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<p>In our community – high Asian population – taking Chinese lessons on a weekend is standard faire. And as far as I know, college adcoms don’t view it as a plus.</p>
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<p>In our community – high Asian population – taking Chinese lessons on a weekend is standard faire. And as far as I know, college adcoms don’t view it as a plus.</p>
<p>I actually don’t even think it’s the math score on the SAT that will hurt her. I think 5 Cs will hold her back more. </p>
<p>I think it’s important to look at schools that will want her-- where geography or her attributes (scores) will be very attractive.</p>
<p>Just to clarify about coursework in linguistics, not all programs will require much or any quantitative work like statistics, especially if the program has a generative focus. Core courses like phonology and syntax would involve analysis of language structure and form.</p>
<p>Has she tried the ACT? She may find the ACT-type math questions more straightforward. Again, I don’t really think the 570 is the biggest deal on earth; I think accumulating 5 Cs will put her too low in her class and lower her gpa too much for the very highest schools (and Pomona is one of the hardest colleges for admissions in the country), but if that math score gives her pause, she may want to try the ACT. I do think a lot of schools would be thrilled to have her but I don’t know enough about linguistics to recommend a course of action. Once I had a list of schools that are very good for linguistics and which interest her, I would focus on schools where her scores are tops, where they give merit for high scores, where her geography or gender will help and where admissions is holistic (including SAT-optional schools).</p>
<p>Very few LACs offer linguistics in any meaningful sense; Pomona and Knox are clearly outliers in OP’s list. UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, UCSC, UMass-Amherst and Ohio State all are reputed to have excellent linguistics departments.</p>
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<p>In my opinion, those are the reflective of the same issue. And I would be willing to guess that mini hit it on the nose, when he raised the issue of ‘reasoning’ ability. (I’d bet that the girl struggled with Geom.) AP Chem is not mathematical (computational) at all – only requires Alg I math – but it does require strong reasoning skills to do well, as does SAT-M.</p>
<p>But yes, while ACT math is more "straight-forward’ (that SAT-M) and doesn’t require much reasoning, the science section is pretty much ACT’s attempt at reasoning.</p>
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<p>How long would it take for computational skills to catch up with reasoning skills? Assuming they were not abused, maybe only slightly.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know how the student compiled her list of schools. My guess is that some of the schools are close to home and the family is pretty tight knit. When I look up linguistics (just pure linguistics, though I see there are other combinations of majors that include linguistics) as a major on College Board, I see about 130 or so schools.</p>
<p>I agree about computational skills catching up with reasoning skills. I do see this with my 15 year old, who <em>still</em> doesn’t have his multiplication tables memorized (my third grader probably has them more memorized than he does) but is getting much better at computation through his chemistry class this year. </p>
<p>Student did take the ACT but it was lower than the SAT, so I’ve told her to just use her SAT score.</p>
<p>Do you all think USC is more reasonable than Pomona as a reach? What about UC Davis? I think Ohio State is a good safety because she’s familiar with it and there may be some merit aid for her SAT score. (I haven’t checked into this, though)</p>
<p>If she’s looking for a reach, JHU’s graduate linguistics program is currently rated #1 in the nation.</p>
<p>Apparently UC Santa Cruz is reputed to have an outstanding linguistics dept. If that is the case, why on earth isn’t it on her list, while other UCs are?</p>
<p>BlueBayou, there hasn’t been any mention of the student being Chinese in ancestry, therefore I was assuming she is not. I could well be wrong. Bethie, I agree about the list, and in fact mentioned that upthread.</p>
<p>I don’t think that JHU with 5 C’s is within the realm of possiblity.</p>
<p>Probably not.</p>
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<p>Never claimed nor inferred that she was. My point was based solely on what the OP stated:</p>
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<p>And if I was an adcom, my reaction would be, ‘oh that’s nice.’ My reaction would be much different if the student became fluent or could read another language after self-study. But taking a classes on “the weekends” just doesn’t strike me as much of an EC, worthy of overlooking a strong math/reasoning weakness.</p>
<p>Like I said earlier, the neighborhood kids are taking Mandarin on the weekends for years…</p>
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<p>Perhaps a Spring admission, which generally means limited finaid.</p>
