?</p>
<p>The ranking of different fields seems pretty arbitrary, so I'd like to hear some opinions on assessing a lang/ling program, as I plan to major in linguistics.</p>
<p>Perhaps:</p>
<p>course offering
credentials of faculty
research (opportunities, facilities, etc.)
paper output
success of grads
... other areas, which may be specific to language/linguistics.</p>
<p>That criteria seems pretty good. I'm going to a school where linguistics is only an interdisciplinary major but it still seems like a decent program. As long as you go to a good school that offers a linguistics major I think you can expect to get into a grad school.</p>
<p>Anyone else?</p>
<p>Another one:</p>
<p>concentration(s) in area(s) [phonetics, phonology, semantics, etc.]</p>
<p>For languages, some other considerations include:</p>
<p>both depth and breadth of instruction in the language
study abroad connections
other opportunities for language use such as language tables, conversation hours, and language houses</p>
<p>For linguistics, breadth and depth of areas of specialization vary tremendously from school to school</p>