College list for linguistically inclined US/Canadian citizen

College Search & Lists
21

@ShrimpBurrito, have you run the NPCs at some of the schools that actually give FA to people with incomes above $100K and have strong language/linguistics offerings? Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, Stanford, et al? Your D seems to be a viable candidate, with the caveat that of course admissions to those schools is extremely competitive.

OOS flagships are much less likely to offer significant FA.

On the funding grad school front, the top grad programs in linguistics tend to be funded. Of course, if she is thinking of something like law school or med school, that’s a different matter, and not all grad programs are fully funded for everyone.

I have to say that I think the attractiveness of McGill would be very hard to beat for your family.

22

Thank you @Consolation Yes, I have run NPCs at Stanford and some Ivies and we always come out full pay, even with five children.

That’s great to hear that linguistics grad programs are often funded. One of D’s little brothers has med school on his radar, so long-term planning is important here.

23

I think McGill and Toronto are clearly your low cost options.

Rochester has good linguistics.

UChicago has terrific linguistics.

Ohio State and Texas have great linguistics and some good scholarship opportunities with that 34 ACT.

Other private schools with good linguistics that you haven’t already mentioned: Johns Hopkins, UPenn, and Georgetown. Johns Hopkins linguistics is housed in the cognitive science department, but it’s real and very good.
NYU has good linguistics but seems just like McGill to me, and it would be crazy to consider it.

24

Something to remember here is that linguistics is a very broad field with significantly different concentrations.

25

@Consolation Yes, we are learning that. McGill and Toronto have lots of course offerings and allow quite a bit of flexibility within the major, but UBC’s program is heavy on the speech science. D thinks speech science is not the direction she’d like to go, but it’s so hard to know at this point. When D and her dad visited UBC in May, they kept hearing about the flexibility UBC students have–gotta ask about that when D and I go up there next month.

26

@ClassicRockerDad Thank you for mentioning Johns Hopkins. I’ve been reading a bit about it and I’ve encouraged D to do the same. D is interested in Cognitive Science and the serious atmosphere at JHU might suit her. The proximity to DC adds new opportunities for internships and career connections. They award a handful of significant merit scholarships, I see. Maybe for 2018 they will really want a high stat linguistics student from Oklahoma. She may add JHU to the Hail Mary list.

27

@ShrimpBurrito , a friend’s son went to UBC and ended up transferring to a US university. (Also far from home, in the deep South, so I don’t think that distance was the issue.) He found that it was too much of a commuter school for him, despite the gorgeous location and excellent price. (At least that’s what his parents told me.) You might want to check into that aspect of things. In contrast, everyone I know who has gone to McGill seems to have loved it and loved Montreal, and they have ranged from Mainers to Floridians. :slight_smile:

I was thinking of JHU for your D also, but was concerned that the money would not be there. Good to know that they have some big merit scholarships. Your D would certainly be geographically desirable for east coast schools. Definitely a factor to be considered.

It’s perhaps a bit of a wild card, but the last time I looked into it–my S was interested in linguistics at one point–U Mass Amherst had one of the top graduate programs in the field. If your D went there, she would have access to classes at the rest of the consortium (Smith, Amherst, et al). If she went to one of the others in the consortium–and I believe Smith does have merit aid–she would presumably have access to linguistics classes at UMass. SOmething else to look into.

28

Not all large or highly-ranked colleges have strong linguistics programs for undergrads.

WUSTL for example offers few courses and only 3 faculty members (with no full professors).
Rochester offers more courses, and 8 professors cover them (including several with doctorates from strong programs.)

If you’re serious about linguistics (not just language-learning), and if you want to consider other high reaches, then you might want to check out Stanford, UChicago, UPenn, or some of the other Ivies. Public universities with strong programs include Berkeley, UCLA, Maryland (College Park), and UMass-Amherst.

