I am looking for an urban college to study linguistics at. However, most of the so-called urban colleges I have found, are in a city but are very separate from the city. I want a college that spills into the city and has undefined borders. A college that is dirty, has graffiti and isn’t sanitized. A college like this, is Virginia Common Wealth University. Are there any others that anyone else can think of?
In Philly or NYC, with Linguistics: Temple, NYU.
What are your academic stats? What can you afford?
As two examples in NYC you can look at NYU and Fordham - Lincoln Center campus
Assuming that this is a serious first post, if you want a gritty urban campus with an undefined borders with resident drug dealers in nearby Washington Square Park, look no further than NYU. I would not say it’s graffiti filled, and it’s expensive with limited FA.
We drove around George Washington U in DC and it had a completely urban, no borders look to it, but I’m not saying it was dirty or graffiti filled.
Thanks for the suggestions. Cost isn’t really an issue, but I’d like to find schools that aren’t ivy-league competitive.
Many in Boston. many is NYC, many in phili, many in most cities
NYU. Seems to push all your buttons (good linguistics, urban, no defined campus), if your family can afford it (and you can get in).
Other possibilities (depending on budget, stats … but not necessarily better for what you want than NYU):
Harvard
MIT
Yale
UChicago
UPenn
Georgetown
Johns Hopkins
Rice
Berkeley
UCLA
Carnegie Mellon
University of Southern California
Minnesota - Twin Cities
Colorado-Boulder
If VCU meets your needs, go for it. Most of the above are super selective (and super expensive at full sticker).
Thanks everyone! I’ll check those out!
Probably cleaner than you want, but the University of Pittsburgh might be of interest to you.
I rather suspect the more expensive “blurred campus” schools take some pains to ensure that their campuses are not graffiti-ridden, trash-strewn experiences. And yes while schools like NYU can’t stop people doing stuff in Washington Square Park, we visited a few of these types of campuses (BU, GWU, NYU, Fordham Lincoln center) and they all seemed pretty clean and well-maintained to me.
https://www.bestcolleges.com/features/best-urban-colleges/
(there are many other similar lists online you can find with a google search)
You can look at campus maps/google maps to see which are fully integrated into the cities
In addition most Jesuit colleges are in cities throughout the US so if you are OK with a Catholic school you can look through this list to see ones that may be good academic/geographic matches.http://www.ajcunet.edu/institutions/
I take it you mean more of a deconstructed campus within a large metropolitan city. BU NYU and GW are the finest examples of this style. There is no graffiti or lack of cleanliness. In fact the opposite.
The Harvard MiT Fordham Penn u Chicago types mentioned earlier have very dinstinct and formal enclosed campus settings. These campuses are all surrounded by the city.
And some of the out buildings resulting from growth of the schools over the years and finals clubs/fraternities are sprinkled into the city. But these other buildings are in millionaire row settings.
Brown is in a small city with a small campus and a lot of the other parts of the school sprinkled outside of the gates too. Science building and rec center are a bit of a walk. The old Pembroke “woman’s college” part of the campus is separate
by a few blocks with cityscape in between.
@privatebanker Harvard, MIT and Penn have sprawled far beyond their original defined campus.
Fordham Lincoln Center would be another option. Another good urban campus for linguistics would be McGill in Montreal: defined campus with a lot of sprawl in the middle of downtown.
I was trying to say that but thanks for clarifying.
They all have a formal and core base campus. The deconstructed campuses like BU and GW feel different.
I like the McGill idea. That feels quite different.
Northeastern. (Though I wouldn’t characterize Boston as gritty.)
You should also look at CUNY schools. CUNY is a university SYSTEM and has many different campuses. It includes everything from community colleges to research universities. The campuses are everything from green quads to ultra-urban.
Here’s a search engine to help you determine which campus to apply to –
http://www2.cuny.edu/admissions/undergraduate/explore/programs/
It looks like Brooklyn College and Lehman College both offer BAs in Linguistics.
Brooklyn
http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/linguistics/webdev/linguistics-home.html
- Brooklyn college has a green quad but it’s out in Brooklyn, a great borough of the City. There are all kinds of neighborhoods in Brooklyn from the poshest filled with film stars to hipster havens to gritty bastions of great food and culture.
Lehman
http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/linguistics/index.php
Lehman is in the Bronx, a vibrant area, with excellent train access (the D line on the subway and others) to the rest of the city. it’s partnered with one of NYC’s most prestigious high schools (Lehman American Studies) across the street. It’s a wonderful environment if you’re interested in city life and culture.
Here’s a quick index of the “senior colleges” of the CUNY system –
http://www2.cuny.edu/about/colleges-schools/#senior-colleges
Here are the residence halls –
http://www2.cuny.edu/current-students/student-affairs/student-life/housing-residence-life/fun-facts/
I believe that you can live in residence halls associated with a different college than you’re attending. For example, if you’re at Lehman, you might be able to live in City College’s residence towers, but I’m not sure. You can ask them.
CUNY is also cheaper than many other schools, even with OOS tuition. If you were to take some gap time and live in the City – maybe get a job or internship during that time – then you would be eligible for in-state CUNY tuition, a drop of $7K or so per year. CUNY graduates have done amazing things. They have won every imaginable prize, from Pulitzers to Nobels. Some people in NYC call CUNY “the Harvard of the proletariat.”
Here’s a list of CUNY notable alumni –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_City_College_of_New_York_alumni
Rice is located in the museum district of Houston, but it does not have the urban atmosphere you are seeking. Rice is has very defined borders. It is surrounded by hedges and a running trail, is in a park like setting, and the entrances to the campus are fairly restricted.
Georgia State is in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Georgia Tech is in Atlanta, but slightly contained. I don’t know if the HBCUs are of interest, but Morehouse/Spelman/Clark Atlanta (in Atlanta) are also fairly urban, as is Howard (DC). Emory is urban, but in a gentrified area of Atlanta. St. Louis University takes up much of the downtown St. Louis corridor. Wash U is in the city of St. Louis, but more contained. Vanderbilt is in the city of Nashville, but fairly contained. U of Washington is in the city of Seattle. University of Miami feels urban to me, although technically it’s in Coral Gables. Boston University is so urban that my urban loving D19 rejected it, and also George Washington, FWIW. She also wants urban, but not apparently as urban as you may be seeking. I have no idea about linguistics about any of these.
Oh, maybe the New School in NY? Didn’t visit it so can’t vouch for what it looks like but it’s also urban spill I believe?