Strong linguistics AND excellent NMF award?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My DD is a NMSF and we are looking for a college with a strong linguistics program (a strong classics program would be an added bonus). She will be applying to a couple of Ivies, because with our income, they would probably be free rides or close to it. However, her junior year wasn't as strong as her previous years. She missed three weeks of school because of illness, and then had some amazing opportunities (Odyssey of the Mind Worlds, All-State Chorus, NAfME All-Eastern Chorus) that also stole days away from school; she wasn't able to catch up in a couple of her classes as a result. She got B's but not the usual A+. Because of this, I don't know if she will be admitted to those schools.</p>

<p>So, does anyone have any suggestions for a school with excellent merit aid (esp. NMF aid) as well as a strong linguistics program? We are in the Northeast and places within driving distance are a plus. She is looking at Columbia and Cornell, with Binghamton as a financial safety (if she commutes there). We are getting interesting offers from Arizona State, U. of Oklahoma, U. Kentucky...any thoughts?</p>

<p>Thanks to all the kind and knowledgeable people here!</p>

2

<p>An old poster, Keilexandra, was interested in Linguistics and was the originator of the NMF Scholarship thread which is in the FA forum. Look through some of these.
[College</a> Confidential Site Search Results - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/search_results.htm?q=keilexandra+linguistics&sa=Google+Search&userInput=&sitesearch=collegeconfidential.com&cx=013579521852154800353%3Avvp1k6kluvq&cof=FORID%3A9]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/search_results.htm?q=keilexandra+linguistics&sa=Google+Search&userInput=&sitesearch=collegeconfidential.com&cx=013579521852154800353%3Avvp1k6kluvq&cof=FORID%3A9)</p>

3

<p>Strong linguistics school that aren’t as competitive to get into </p>

<p>University of Rochester
University of Pittsburgh
Ohio State
UMASS-Amherst - probably the best linguistics in the nation
McGill University
University of Toronto
Delaware
UConn
Maryland
Stony Brook and Buffalo are the SUNYs with linguistics</p>

<p>You want to avoid the schools that have linguistics as an “interdisciplinary” major because those schools tend not to have any actual linguists - people who have bona fide PhDs in linguistics and are linguistics scholars - on the permanent faculty.</p>

4

<p>Out-of-state public schools typically aren’t a great source of need-based aid for high-need applicants. </p>

<p>Many national universities that offer full ride merit scholarships won’t have very strong linguistics departments. Ohio State is one exception. The selection standards are pretty high (typically top 3% of HS class, 1520 or higher SAT M+CR).
[National</a> Universities That Offer Full Ride Scholarships](<a href=“Loading...”>http://www.thecollegiateblog.org/2012/12/09/national-universities-that-offer-full-ride-scholarship/)</p>

<p>The following thread has a list of schools that offer large merit awards for NMF or NMSF.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-49.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-49.html&lt;/a&gt;
Most of these schools are unlikely to have strong programs for a low-demand major like linguistics. Possible exception (with large awards apparently available for NMSF): University of Connecticut. </p>

<p>There are about 50 need-blind schools that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need.
[Colleges</a> That Claim to Meet Full Financial Need - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014]Colleges”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014)
[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)
Almost all of these are selective private schools, including the Ivies and a few other national universities (many of which do have strong linguistics departments) and a bunch of LACs (most of which do not have very robust linguistics programs). LACs that appear to have relatively strong linguistics programs include Swarthmore and Pomona. Look for faculty and courses covering the major sub-fields (phonetics & phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, at least … if not pragmatics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and computational linguistics).</p>

5

<p>When I looked into this a few years ago, Swarthmore and Pomona were the ONLY two linguistics departments at LACs that had at least two permanent faculty members. </p>

<p>University of Pittsburgh has strong linguistics and good merit aid. </p>

<p>I assumed the OP was in-state for NY because of Binghamton on the list. I was pointing out that Buffalo and Stony Brook were the SUNYs with real linguists. </p>

<p>Johns Hopkins is one that often flies under the radar because they don’t have a linguistics department. Linguistics is in the cognitive science department. They do have real linguists though. They are a little less competitive than the ivies and have good FinAid.</p>

<p>Rochester has decent merit aid and decent financial aid.</p>

6

<p>OP finally back after all the craziness settled down. DD is going to Cornell with a wonderful FA package, so she will be loan-free. Thank you all so much for your advice :slight_smile: .</p>

7

<p>Thanks for getting back to us. Can you speak to the Linguistics at Cornell?</p>

8

<p>They have one of the larger departments of all the schools she applied to (15 faculty), and appear to have a good amount of student involvement in research judging from the undergrad linguistics symposium coming up at the end of the month. DD met some of the faculty at our local NACLO competition, but we haven’t been able to meet with anyone from linguistics to talk about being a student there. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that during Cornell Days. The decision was frankly driven mostly by finances and location, but we’ll be able to speak more to the linguistics department after the visit, I think. In any case, we’re very pleased. (I should add that U. Kentucky (free ride+ due to NMF) is technically still on her list, but I think it’s looking most likely for Cornell.)</p>