Linguistics Major vs. International Studies Major or Double Major?~ help please

College Majors
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<p>As a sophomore, my plan is to go to law school. Although I want to go to law school directly, I may work a year or two before going. I also want to keep in mind the possibility of not going to law school at all, so I want to keep these two things in mind. </p>

<p>I'm really interested in being a Linguistics major and I will study Korean but for now I am just a heritage speaker (understand well, speak ok, writing/reading skills little to none). But from what I have heard, the job prospects seem pretty narrow- translator, linguist, computer company, etc.~ and these are for people who are fluent or have excellent computer science knowledge (I have very basic computer skills) :( I have tried my hand at tutoring some ESL kids and teaching them how to read, but I was terrible, so ESL teacher is out of the question. I also worked at the library part time last year and hated it, so that is also out of the question for me. If I change my mind about law school, I wouldn't mind furthering my education to become a speech-language pathologist. What other jobs are there besides these and being a professor? People always tell me that a Liberal Arts education doesn't directly translate into a job and that there is flexibility, but is a Linguistics major flexible enough? </p>

<p>So then I got to thinking about an International Studies Major, because it seemed interesting, however I'm in the dark as to how useful it is. Would it be more useful than a Linguistics major?</p>

<p>Would a double major be more useful (my parents are pushing me and one upperclassman told me that I would look lazy if I did just a single major :( )? To save money (~$20,000) I want to graduate one semester early, however if I double majored, I would get no electives (which I would plan on using for English, polisci, psych, phil classes) and would have to overload once (17 credits each semester, except one= 21 credits) in order to graduate early. </p>

<p>Sorry for writing excessively much >< and asking too many questions. I have taken one class of each major, and want to take one more of each to decide plus others, but if I double major, I'd have to start cramming this semester. I would really appreciate if someone could help me.</p>

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<p>It seems you don't have much of an idea of what Linguistics is. It has almost nothing to do with foreign languages and your ability to speak them.</p>

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<p>I am well aware of what Linguistics is, thanks. Unfortunately, the limited emphasis limited resources I have checked only mention careers for Linguistics majors involving foreign language fluency, computer science, working at a library, speech language pathology, or teaching. I know that many Liberal Arts students start working in a job that is completely unrelated to their studies, but I was wondering if anyone knew of other occupations that Linguistics Majors are suited for (I've checked some of the other threads and they seem to name the above careers)- plus my other questions- main one being- which option seems most useful.</p>

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<p>Generally speaking (and I'm a Linguistics major, so I actually do know what I'm talking about) Linguistics generally leads to a terminal degree (Ph.D.). Other than teaching, there isn't much you can do with a Linguistics degree, unless you do computational linguistics (computer languages). That being said, most linguistics programs do require you to take one or two foreign languages, which can be extremely useful for getting a job. And linguistics itself requires you to be scientific and inquisitive- useful skills for getting a job. I think it's possible to get the same sorts of jobs a foreign language major would get.</p>

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<p>Just to be clear, computational linguistics isn't really about computer languages (such as Java or C) but really its about using computers to handle human language. Examples include machine translation and speech synthesis.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
But from what I have heard, the job prospects seem pretty narrow- translator, linguist, computer company, etc

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm a linguistics major, and I highly disagree that there isn't much more to do with a linguistics degree than teaching or computational linguistics. Some go into language technologies (speech recognition, NLP, AI, etc.), some do translating, some go into writing-related fields, some do technical consulting (such as in acting), some become researchers, some do field work in linguistics, and so on. In fact, linguistics is very much like the English degree in preparing you for a variety of fields, though I'd say linguistics has a stronger emphasis on scientific analysis, but it provides you analytical skills, writing skills, etc. as well. Here's a good resource on majoring in linguistics from LSA:</p>

<p>LSA:</a> About Linguistics</p>

<p>And jobs:</p>

<p>LSA:</a> Jobs
Linguist</a> List - Jobs Index Page</p>

<p>Linguistics also prepares you well for law school. From what I've read, English majors and linguistics majors are looked upon favorably. (Funnily enough, if you look at the average SAT scores from high school students by major, intended English and linguistics majors have the two highest.)</p>

<p>viscious is right that CL doesn't have much to do with programming languages, but it can. Common areas of CL are speech recognition, automatic machine translation, general modeling of languages on computers (for generating content), etc.</p>

<p>Linguistics + IR double major seems to be common. You could just do IR and take linguistics classes (as well as other electives), and get a minor in linguistics. I'm not sure how IR is applied, but I know many are attracted to it.</p>

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