<p>I'm considering majoring in linguistics for undergrad... how is the department at Yale? Strong areas, weak areas, popular major, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I know a prof that was a associate professor there, and he maintains that UPenn is THE school for phonetics, MIT THHEEEE School for the Chomsky/Sapir-Whorf crowd (I think Noam Chomsky still teaches there actually), and Harvard/Oxbridge/Yale for Classics (Indo European) and Linguistics (again, in Indo European)</p>
<p>But he did stress that at the level of undergrad, there wasn't an appreciable difference between schools like Harvard/Yale/UPenn, etc for Classics/Linguistics.</p>
<p>If you're looking for stuff outside of that language family, Yale <em>might</em> not be where you want to look (Cornell does have that FalCON program - I hear it's baller). Of course, it is Yale, and the teaching/resources are probably not too shabby.</p>
<p>The thing is, I've heard that MIT's program was geared more towards the graduate studnts instead of the undergrads. Don't know how true this is though. So UPEnn is THEE school for phonetics eh? I'm definitely am going to look more into that.</p>
<p>So how does Yale/Harvard/Upenn compare to UofChicago for linguistics? I've heard mixed things about u of c.</p>
<p>(The prof put that much emphasis on the word "the", dead serious.)
(But UPenn doesn't let you double major in the same school - Boo!)</p>
<p>MIT (a technical school before anything else) is definitely geared more towards grad students in a field like linguistics (as is the department at Indiana), and as for UChicago, I've also heard mixed things - it's a talent/research recruiting school first and foremost, so your undergrad experience might be filled with grumpy tenured professors who are annoyed they've been told to lecture to undergrads or awesome profs that don't put out papers every year, but are phenomenal lecturers. I can't really say much about their Linguistics specifically, (because I don't go there, lol11!!1 z0mg).
I can say that Yale/Harvard/Ivies/Stanford/prestige schools in that rank, etc. are near guaranteed to give you a solid understanding of Classical Languages, (esp. the 4 biggies in Indo European)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Harvard/Oxbridge/Yale for Classics (Indo European) and Linguistics (again, in Indo European)
[/quote]
Harvard and Yale are good for linguistics, but faculty retirements have been resulting in attrition lately. UCLA is the current powerhouse in IE/PIE studies, especially after it stole Calvert Watkins from Harvard.</p>
<p>^ Cool beans! I didn't know they had him! (I also didn't know there were many planned/phased retirements at Yale/Harvard.....So long as Yale keeps Stanley Insler, I'll be happy. )</p>
<p>(Are you planning classics/linguistics?)</p>
<p>Classics, except I'm applying at the graduate level.</p>
<p>^ Sweet!</p>
<p>So, where did you do your undergrad?</p>
<p>Sorry to hijak your thread but, what about the anthropology department?</p>