<p>I am having a lot of trouble finding a college that I feel fits me...
I really want to find a college with the same attitude as my highschool, because i am lucky enough to love my highschool:
I currently go to the "Language Arts and Science Academy" (read: nerd school) in austin, and I love it... There is kind of a gap between the liberal artsy and the science-mathy kids, and individuality and uniqueness are the most treasured aspects of the social world (read: not preppy)</p>
<p>Anyway, the real dilema is:
I want to go to a small or small-ish school (under 10,000 at least) with good academics (preferably no big greek scene or religious ferver)
and
i want to be a tripple-major
*linguistics/foreign langues/any sort of multi-lingual study program, (surprisingly hard to find)
*computer science
*english/creative writing/english composition
I am having a lot of trouble finding schools that offer strong programs in all three...</p>
<p>rice looks pretty good, CMU doesn't have a linguistics major, reed doesn't have a comuter science major... what do i do?</p>
<p>1) Few schools will allow you to triple major. However, it is quite possible to double major and learn languages on the side. There is actually a fair amount of overlap between linguistics and computer science.
2) Linguistics is not the same as learning languages. Linguistics is the study of languages (e.g. phonology, semantics, syntax, morphology, etc.). </p>
<p>Middlebury
U Chicago
Lawrence U
Beloit
Tufts
Haverford
Brown
Grinnell
Oberlin</p>
<p>Swarthmore offers all three of those majors (Linguistics, Computer Science, and English) as well as the campus culture you seem to be describing.</p>
<p>However, doing a triple major would be nearly impossible because you need 8 to 12 semesters to major in a department (with computer science being at the high end) and there are only 32 semesters in a four-year program.</p>
<p>A more likely scenario would be a double-major in Computer Science and Linguistics (there is a good deal of overlap there particular when it comes to robotics, artificial intelligence, etc.). Or an Honors major (a grad-school like program) that involves four areas of concentration in two departments. Or a special major in something like "Computational Linguistics".</p>
<p>One of the big advantages of a liberal arts college is the ability to tailor programs for students with multi-disciplinary interests. That's really the point of a liberal arts education. There are quite a few such schools that would offer what you want and where you wouldn't be unusual in any way. Linguistics will be the stickler as not that many LACs have a linguistics department.</p>
<p>You might do best at a school that doesn't have distribution requirements or very few. Meeting those at many schools doesn't give you enough course slots for three majors, and two might even be a stretch, particularly if there aren't courses that will work for more than one major.</p>
<p>Of the list given, I know Chicago has rather extensive distribution requirements and Brown has none. My daughter's final decision last year was between these two, and the distribution requirement situation was a major factor for her choice of Brown.</p>
<p>Have you tried going to a college search site and inputting the three majors? This should at least give you a list to start with.</p>
<p>Even if you don't have the time for three majors, one (or two) of these fields could end up as minors. You might as well start with schools that have coursework in everything that interests you.</p>
<p>Given the poster's rather specific comments about overall campus culture issues, I would recommend making that a primary criteria for assembling a working list, rather than just throwing darts at schools that offer a linguistics and a computer science major.</p>
<p>Grinnell is a small, diverse school with very minimal distribution requirements as far as I can remember. </p>
<p>Go to princetonreview.com, and search for Grinnell, and then search for similar schools (you can click on that when the Grinnell page comes up). Explore the requirements/majors at the similar LAC's.</p>
<p>linguistics, comp sci, and English:
U Rochester is under 10,000 students
so is U Chicago and Rice
also Stanford, Harvard, and Yale</p>
<p>if you are willing to consider larger schools, there are many more possibilities:
UCLA
UC Berkeley
U Penn
Cornell
UC San Diego
U Illinois UC
U Michigan Ann Arbor
Indiana U Bloomington
U Wisconsin Madison
U Washington
NYU
U Hawaii Manoa
U Kansas
U Texas Austin
Pitt
U Arizona
U Minnesota
UC Irvine
U Florida
U Iowa</p>
<p>good LACs with linguistics, English, and comp sci:
Pitzer
Pomona
Scripps
Hampshire
Brandeis (smaller but not really LAC)
Wellesley
Macalester
Dartmouth
Barnard
Reed
Swarthmore
Brown
William and Mary
Lawrence</p>
<p>Definitely check out the University of Chicago. I don't know whether you can triple major but I think you can do a certificate in some languages. They definitely have Linguistics, computer science and of course English. They offer a huge number of languages that you don't find at very many schools. The undergraduate college is about 4500 students. It has about 8,000 graduate students.</p>
<p>hey, you guys are awesome...
i dont think oberlin has a linguistics major, that i can find, anyway
middlebury is a great school, but it doesnt have fencing or aikido, and no clubs/dojos anywhere nearby</p>
<p>a few colleges i have already looked at a bit:
brandeis, brown, CMU, grinnell, harvard, haverford, CMC/Harvey Mudd/Pomona, rice, reed, stanford, tufts, yale... a school that is like rice would be nice. I like CMU but it doesnt really have a decent languages program, and reed doesnt have a cs program at all, but they are really nice schools...<br>
i looked at dartmouth, but didnt really like the social atmosphere so much</p>
<p>University of Chicago and Swarthmore.... i'm not entirely sure that swarthmore allows tripple majors, but i will look into both!</p>
<p>and to look up:
Lawrence U, Beloit, Oberlin, Hampshire, Wellesley, Macalester
Barnard, William and Mary (oh, good, i got some junkmail from them...)
