Cross-majoring at Swarthmore

interesteddad
Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:37:37 +0000

If you can get in, then Swarthmore is clearly the place to be for Linguistics in the Tri-College consortium – maybe the place to be for linguistics of all liberal arts colleges.
Swat has some fabulous Linguistics professors, including David Harrison, star of the documentary, The Linguists, which can be viewed here:

[Babelgum - The Linguists](Everything You Need to Know About Babelgum + Top 5 Alternatives)

Also, Donna Jo Napoli, one of the top children’s book authors and Ted Ferdinald, one of the experts on Navajo language. Next year’s Visiting Lang Professor of Social Change is an Anthropology/Linguist who is famous for work on Latino bi-lingual issues. It’s a really terrific program.

Haveford and Bryn Mawr students routinely major in Linguistics at Swarthmore. Swat professors teach many of the entry-level linguistics courses at the two colleges, so it’s fairly seemless.

About 80 Bryn Mawr and Haverford students take courses at Swat each semester. Time-wise, it’s closer to take the bus to Swarthmore than it is to go from Smith to Amherst in the 5-college consortium. It’s only about 20 minutes door to door. The problem is that the van doesn’t run as often as you would like so you have to plan on spending the morning or afternoon at Swat. Personally, I would try to take two courses at Swat some semesters and make a day of it twice a week.

You should check out the Linguistics websites at all three colleges and e-mail Linguistics professors at Haverford and Swarthmore this summer or next fall for detailed information. Somebody should be able to put you in touch with students who have done what you are asking about.