Getting In

Janet's comment: Middlebury is certainly one of the best schools out there to study languages at. They've done a phenomenal job at establishing a strong and effective languages program that also places a lot of it's students into outstanding graduate programs and jobs. Some other great schools to study languages at include:

Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ), whose program involves education and research in all parts of the linguistics discipline. The language specialties are broad and include many rare and obscure languages. The program is ideal if you have interest in multiple components of languages and linguistics or if you are not quite sure which specialty within linguistics interests you. Rutgers also has the Undergraduate Linguistics Club, that seeks to give students in the discipline a sense of community and give students who are not in the program a means of being a part of that community and further getting the general community at Rutgers aware of the field.

Brown University (Providence, RI) has a program that offers general education in all sub-components of Linguistics and builds the program so students can take a specific focus in their program through their electives. Additionally, Brown has a very extensive graduate program in linguistics, one that is extremely research oriented. The downside to this is that schools that have a much larger or more significant graduate program in a field tend to be more concerned with that than with the undergraduate program, though you will still likely get a very solid education. One survey ranked Brown #51 in this field.

Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA) is one of few liberal arts colleges with an excellent linguistics and languages programs. Grinnell's program focuses more on the application and role of language more than on the cognitive science end of the discipline (more like Brown). Additionally, at Grinnell there is no graduate program in-house, which means that you may have access to more full-time faculty and research, but if you do intend to further pursue linguistics that you would need to go elsewhere (but this isn't necessarily a bad thing!). Additionally, for a small liberal arts college Grinnell offers a very generous number of languages and even offers supplemental, intensive language training that driven students can opt for in addition to a standard program. One survey ranked Grinnell #4 in this field.

Univerisity of Chicago (Chicago, IL) has the oldest language/linguistics program in the United States and it is routinely considered to be the absolute best, though some surveys have ranked it as low as the 7th best program. It is oriented mostly around languages and the different approaches of teaching languge as opposed to psychology, semantics, and other sciences. In many ways it is similar to Middlebury's program but in the extremely different environment of a major research university. It also has a very well developed graduate program.

Univerisity of Oregon (Eugene, OR) has a very progressive program that is very oriented towards the cultural implications of the discipline. Furthermore, it has more of a focus on Asian languages and cultures than is found in many (but certainly not all) programs on the East Coast. It has a greater emphasis on the human/cultural uses and interaction with languages as opposed to the exact science of language development in the individual person.

And if that's still not enough for you, a few other great schools you might want to look at are... Ohio State University (Columbus, OH), Northwestern University (Chicago, IL), Univerisity of Hawaii (Hilo, HI), Pomona College (Pomona, CA), and Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA)!

And as always, good luck with getting into and finding the college and program that will let you realize your dreams!

Janet's comment: I'd like to explain why this is. It's very easy to get caught up in the college admissions game and a lot of students don't think about the process very pragmatically. Not everyone is a good fit for college and not everyone is a good fit for the top tier colleges. While I'm not an advocate for settling, I strongly believe that you should never put all of your eggs in one basket. If you want to go to Harvard and you've got a B average, you should apply there. But you should also look at schools that are less selective.

I don't want to unrealistically get people's hopes up just to be brought down. College admissions committees don't always know how wonderful their applicants are or even if they do there just is not room in the incoming class. Or even if you do get into your dream school, the money may just not be there. It's important to be pragmatic and realistic in addition to being optimistic. Everyone should apply to their dream school regardless of the cost or selectivity, but everyone should also apply to schools they like that they can afford and almost definitely get into. People also should realize that you'll find an amazing experience with amazing people no matter where they end up if you're open to the experience. Furthermore, if you go to an accredited school you're not going to come out of it with a sub-par education. It might not be the absolute best, but you know it has been reviewed and to be of quality, if it weren't, it wouldn't be accredited.