<p>I'm becoming a high school junior in the fall and I am 100% sure I want to major in linguistics and maybe minor in a language.
My question is: Can you major in linguistics at LACs like Wellesley and Amherst? I went to their websites but I'm not sure if they actually have active linguistics departments. And at which LACs can you get a comprehensive, enriching linguistics education?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Seriously, what do linguists do. They study language, ok, but through my extensive research I have no idea as to what/how linguists study, why, and what they actually do once they hold a career. Seeing as you want to become one so much, perhaps you can enlighten me.</p>
<p>As for universities, I have heard positive things from:
MIT
Penn
Stanford
UCLA
Berkely
Amherst
Ohio State</p>
<p>^ That was an utterly useless answer. Not only did he not ask about careers, but he asked about LACs.</p>
<p>If THAT was utterly useless, I don’t even know what yours is.</p>
<p>Linguistics is really specialized for a small LAC to offer as a major, so most don’t. I’m almost certain Wellesley and Amherst don’t offer one. I was really into linguistics for a while, and these are the LACs I remember having linguistics:</p>
<p>Swarthmore
Reed
Pomona
Macalester (I think)</p>
<p>Pomona’s linguistics department seems more focused on cognitive science, while Reed’s is more focused on studying actual languages.</p>
<p>Being a Linguistics major is hard at Amherst College, but EXTREMELY worth it. You will have to work out a way to do it on your own. It will be tough, but will pay off for graduate school. </p>
<p>Amherst does not have a Linguistics major. That being said, it IS part of the Five College system, meaning you can take classes at the other four colleges. Hampshire, UMass, and Smith ALL have excellent programs. UMass’s program is advanced and theoretical, Hampshire’s program is tiny, but also advanced and the classes tend to be topic-oriented. Smith’s program is a minor, and heavily concentrated on Language Development. </p>
<p>If you decide to go to Amherst, I would suggest a self-designed Linguistics major with a minor in classics, so that you get the Latin and Greek you need for this major. It’s fairly common to do things like this. I can’t emphasize enough how much red tape/bs you may or may not end up having to go through, but it will be EXTREMELY worth it.</p>
<p>Wellesley offers linguistics as part of an interdisciplinary major, Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences.[Cognitive</a> Science Homepage](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Cogsci/cshomepage.html]Cognitive”>http://www.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Cogsci/cshomepage.html)
I believe that Wellesley students also can take courses at MIT, which has what is considered one of the top linguistics programs in the world.[MIT</a> Department of Linguistics](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/]MIT”>MIT Linguistics – Department of Linguistics and Philosophy)</p>
<p>this makes me wonder if a linguistics minor would be possible or work with an archaeology major. any ideas? O_O</p>
<p>Both archaeology and linguistics are subfields of anthropology. Why not major in anthropology? </p>
<p>Archaeology also can be structured as an interdisciplinary major or as a track within fields such as Classics, Near Eastern Studies, or East Asian Studies. Linguistics could work as a minor, but it might be more useful to focus on either languages of scholarship (typically French and/or German) or languages related to a geographic area of archaeological interest.</p>
<p>Linguistics is not a subfield of anthropology. Linguistic anthropology is a subfield of anthropology.</p>