I'm planning on double majoring in Classics and Linguistics, and my main two schools are Harvard and Brown. I know that both schools have excellent Classics departments, however I am not sure about the Linguistics departments of each. By looking at the course catalogs and websites of each school, from my understanding, Harvard focuses more on historical linguistics, the processes of language, etc., which is what I want to study. Does anyone have any insight on the Linguistics department, including pros and cons, et cetera?
Last edited by iustalingua; 03-14-2010 at 10:32 PM.
My son has taken a number of linguistics courses (including two phonolgy classes) and has enjoyed them immensely. He has been considering doing a secondary concentration in linguisitcs. He even applied and received a grant through the Linguistics Dept. to do research for an ongoing study.
My son is a linguistics concentrator and has taken linguistics classes every semester, but he is only a sophmore so his experience in upper level classes is limited. He has enjoyed all his classes thus far.
I loved the linguistics department at Harvard. You can do anything you want there -- the sky is the limit. One of my dorm-mates did her master's thesis on African-American dialect during her senior year and is now a ling prof at William & Mary.
Location: The Middle Of Nowhere! --> Harvard Class of 2013
Posts: 348
Hi ^^
It's been a while since I've posted, but I just wanted to say that Harvard, like many other schools, has fantastic linguistic courses! I'm just a freshman here right now, but I was introduced to linguistic anthropology through my expository writing course, and now I'm looking into taking a few courses on that next semester. The professors seem really passionate after having talked with some of them, and the works we read sound genuinely intriguing.
Although, if you're looking to apply to be in the Class of 2014, maybe focus on getting in first? ;] Good luck~ ^^
I just realized I met a former Harvard linguistics professor. I scrolled by his name on some old Harvard stuff and was like, "oh wait, that guy interviewed me at Cambridge. No wonder he had an American accent."
So it was Dr. Bert Vaux, who has a wiki article Bert Vaux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia He was really nice. There was actually another prof there who asked most of the questions, but he was the official conductor of the interview, according to the email I got. One of the few times he said something was when I started talking about the Piraha, I think. He was interested in them. If the rest of Harvard's linguistics department is like him, I think I'd like it.
I have heard only the best of things about the linguistics department at Harvard. Plus, you'll have access to MIT linguistics courses, some of which are apparently pretty awesome as well.
^MIT ling courses do sound awesome! I've been emailed by one of the profs there and he's ridiculously helpful, which is great. There are about 6 students at MIT majoring in linguistics, so there's lots of personal attention. I don't really know how much that would matter in the classroom for Harvard students, but it might mean a more personalized classroom experience. There aren't just six kids in the classrooms though. There are HASS concentrators and people just taking the classes and other stuff.
