Yet another UChicago first-year willing to talk! (Linguistics major!)

Hi! I’m a first year at UChicago and I love helping people online. Currently, I live in a double in South and I am hoping to get a single next year! I am a prospective linguistics major, with an East Asian Language and Culture minor. I came from a not-so-rich public high school in New Jersey so if people are concerned about adjustment they can ask me about that! I’m not quite sure what else to say, so I’m gonna list my classes and extracurriculars/RSOs!

Courses:
Self, Culture and Society (SOSC core, 3 quarters)
Language and the Human (HUM core, 3 quarters)
Korean (1st year, 3 quarters)
Intro to Linguistics
Intro to Semantics and Pragmatics

Extracurriculars:
Women’s Ensemble (Choir)
Maroon TV
Qworum (queer women’s group)
Q&A (lgbt group)
Emerging Minds (social justice program, application only)
House Council (PSAC rep)

Any sense of how demanding the ASL classes (taught through the linguistics department) are? Do they count for the major’s non-Indo-European Language requirement? And what do you read in Language and the Human?

Re vocal music – which, if any, of the co-ed a cappella groups would be do-able for a first year (alto with some experience (and lots of interest in) arranging)?

Thanks for posting – I recognize that these are questions that you might not be able to answer, but I thought I’d ask just in case you could!

@exacademic I unfortunately don’t know that much about the ASL classes, but I do know that we do a lot of research about ASL and have a whole Sign Language Linguistics Lab. I am under the impression that we are one of the best schools for that! I do believe it counts as a non-Indo-European language.

All acapella groups take first years, but they are all extremely competitive. Voices in Your Head took 3 first years this year and one of my housemates is in Run For Cover, so it’s definitely possible. I auditioned for basically all of them but got called back for none of them lmao. Also, the time commitment is a lot so be aware of that.

Hopefully this helps!

Thanks!! The ASL program/research does look amazing. And, regardless of what happens at auditions, an early dose of realism re acapella can only help.

Hello! I will be a uchicago 2020 student too!! I intend to major in linguistics and I would like some advice on how to navigate my classes. How hard is beginning linguistics? And how hard is the adjustment between high school and college? (like you, I came from a large public high school without much money). Is there another language requirement with linguistics? Thank you!!

Could someone bump this?