Lawrence</p>
<p>barnard kindasortanotreally has a linguistics major.. columbia used to be one of the top schools in the world for linguistics until the department disintegrated. now most of the classes (like "intro to language and culture" and "functional linguistics") are within the anthropology department but a prof is trying to get it up again.. so a linguistics track is possible but you have to forge it yourself, and it probably isnt the greatest place to go if you're not sure about a linguistics major - which it sounds like you're not, because no one triple majors; you're going to have to choose at some point.
however, barnard does have compsci and a fabulous english/creative writing dept so dont cross it off the list.. is the op even a girl? if not, then look into columbia..</p>
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University of Chicago and Swarthmore.... i'm not entirely sure that swarthmore allows tripple majors, but i will look into both!
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</p>
<p>What is your rationale for wanting to triple major? Nobody gives out prizes for most number of majors!</p>
<p>If it's because you enjoy studying all three areas, then you could certainly do that, without being tied down to the required courses (and senior thesis) in each department. </p>
<p>Or, you could easily design an interdisciplinary program that ties two departments together. In fact, the Honors program at Swarthmore requires doing exactly that.</p>
<p>If it's because you think regular college would not offer sufficient challenge, I can guarantee that many of the schools suggested here can provide all the challenge you could possibly want.</p>
<p>Just checking Swarthmore's College catalog, here's the problem with a triple major. CS requires 11 courses for the major. Linguistics requires 9. English requires 8. And, there is zero overlap between those. That's 28 courses out of the standard 32 courses. It is possible to take up to 40 courses over four years, but that can get quite challenging, particularly when your courses require labs -- like Computer Science and Linguistics/Languages. </p>
<p>Having 28 required courses also puts a real damper on things like study-abroad for a semester. For example, suppose that you wanted to do a language immersion/linguistics semester abroad. That could very well entail missing a required CS or English course that semester, something that you could ill-afford.</p>
<p>I think a much more realistic approach is to say that you are interested in studying computer science, linguistics, and English and seek out colleges that offer these, along with whatever campus culture lights your fire. Then, do the smart thing and make your decision on major(s) after sampling courses at a college level. Why make up your mind three years ahead of time? Just preserve your options when selecting courses freshmen year.</p>
<p>Do check out U. of Rochester as they do have the programs that you are interested in but more importantly they have the "Rochester Curriculum". I believe they are very flexible in allowing you to pursue studies that you are interested in. Whether it is flexible enough to allow you to have a "triple major" I am not sure, but it does allow a lot of latitude in creating your own course of study.</p>
<p>i know, I have already received that "are you sure you dont want to choose just one" lecture before; I really love all three disiples, and feel up to the hard work that would be required to persue all of them. I plan to go in to college in sophomore standing, so I think that I could complete all of the required courses. My main problem, for now, i think, is finding a college that will let me.</p>
<p>You didn't answer the question! The issue is not whether you should study all three. Why not? That's the point of a liberal arts education.</p>
<p>The question is what value you think that a piece paper that says "extra major" will have? This isn't like Sir Edmund Hillary and Mt. Everest. The don't give out knighthoods for a triple major. As far as I can tell, an extra major and a buck eight-five will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.</p>
<p>The point that I'm trying to get at is to separate the value of studying three subjects that interest you from the value of a worthless piece of paper confirming that you studied them.</p>
<p>You may end up discarding many schools that would be fantastic places to study all three areas and that encourage students to study multiple disciplines, but who will not give you the third piece of paper. That would be cutting off your nose to spite yourself.</p>
<p>I have thought about that; but I decided that I definately want at least the option to major in all three, and if I go to a school that won't allow me, I will feel cheated of that opportunity. Furthermore 1) actually majoring in the subject will assure me to at least some degree that I will actually spend time studying the sorts of things necessary to get a good understanding of each subject, because it is very difficult to find time to do things on your own and 2) Sometime earlier in the college search I decided that there must be at least one college that would be more or less perfect for me, and with so many great schools out there, I don't think I should settle for one that doesnt offer all the sorts of things I want...
It is not the slip of paper that I am interested in - I just want instruction in the feilds that I specifically enjoy. And I don't see any reason as to why I should do less than a full major.</p>
<p>University of Rochester doesn't have many distribution requirements, so it's much easier to do a double or triple major. They also will pay for your 5th year if you need it. Someone who knows more about U Rochester should comment about this stuff.</p>
<p>
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It is not the slip of paper that I am interested in - I just want instruction in the feilds that I specifically enjoy.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Those are two separate issues.</p>
<p>
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And I don't see any reason as to why I should do less than a full major.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>There are lots of reasons. One might be that you enjoy the upper level elective courses and would prefer to concentrate on those rather than the full slate of required courses for a major. A second reason might be that all three of your majors require a two-semester senior thesis and you aren't brilliant enough to research and write three senior theses simultaneously -- particularly in a field like linguistics where your senior thesis research could very well take you overseas or computer science where you might well find yourself heavily involved in the college's robotics team. Or, that you would rather spend those two semesters senior year taking two additonal courses in one of those subjects and not writing a senior thesis just to get a slip of paper. These are just a few of the reasons that virtually nobody "triple majors", but many students take eight or nine courses in three different departments that interest them.</p>