McGill seems to have a strong program. I see lots of courses and 13 faculty members (with doctorates from MIT, Harvard, UPenn, etc.) Montreal has very cold winters but is a wonderful city where both English and French are spoken widely. If you can pay for McGill at Canadian rates, and if her stats meet the admission requirements, then it might be a perfect safety. In fact it might be a better choice than some other, more selective schools on your list.

Few HS students have much exposure to linguistics. Unless your D is unusual in that respect, keep in mind that just because she enjoys learning foreign languages (and is good at it), she won’t necessarily enjoy the scientific study of language. An affinity for math, formal logic, or computer programming might be a better indicator than a knack for language-learning. It’s a very interesting field, though, and can lead to pretty good career opportunities.

29

I really appreciate you all taking the time to talk this through with me. It is very helpful, even if (especially if?) it’s confirming what we are already thinking.

@tk21769
“Few HS students have much exposure to linguistics. Unless your D is unusual in that respect, keep in mind that just because she enjoys learning foreign languages (and is good at it), she won’t necessarily enjoy the scientific study of language. An affinity for math, formal logic, or computer programming might be a better indicator than a knack for language-learning. It’s a very interesting field, though, and can lead to pretty good career opportunities.”

It is an interesting field, for sure. I am a speech-language pathologist, so I have some basic knowledge of linguistics. I’ve been trying hard to guide D and educate her about the field, without overloading or piling on expectations. It’s a tough balance. She has done some reading on her own, and she likes the VSauce videos on the subject. Their linguistics lessons tend to be pretty math-y. My D’s amazing and brilliant German tutor gave her some general linguistics assignments over the summer. We also have a long time friend who has worked as a linguist for the US government, and D has been able to chat with him. When D visited Tulane a few days ago, she got to sit in on three classes, one of them an upper-level linguistics class. The professor was kind enough to send D a link to the required reading for that day’s lesson ahead of time. D was able to follow the discussion and really enjoyed the class. So, overall, I think D knows what she’s getting into, as much as a 16 year old can. As I’d mentioned before, though, she is fascinated with the whole Cognitive Science spectrum, so she could branch off at some point to a related field. She is really enjoying the neuroscience that she’s learning about in her AP Bio and Psych classes right now. It’s exciting to think about all of the opportunities that she has.

Speaking of Tulane, even though she doesn’t feel it’s the right place for her, there are a lot of things she likes about that size/type of school, and she’d like to have some choices come decision time. I understand what you’re saying about the more selective schools not necessarily being the better schools for her. The Canadian schools are a long ways from home, though, both literally and figuratively. Rice and WashU are both within a day’s drive. D probably won’t need to be that close to home, but a lot can happen in a year, year and a half. I see too many stories here on CC about students who feel trapped at decision time and wish they had more options. Plus, the planned visits to Rice and WashU are with a long time trusted friend and academic peer. I think it will be good for both D and her friend, so they can process everything together.

@Consolation Regarding the Smith/consortium option: D and I looked pretty closely at the Quaker consortium awhile back, as Bryn Mawr offers merit scholarships and Swarthmore and Penn (obviously) cover the linguistics bases. I keep reminding her of the option, and she keeps saying no. The LAC lifestyle does not seem to be for her.

And thank you for sharing about UBC. I have heard the commuter school knock before. D doesn’t think that would be as much of a problem for her, as she’d be fine with a quiet, study-friendly campus, and she is looking forward to living independently and being a commuter herself.

Overall, McGill and Toronto are looking like the best options, eh? (Sorry. Running theme in our house these days.) D and I took our first trip to Montreal, at her request, right after her freshman year. She told me then, “Mom, we don’t need to visit any other schools. McGill is perfect for me.” About a dozen college visits and several gray hairs later, she may have been right!

30

Has she looked at Middlebury? It has a very strong reputation for languages and has majors in both German and Linguistics.

31

Hi @Conformist1688 ,
I’ve looked at Middlebury and they don’t do merit aid. Plus, D would say it’s too small.

