Cross-majoring at Swarthmore

interesteddad
Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:05:30 +0000

I’ve actually seen The Linguists (I’m really passionate about the field! ).I’m definitely applying there. I think I have a good shot at getting in, but since it’s so selective there’s a good chance I won’t, as well,



I hear ya. Makes sense. Bryn Mawr or Scripps might make a nice safety, too.

Having that kind of passion is a big advantage applying to Swarthmore (or any other top LAC). It can really jump off the pages of the application and colleges love enthusiasm.

Why don’t you e-mail David Harrison (from The Linguists) and ask him about majoring in Linguistics at Swarthmore – both as a Swarthmore student and as a Haverford student? Ask him what other LACs he might recommend for Linguistics. Go meet with him (or one of the other profs when you visit campus. You’ll write a great Why Swat? essay and increase your odds of admission. Just having watched The Linguists is the kind of thing that helps you stand out at a place like Swat. They love students who are hardcore into some academic field because it’s “fun”. The same research will give you something to write about for Haverford, too.

There aren’t boatloads of linguistics majors – I think Swat had 11 last year plus 2 more Ling/Lang special majors (linguistics plus a language). So there wouldn’t be any downside to demonstrating enthusiasm – as their might be in an over-subscribed major like Econ or Bio.

I don’t know about Linguistics at other schools, but Reed, Swarthmore, and Pomona all are the top per capita producers of future Linguistics PhDs in the country, so I’m guessing the programs are all solid. I just know that everyone involved in Linguistics at Swat really, really loves it and the department is staffed with some really interesting professors who do really interesting things (like star in movies, publish best selling children’s books, and teach Navajo language in summer academies.