ValRN
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Posts posted by ValRN
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7 hours ago, Calming Tea said:
Swarthmore is right around the corner from center city, UPenn, (the fact that she can take classes at UPenn is aamazing) and there are also other colleges with things going on nearby such as Villanova. I would definitely consider whether your dd would feel excited about the city, and would be the type to take advantages of the opportunities the city will afford her. I don't know a lot about being a music major but I would imagine being near Center City Phila means that auditions would be a breeze, and there would be other opportunities. ...Find out if there is a train that goes right past SWarthemore into the city, or an easy quick bus ride. ...Villanova has the train stop literally at the campus and then it's a 15 minute ride to CC, so that's very convenient. We would be so excited if my son gets into UPenn today, to have Philadelphia (and my entire east coast family) right at his fingertips.
@Calming Tea We visited Swarthmore and UPenn on the same day. DD did not like "the feel" she got at UPenn and decided not to apply. She is absolutely NOT excited about Philly (nor New York when we visited NYU). She prefers the college town of Ann Arbor much better than the city. She's a musician but won't be a music major. There is actually a train/metro station right on Swarthmore's campus that goes right into Philly. My mother-in-law lives across the street from a very prestigious Jesuit school in Detroit, and she's friends with the counselors there. She told them that DD got accepted at Swarthmore, and they told her to tell DD that she should definitely choose Swarthmore (over Uni of Michigan). I understand the perks of having family around. If my DD chooses Michigan, my husband's family is less than an hour away.
I hope your DS gets into UPenn. I'll be looking for your post.
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On 3/26/2019 at 11:23 AM, JennyD said:
Wow, congratulations!
I graduated from Swarthmore many (many!) years ago and still very much appreciate the education I received there.
Thank you @JennyD D loves Swarthmore and feels honored to have been accepted and awarded a scholarship. However, she's a little concerned about the small size. She's got such a big academic personality and feels that she might feel limited at a small school (on the flip side, large schools intimidate her 🙄). We've discussed the consortium of colleges and that fact that she'd be able to also take course at UPenn. She'll make a decision soon because her last decision should be coming in the next few days.
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On 3/26/2019 at 11:13 AM, JazzyMom said:
Yay! That’s wonderful. Are you still waiting to hear from another school or are all results in? Is she close to a decision?
I love hearing from UT grads because they all seem to love the school so much. I never dreamed ds would end up there, and I’m so happy for him and so thankful! I think he’s going to have a great experience.
I'm quite sure your son will have a great experience at UT. Is UT OOS for you? D is waiting to hear from 1 more school. She declined admittance at 4 schools already. She's waiting on this last one, and she'll choose from her top 3. She's already fallen in love with a program at one school, and everything seems to fall in line with her academic and personal goals at that school. She's already communicating with the cello faculty there, so I think her heart is there. We asked her not to decide until she has her top 3 offers on the table.
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On 3/16/2019 at 12:47 PM, JazzyMom said:
This morning, ds put down an enrollment deposit and registered for orientation at the University of Texas at Austin!!!
Hook 'em, Horns! My nephew graduated from UT Austin a few years ago. I also graduated from UT many moons ago. I live in MD, but my roots are in TX.
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On 3/20/2019 at 2:44 PM, Calming Tea said:
Meanwhile I’m crying in Walmart as I but dorm supplies because there’s a little one behind me and my boy is all grown up! How did this happen?
Oh gosh! I'm dreading buying dorm supplies. This is my 3rd and last. Yay! Back to work I go (maybe).
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24 minutes ago, madteaparty said:
That’s particularly impressive, because that’s a merit scholarship right? Your Dd must have be an exceptional applicant!
@madteaparty We've only been able to find general information about this scholarship. We are guessing it's merit because we've never qualified for need-based aid (3rd DC going to college). I would say that even admitted students who were not offered scholarships are exceptional applicants because Swarthmore had like an 8.5-8.6% acceptance rate this round. https://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/995-admitted-to-swarthmore-class-2023?fbclid=IwAR2U-CPqpmxcXCQs2Uknrzzv7ZzRWxzTNeTaKt_asj5pExzdE5VN8xZeYbo
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DD was awarded a Swarthmore College Scholarship at Swarthmore College. It is extremely generous and makes Swarthmore financially possible for us.
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DD found out a few hours ago that she was accepted to Swarthmore College. She's waiting to hear from 1 more.