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<p>AND she skipped an entire year of Spanish, AND she has participated in linguistics summer programs. I’m not saying that she is so exceptional in this area that her weakness in math would be overlooked by the most selective schools, but it is something. Taken together, they show a talent coupled with a developed interest. (Taking Chinese on the weekends is not a common activity around here, so obviously it looks better to me than to you. )</p>
<p>“Weakness” is relative. She has taken the full math sequence, she is now taking AP Calc AB. It seems likely to me that there is something odd going on behind her math performance: math anxiety exacerbated by familial typecasting leading to negative reinforcement would be my bet. ( “If only you were good at math, like Son. Here, we’ll have HIM try to help you.”)</p>
<p>I’d like to see her add a few specific LACs, such as Macalester, to her list, along with a private U on the level of BU, and UC Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>What about U Rochester? Does anyone know how strong its linguistics program is?</p>
<p>On this old thread, a poster links to the NRC and Gourman report rankins for linguistics. Ohio State and BU are both there. So is NYU-- a match academically but $ is a factor. There are several big state schools where this student might even get merit money, depending on availability (Indiana, Arizona, Kansas, South Carolina). Of the schools on the list, Pitt, Washington and Wisconsin look like good matches. Does anyone know about the programs there? </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/440851-best-linguistics-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/440851-best-linguistics-schools.html</a></p>
<p>I’m not sure of the details, but the Western Exchange would give a California resident break on the out-of-state tuition (I think it limits tuition to 150% of instate) to some of the schools listed. I think Arizona, Washington and Oregon are included.</p>
<p>Oh, and does anyone think she has a chance at Chicago? I’m sure it would be a reach, but they were always about more than numbers-- just not sure how low their admissions rate is in the past few years.</p>
<p>I have a kid somewhat like this and she was accepted to Pomona. It’s not an auto-admit and I’m sure it’s become more and more competitive but it’s not automatically out of the cards just because a student isn’t a strong math student. My kid had perfect verbal and writing scores on the SAT, a weak math SAT (over 600 though) and a stronger showing on the ACT overall. She also had perfect SAT IIs in Literature and US History along with a strong Spanish score. She was NMF, had strong leadership in writing and had a number of awards, both school-based and national, in history and writing. Her grades were also lopsided with strong history, language and English grades and good to fair math and science grades. She even had a C+ in one math class. She was accepted to Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Pomona, Middlebury, Grinnell, and Oberlin. </p>
<p>What’s interesting to me is that the reaction to a kid with very strong math skills but weaker reading and writing skills is so different. These kids can apply to places like MIT or CalTech and worry a lot less about their lopsidedness. Are there highly regarded schools like that for those who show very strong or exceptional verbal ability?</p>
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<p>Not if they expect to get in. :D</p>
<p>25% of students matriculating to Caltech scored a 790+ on both CR and W. Caltech’s lowest quartile was a 700 on both. (Caltech’s bottom CR/W quartile is higher than Harvard’s - by 10 points!)</p>
<p>MIT matriculates frosh with CR & W scores in the following quartiles: 670-770.</p>
<p>3girls3cats,</p>
<p>That’s the question that I’d like to know. What schools <em>would</em> be good for verbally gifted, weaker in math students, interested in linguistics?</p>
<p>Which Western Exchange schools have linguistics? I don’t see an easy way to search for that.</p>
<p>Ok, that’s true bluebayou. But I can’t help thinking that the kid with an 800 M and a 670 CR is in better shape than the kid with the reverse stats. Maybe I’m wrong? It was the reaction to the OP that affirmed the prejudice I’d already carried. That and the fact that there are many well-regarded math and tech oriented schools willing to look past the verbal stats and even the coursework to admit the exceptional mathy kid. </p>
<p>But my frustration may just be a matter of the issue sbjdorlo and I have: how do you find the right place for the verbally gifted kid who is either not as gifted in math or simply not mathematically gifted at all?</p>
<p>sbjdorlo – to answer your question about which schools would be good, have you seen this listing/ranking of PhD programs in linguistics? I can’t totally make sense of the meanings of the rankings, but if one were to figure it out and then maybe cross-reference it with another list of undergraduate schools that look at applications wholistically, maybe one could come up with a list.</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Linguistics - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Linguistics”>NRC Rankings Overview: Linguistics)</p>
<p>sbjdorlo, Did you read my post, #54? I specifically listed Western Exchange schools ranked well in linguistics and gave you a link to both the NRC and the Gourman Report rankings for linguistics.</p>