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<p>For years, Chicago has been very strong in linguistics. Of the 3 schools you mention, I’d expect that field to be pretty much no contest in Chicago’s favor. Swarthmore is one of the only LACs that has a full Linguistics department at all; it probably is quite good. Chicago, however, has one of the country’s leading graduate programs to back it up, not to mention instruction in some 49 languages. It is the oldest department of linguistics in the USA. The Chicago Linguistic Society, too, is the oldest student association of its kind in the country. I would think it is a tremendous asset to students in this field.</p>
<p>Scholarship at Chicago has always had a very interdisciplinary orientation. Political Science is a good example of a field where you’re likely to find lots of collaboration with related programs, including the famous econ department. In fact, technically, there are no “departments” at all in the College. So a professor might have an appointment in the Department of Political Science (grad school) and to “The College”. </p>
<p>As for “nerds and the people who would be considered weird or freakishly smart in high school”, this is an old Chicago forte (probably since long before people began using the word “nerd” as a facetious term of endearment.) I do hope that aspect of the place hasn’t changed. Be sure to check out Chicago’s annual “Scav Hunt” ([University</a> of Chicago Scavenger Hunt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Scavenger_Hunt]University”>University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt - Wikipedia))</p>