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Another acceptance came in for DD. She was accepted to University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). Waiting on 3 more.
Edited Tuesday, February 5, 2019 - DD accepted to University of Maryland (College Park). 2 decisions remaining.
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DD accepted to:
Indiana University (Bloomington), scholarship, honors college
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), honors program
University of Maryland Baltimore County, scholarship
And still waiting to hear from 4 more schools.
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oops... wrong year
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On 9/13/2018 at 8:55 AM, Pronghorn said:
I have a music composition major, so we have extra work. In addition to essays, my daughter has to write compositions and get them performed and recorded. And for most schools she has to do auditions. So, we won't have the comfort of early acceptances.
My oldest was a music composition major (graduated in May). Luckily for him, he already had a portfolio of pieces. Because he was in a youth orchestra (trumpet) and took private composition lessons at a music school in DC, it wasn't difficult to get his pieces performed and recorded. The process is very tedious, but worth it in the end.
My youngest is going through the application process now. She's submitted 4 applications (her top 4 choices) and has 9 more to go. She wants to get them all in by November 1st even though she's applying regular decision to most.
I'm happy that this is my last application cycle.
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I found an ASVAB website which seems to indicate that scores before 11th grade would not count for military use.
When my DS took the ASVAB in 10th grade (Just for test-taking practice. Absolutely no interest in going in the military), we were given this same information by the testing coordinator.
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:bigear:
My 17 y/o DD, who is an excellent student, is also feeling very uninspired by school.
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Agreement on overkill.
We also used R&S for grammar through 8th grade for the 2 youngest DC. I purchased but did not use the 9/10 R&S. My middle DC made a perfect score on the English portion of the ACT and my youngest DC scored 1 less than perfect on the same test. I didn't use R&S with my oldest DC and he did a different grammar program in 9th and 10th grade. His ACT English scores were good but not as impressive as the kids who had used R&S.
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I remember when my elder son was visiting colleges. At one of the colleges, we sat in on a panel of students who were giving information and answering questions. There was a student there who talked about how shy and introverted she was and how she bombed her scholarship (full ride) interview...but was still awarded the scholarship. The president of the university then took the mic and said that he remembered her interview and that it didn't go so smoothly. So, yes, there is hope.
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Thanks everyone!
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L is eave yourself plenty of time as they don't always approve it on the first try - and SAT is slow.
I agree! DS was not approved the first time with the SAT, so we had to appeal. It was approved the 2nd time.
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Applied linguistics focuses more on language learning/teaching, literacy, multilingualism, language contact, etc., so if those areas are not of particular interest, then she'd want to make sure than any department that has more of an applied focus at least has enough other courses in her areas of interest. For example, if you look at UCLA's linguistics course list, many of the courses are on topics like language acquisition in children, bilingualism, translation/interpreting, language and identity, applied phonetics, and language teaching. So if those are not areas your DD is interested in, then her choices will be limited to the basic semantics/syntax/phononology/morphology courses plus a single course in historical linguistics, a single course in neurolinguistics, etc. OTOH, UCLA does offer a variety of interdisciplinary majors, such as linguistics and computer science, linguistics and anthropology, linguistics and Asian languages, etc.
Compare that to schools like UMass Amherst or Ohio State, where the courses are more theoretical/"pure" linguistics, there are more historical/social/cultural type courses, and there may only be one or two courses in applied areas. Michigan is kind of in the middle, with a good array of theoretical/social/cultural courses as well as very specific applied courses such as Teaching ESL in Migrant Communities.
Corraleno, my DD said, "Thanks.This information helped me tremendously!" Based on your descriptions, she is sure that she wants to look for a department that leans toward theoretical logistics. She does love learning languages (studying 2 right now and plans to add a third next year) and plans to continue studying critical languages in college. However, she likes the intricacies of languages and grammar and is more interested in pure linguistics. Even though her mind is set now, I understand that she could flip her focus (and major) after actually beginning her UG studies. We are at ease with that possibility. We are extremely grateful for your clarification and everyone else's suggestions.
Val
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Any university that offers an actual linguistics major will cover syntax, morphology, phonology/phonetics, and semantics; in most cases at least one full course in each of those will be requirements for the major, and most large departments will have multiple courses in each area. OSU even has separate special interest research groups in each area.
As for #2, again any university with a decent-sized, well-ranked department will offer courses in historical and cultural linguistics, so it's really not a matter of finding a department that teaches entirely "from that perspective."
