<p>I've decided that when I go to college I want to major in either Linguistics or International Relations, maybe both. So, I'd really like to find out what American universities have the best programs. I'd like to know the best in the western US, as that's where I am located and will probably end up going, and the US and Canada as a whole. I would also prefer the school have a wide selection of foreign languages offered including some less popular ones, and a good study abroad program as well.</p>
<p>The place that comes to my mind is the University of Chicago. Because of their long-time connection to the ancient Near East, the faculty is full of linguists, etymologists, and philologists, and members of the Oriental Institute work on dictionary projects that go on for a lifetime, like Assyrian and Hittite. There are many, many languages taught, including such unusual ones as Urdu, Farsi, and Swahili. It’s also one of the few places you can learn Sumerian, Hittite, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Egyptian, and the like.</p>
<p>The IR department there is supposed to be quite good.</p>
<p>In the West, I’d at least give a look at the University of Washington.</p>
<p>The George Washing Unviersity is excellent for politics, NYU has a program, as probably Columbia.</p>
<p>When it comes to linguistics NYU is great also, but I am not sure of their steinght in international relations as compared to GWU, if your looking for the absolute best.</p>
<p>I’d throw Tufts in there</p>
<p>The top universities in linguistics research according to the [Faculty Scholarly Productivity index](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/”>http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/</a>) are </p>
<p>[ol]
[<em>] U. of Maryland at College Park<br>
[</em>]Brown U.<br>
[<em>] Yale U.<br>
[</em>]U. of Massachusetts at Amherst<br>
[<em>]U. of Pennsylvania , Purdue U. (tie)
[</em>]Carnegie Mellon U.<br>
[<em>] U. of California at San Diego<br>
[</em>] City U. of New York<br>
[li] Michigan State U. [/li][/ol]</p>
<p>** Important: ** Please note that the list above refers to theoretical and computational [url=<a href=“Linguistics - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics</a>] linguistics <a href=“the%20scientific%20study%20of%20the%20underlying%20structure%20of%20%20language”>/url</a>, not to modern language teaching/learning, which is something completely different and might be what you are actually interested in according to your original post.</p>
<p>bruno:</p>
<p>Thanks. I had forgotten about Penn.</p>
<p>For IR, study abroad, and language study, TUFTS! U of Chicago and GWU are probably good ideas as well.</p>
<p>not in the west, but Georgetown</p>
<p>Gourman Report ranking for undergraduate linguistics</p>
<p>UCLA
U Chicago
UC Berkeley
U Penn
Cornell
UC San Diego
Yale
U Illinois Urbana Champaign
Stanford
MIT
U Michigan Ann Arbor
Indiana U Bloomington
U Wisconsin Madison
U Washington
NYU
Ohio State
U Rochester
Harvard
U Hawaii Manoa
U Kansas
Rice
U Texas Austin
U Pittsburgh
U Arizona
U Minnesota
UC Irvine
U Florida
U Iowa
U Mass Amherst
UC Santa Barbara</p>
<p>Gourman rankings for undergraduate International Relations:</p>
<p>Tufts
Princeton
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
U Penn
Harvard
Cornell
U Wisconsin Madison
MIT
Stanford
UVA
Notre Dame
US Air Force Acad
US Military Acad
Claremont McKenna</p>
<p>Being in a major city would definitely help for IR, so I’ll recommend Occidental. It’s in California, and it’s known for having a really strong “hidden gem” program.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard good things about the study abroad at Lewis & Clark (in Portland).</p>
<p>IR, at least at the undergrad level, can be studied pretty well at any major political science department. Forget the Gourman rankings, and just look for the stronger poli sci departments (and the occasional specialized program like Georgetown.) Honestly, the difference between IR at Georgetown and poli sci with a focus on IR at Berkeley is almost nothing.</p>
<p>Linguistics, however, is something that I can’t offer any help on.</p>
<p>Based on your criteria: </p>
<p>Berkeley (great in linguistics and IR, huge language offering)
UCLA (strong in linguistics and IR, about the same language offering)
UC San Diego (good in linguistics, not sure about IR)
UC Santa Cruz (great in linguistics)
Stanford (great in linguistics and probably IR, very nice language offering – lots of lesser-known languages, as at Berkeley and UCLA)</p>
<p>Nationally, I’d say the best in linguistics are (in no particular order):</p>
<p>Berkeley
UCLA
Stanford
UC Santa Cruz
UC San Diego
MIT
Chicago
Cornell
Penn
UMass - Amherst
Ohio State</p>
<p>UCSD has a top notch poli sci department with some of the world’s best IR scholars.</p>
<p>hey I go to UCSD and let me tell you the linguistic program/ language programs are INTENSE! We got dictators as department chairs but sometimes they MAY curve… but you learn so much in one quarter and if you’re considering going to UCSD take a long hard look at yourself because the quarter system is insanely stressful and 10 weeks to learn the basics of a language or a linguistics course certainly requires dedication. also consider which college at UCSD to join because many have insane requirements that have nothing to do w/ your major so don’t be stupid like me and apply to Revelle… ERC might be right for you.</p>
<p>Either Amherst or Middlebury</p>