High School Senior Interested In Linguistics Stats

State

California (half Salvadoran)

Intended Major

Linguistics

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: (3.75)
  • Weighted HS GPA: (3.9)
  • Sat Score: 1410 (750 RW, 660 M)

HS APs

AP Lang (junior year), AP Spanish, AP Gov, AP Art

Awards

Honor Roll

Principal’s Honor Roll

Test of proficiency in Korean (level 2)

Student of the year in Spanish 3

Seal of Biliteracy Candidate

Extracurriculars
Theatre sophomore and junior year

Spanish language study since 9th, Advanced level, around b2-c1

Portuguese b1 (didn’t mention on app, not very important to me)

Korean language study since february 2025 (nearing b1)

Now Studying Swedish

Babysitting since 9th

Social Media Manager and Member for a club for breaking barriers between cultures since 11th

Creative Writing

Essays/LORs/Other
About Languages (connecting with my Grandma and friends who don’t speak english!)

Letter of rec from spanish teacher I’ve known three years.

Schools
Maybe U Mass Amherst?? Applying to UCs but very competitive, accepted in University of Minnesota!

Congrats on UMN. If you can afford it, it’s wonderful.

I don’t know your highest math, science, social science, etc. but if you got into UMN, UMass can happen too.

Can you afford these two schools?

I’m looking at WUE and it lists Merced and you will certainly get in there. It’s higher rated by US News than other UCs.

And there are CSUs listed - are you applying to them?

How about Hawaii or Montana or New Mexico or Utah or Western Washington.

All will come at a discount thanks to WUE - if budget is an issue.

UMN is a great get even if you get nothing else. And they have an Institute of Linguistics.

Congrats and good luck.

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Look into Macalester.

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Congratulations on Minnesota! Great university in a great city, so assuming it is affordable you now can’t lose, it is just variations on winning.

California has some excellent options, but for larger public universities, in addition to UMass and Minnesota you might check out Washington, Wisconsin, and Pitt. I note there is a lot of overlap but also some differences in emphasis, so you can see if any particularly resonate with you:

If you are interested in private options, it would help to know a budget, and you can also check out their Net Price Calculators.

But I agree Macalester is a special option for Linguistics (note they really lean into making use of the very diverse population in the Twin Cities):

I’d also suggest checking our Brandeis (note the emphasis on Computational):

I didn’t see a gender, but if applicable you could also check out Bryn Mawr. I note Linguistics is one of the areas in which Bryn Mawr is very interactive with Haverford and Swarthmore–they actually treat it as a “Tri-Co” department:

https://www.brynmawr.edu/inside/academic-information/departments-programs/linguistics

With your apparent interest in learning multiple languages, you might be interested in what they call the Ling/Lang track.

Of course there are many more places with good Linguistics. But really Minnesota is already setting a high bar, and again you have some excellent options in California. So I am trying to think of public options I would at least consider as fairly competitive with Minnesota (not necessarily better, but you could choose a favorite once you have offers), and some privates that would offer a somewhat different experience but also with strong Linguistics.

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I’d add Indiana and Arizona - both have linguistics and are amongst the top large publics for languages in the country…if the student needed more options (not saying they do).

OP might also consider a language flagship school - if they want to me totally immersed in a language - and as you need another major, they can double with Linguistics. They’re federally supported and likely lead to a great job - if any of these are your primary interest:

Arabic

Chinese

Korean

Persian

Portuguese

Russian

Home | Flagship

Department of Linguistics: Indiana University Bloomington

Linguistics

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Congratulations on the acceptance to U. of Minnesota! It’s a great school, and now you only need to apply to schools that you would prefer to attend over UMN (assuming, of course, that UMN is comfortably affordable for your family).

You mentioned “Stats” in your title. Are you also interested in studying statistics in college?

If you’re looking for additional suggestions, what kind of college experience are you hoping for? Some questions that might prod your thinking include:

  • What size school do you prefer?

  • What size classes do you do best in?

  • How do you feel about Greek life (i.e. fraternities/sororities)?

  • How do you feel about significant enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports?

  • Do you have any climate preferences/needs?

  • How do you feel about urban/suburban/college town/remote campuses?

  • Are there regions of the country that you prefer or prefer to avoid?

  • What kind of vibe/people are you hoping to find on campus?

  • Are there any other factors, like religion or politics, that impact your preferences?

  • Are there any interests (outside of your currently intended major) that you hope to pursue in college?

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