That said, some departments do lean more theoretical and some (e.g. UCLA) lean more applied (language acquisition, pedagogy, forensics, discourse analysis, etc), so that's something she'll want to look into. Looking at the CVs and research interests of the profs, and the list of undergrad courses available, should give her a good idea of which way the department leans.
Question for you - #2 If DD isn't sure if she has a preference on which way a department leans, but knows that she would like to go on to grad school (very high priority), that she wants to be involved in research, and that she DEFINITELY has no interest in pedagogy; does it matter if she chooses a department that leans one way or the other? If so, which "lean" should she gravitate toward? Sorry for all of the questions, but I know nothing about linguistics. We've been on Linguistic Society of America and other similar websites to get as much information as possible, but we still feel sort of lost about what things to consider most in an undergrad linguistics program.
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OSU is Ohio State (not OK), sorry if that wasn't clear!
CV is Curriculum Vitae, an academic resume. Most departments will have links to the CVs for the profs.
Oooh...ok...Ohio State. I've already mentioned to DD that I though Ohio State has a good ling. program, but being that her father is a ardent University of Michigan fan, she would not even consider Ohio State. I don't understand how that football rivalry has spilled over into my DC. Of course, DD has UMich on her list.
Thanks for all of the information you've given. You've brought up some very critical points for her to consider in her research and to look for overall. I appreciate your help.
Val
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Top 20 US programs from the QS rankings:
MIT
Harvard
U Mass Amherst
Stanford
Berkeley
UCLA
U Penn
UMCP
Ohio State
U Chicago
NYU
UIUC
Michigan
UT Austin
UCSD
Georgetown
UCSB
Yale
Cornell
UC Santa Cruz
I think that list is pretty accurate, if you compare it to the CVs of linguistics profs at top schools. The one exception (IMO) would be UCSC, which I think should be ranked higher than it is, and which appears more frequently on CVs than some of the schools ranked above it.
DS will be attending OSU next year as a linguistics major. It's quite a large department, covering a wide range of interests, and there is a strong emphasis on undergraduate research (which was important to him, since he plans on grad school). There are linguistics courses that qualify in most of the GenEd categories, which is a plus if your student wants to dive into linguistics right away and not spend freshman year taking a bunch of unrelated GenEds. There are also many active specialist groups where undergrads, grad students, and profs with similar interests (e.g. phonetics, syntax, language change, etc.) meet regularly to present papers, discuss research, and listen to invited speakers. OSU also offers a ton of foreign languages, including many unusual ones, which was also something that DS was looking for.
Thanks for this list. She's on the right track because she's currently doing research on 11 of the listed programs. What do you mean by "CV"?
We didn't think to consider if the linguistics courses satisfy Gen Ed requirments. That's a great point, Corraleno. I will tell DD to include that on her list of things to consider. DD will definitely want to jump into linguistics right away. I'm going to look at OSU's linguistics website to see if DD might consider attending college in OK.
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These don't meet your selective school parameters, but here are a couple of public Uni suggestions:
My dd is at University of Florida studying Linguistics. She'll graduate in May and has found it to be a great program.
Indiana University has a great East Asian studies department as well a strong Linguistics program.
Thanks mom2att. Indiana University is on her list. She likes the language offerings they have. I tried to get her to consider schools in Florida (warmth), but she has no interest.
I would take a look at both Truman State University and Wellesley College. I don't know about the quality of the linguistics programs but both schools are good. Truman is very affordable if she doesn't mind rural Missouri.
Thanks Arch At Home. I'll pass this information along to her.
UCLA has several cool concentrations within the linguistics major including anthropology.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks Crimson Wife. UCLA is one of the schools at the top of her list. So far, it has everything she's looking for.
It seems as though she's on the right track with the schools she has on her list thus far. I appreciate everyone's input.
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I'd add Penn to your list. Harvard as well.
Thanks bibiche. She has Penn on her list, and she likes the program thus far.
Val
Class of 2019 acceptances & decisions thread (updated 8/23/19)
in The College Board
Posted
MY DD made her decision.
Where: University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Why: It boiled down to UMich and Swarthmore College. She'll be in the Residential College where she felt she can get a small college feel while still having all of the benefits of a large university. The Residential College will also allow her to have intensive study of a language (continue with German, add Russian and another critical language) and continue with music studies while pursuing her major.
Major: Linguistics