32

Hi again,
Do any of you have inside knowledge of USC (California)'s linguistics program? From my research online, it seems to be pretty big, offering several different tracks for an undergrad degree. Their cognitive science program is pretty new, it appears.

I’m tempted to run out to LA with D yet this school year so she can do a real visit. Flights to LAX are direct and cheap. She has spent lots of time at USC for summer swim camps and always enjoys being on campus. USC is diverse, has the urban experience she likes, but also has small(ish) class sizes, which she greatly values (and that Canada cannot offer). I know USC is not uniformly nerdy, but the diversity might make up for that. We lived in Southern California for many years, until D was four, so it’s familiar territory for us and we still have friends nearby. USC is a reach, especially financially, but if she can get NMF it’s half tuition and doable.

33

I don’t have any inside knowledge, but on paper USC’s program looks pretty good.
I see 17 professors listed for the department, with a bunch of PhDs from strong departments (such as UCLA, UMass-A, MIT). In the NRC/Chronicle graduate program rankings, USC gets top-10 marks in 4 of the 10 ranking categories.

Undergraduate courses cover most of the major sub-fields (phonetics/phonology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics). There may be some gaps. They introduce syntax and semantics in a single course (rather then devoting a full intro course to each). I don’t see any courses devoted to historical linguistics. Nor does there appear to be much on computational linguistics (which can be a gateway to good job opportunities.)

I wonder how many USC students major in linguistics, what percentage of them eventually earn doctorates in the field, or what jobs they’re getting after graduation. You may want to reach out to the department or to USIL (Undergraduate Students in Linguistics) for that kind of information (https://uscusil.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/contact-us/). Linguistics isn’t likely to attract very many majors (at USC or at smaller schools). Since you may be attending many classes with more or less the same few people, it would be reassuring to know that some of them are really committed to (and enthusiastic about) the subject.

USC does look good but of all the options mentioned so far, McGill sounds to me like one of the best.
If you want a US college with smaller classes, along with a nerdy atmosphere and a good path to top graduate programs, you may want to consider UChicago. Chicago does offer merit scholarships (unlike most other super-selective schools). A strong interest in a low-demand, nerdy major may improve her chances a bit. However, the campus setting may be an issue (esp. compared to McGill’s).

34

Thanks so much, @tk21769. This is very helpful.

I too noticed that USC combines syntax and semantics. They also combine phonetics and phonology. Contrast that with UBC, where the introductory phonetics course recommends 18 credit hours of prerequisites, spanning three disciplines.

When my husband and D visited ASU Barrett, which has a not-very-strong linguistics program, they were told that linguistics students typically fill holes in the curriculum with their honors thesis. Since there is an honors option for linguistics at USC, I suspect one could use the same strategy there. But you bring up a good point about being in community with other serious linguistics students. I think that would be important to my D.

We will look more into Chicago, thank you.

35

Do note that merit at the U of C Is very, very difficult to get. I would not count on it. (I love the school.)

36

D and I are on our way home from Vancouver, where we spent three very full days at UBC. We stayed at the on-campus hotel. We attended their (amazing) day-long event for American prospective students. We met with a very helpful advisor. My D sat in on three classes and talked with each professor afterwards. We visited the hot spots on campus in the evenings. We took the bus off campus. And of course D talked with lots of students. We absolutely exhausted everything a prospective student can do, I think!

After this visit, D is confident that she wants to go to one of the Canadian universities. They suit her in every way. The large class sizes did not intimidate her at all, and she loves the serious atmosphere and international focus. I think it’s time I step back and let her take the lead here. Her list is very short now:

UBC
U Toronto
McGill
U Rochester
ASU Barrett (super-safety)

She sees no need to apply elsewhere. We will focus our future college visits on Toronto and McGill, so that she can see them in depth the way we just saw UBC.

Thank you for all the information and encouragement!