<p>My frienda PhD candidate in French language and research, says her dream department is University of Florida. (She is currently in Indiana). I haven’t looked it up but she says they are doing amazing things in their french language department. (Of course, I don’t have the details today.</p>
<p>The light rail goes right by campus and Rice gets free passes. There are shuttles to various stores and Rice Vilage is walking distance to campus… DD did not have a car for 2 years until rehearsals went late and she lived off campus… Many students never have a car…</p>
<p>D is a French major, and has loved her department at U of Puget Sound. She plays in the orchestra as well. Their music department is very good. There is Greek life, but many don’t participate, and she has avoided it. Seattle is a bus ride or two, or Amtrak ride away. </p>
<p>Madison is a small city, but UWisconsin has Linguistics, an orchestra for non majors, and the campus is on a lake, right in a city with a great deal of activity of all sorts. Yes, there is Greek life, but many other things as well.</p>
<p>Ohio State, good Lingistics major with two tracks, ability to focus on different aspects of lingiistics – and about every language you could want. In the heart of Columbus, capitol of Ohio. Great sports etc…</p>
<p>So many new places to check! That’s a good point about many campuses adding the Zip Car program.</p>
<p>Tk21769, Reed is on her list. All descriptions of Reed seem to make it sound so academically intense that I worry: is there time for outside activities?</p>
<p>MizzBee, we’ll have to look into Florida. I didn’t know that about their French department. We toured UF a couple times with our son.</p>
<p>Mspearl, she has applied to a summer program at Ohio State, which I hope she gets into. That would give her a good chance to check out the school thoroughly.</p>
<p>Sorry if I’m missing responding directly to others. I’m playing catch-up this morning and have a lot of good leads to follow up on! Thanks, all!</p>
<p>American U might be worth a look.</p>
<p>Hi, bonald. My DS has just finished the hunt, and is very focused on linguistics. I can share with you the list of where he applied and considered (and would have applied if he’d thought there was a chance :-)). I’ve starred schools that had a reasonably strong linguistics program. All of them have linguistics, though. We were focused on schools with a reasonable shot at merit aid (DS is an NMF).</p>
<p>Applied to: Ohio State<em>, Michigan State</em>, U Rochester<em>, Tulane</em>, U Oklahoma, U Arizona<em>, Pitt</em>, U Chicago*, MiamiU, U Minnesota</p>
<p>He got into all except Chicago - will probably attend U Rochester. U Oklahoma is still on the table…</p>
<p>Visited and thought hard about applying to: Lawrence, U Michigan*, Grinnell</p>
<p>Others he would have considered: Penn, Swarthmore, Reed, Pitzer</p>
<p>MIT would not have been on his list b/c they are very focused on linguistics a-la-Chomsky, which he’s not interested in (linguistics scholars and departments are kind of in different camps on this. U Maryland is also somewhat Chomsky-an, but has a pretty good department - DS was fortunate enough to meet with the dept. chair there, who brought him up to speed on all this and gave him some pointers on what to look for).</p>
<p>Don’t know if it’s the same summer program, but DS attended SLIYS (summer linguistics institute for young scholars) at Ohio State and loved it. </p>
<p>Pitt would fit many of your daughter’s requirements - Pittsburgh is a hopping city these days, lively arts scene, lots of music opportunities. Pitt is an urban campus, but reasonably safe. Greek life, definitely, but there are other things going on as well. I’d underline Tulane as well - it was on DS’ list until the very end! There are some fun things going on with french dialects there that intersect with the linguistics program that she might find really interesting.</p>
<p>Most of these have honors programs which could help the “studious but like to have fun” factor.</p>
<p>PghMomof2, thanks for sharing your son’s experience! Yes, it’s SLIYS that she has applied to. Glad to hear it’s a quality program!</p>
<p>^It is a good program - DS was in the first group, I think…they’ve added to and strengthened it since. He visited the faculty on his trip to campus this year which was great fun. Alas, they didn’t give quite enough $ to make it a viable college option (we’re OOS).</p>
<p>North Central College in downtown Naperville.Great town on the BNSF line to Chicago.Has a French major.</p>
<p>There’s music departments and then there are schools with conservatories/schools of music. In the latter, it can be much harder for non-music majors to participate, depending on their instrument or singing part. With the former, at least in the LACs we visited, the quality can vary pretty darn widely. Viewing YouTube clips and what the school chooses to post on its web site can provide some insight. If the LAC has no music merit scholarships, a highly proficient but non-music major might not be challenged. Also, music scholarship recipients are required to participate in the music program, and if he or she hates the conductor, it can be a problem. Can you tell the music tail was wagging the dog in our case? It helped to eliminate a school, but even a stellar conductor could not persuade her to apply to another one.</p>
<p>Yes, CCsite, it never really crossed my mind to consider whether a school would be open to non-music majors participating until both of our Macalester guides (separate tours for students and parents) went out of their way to say yes, indeed, Mac is very welcoming of non-music majors in its musical programs. And the free bagpipe lessons were also a huge draw. ;-)</p>