Say, does anybody know what are the top schools (undergraduate, public or private) for linguistics, as this was mentioned earlier in the thread? Objectively, subjectively, whatever. 
Im most likely one of the few high school seniors dopers. Ive recently become addicted to the whole college search. Best public schools are:
- College of Williams and Mary
- UC Berkeley
- UMich - Ann Arbor
- UVA
- UCLA
- UNC - Chapel Hill
- UC San Diego
So where does Rutgers fit in? I had always heard that it was very highly regarded.
Is Rutgers a public school?
Ruiniform writes:
> Say, does anybody know what are the top schools
> (undergraduate, public or private) for linguistics, as this was
> mentioned earlier in the thread?
Here’s a list of all the colleges and universities in North America with any significant linguistics department or interdisciplinary program:
This is from the LSA’s official website, and even they aren’t certain about which schools offer linguistics courses.
There’s probably no useful answer to your question about the best undergraduate programs in linguistics. I’ve seen in books lists of the graduate programs in linguistics rated to show which are the best, but I don’t believe that there’s any such list on the Internet. Rating undergraduate programs in linguistics would be even harder. First of all, it’s not necessary to do an undergraduate degree in linguistics to get into graduate programs in linguistics. Many graduate students in linguistics did their undergraduate study in other fields, like majoring in particular languages. I got into a linguistics graduate program with an undergraduate degree in math.
Furthermore, even in fields where getting an undergraduate degree in the same field is pretty standard, like physics, math, or English, where you get your undergraduate degree isn’t as important as where you get your graduate degree. Most top colleges have good undergraduate programs in most academic subjects. If you want to do something in linguistics, you’re going to need a graduate degree. If you want to get into a good graduate program in linguistics, you need a good undergraduate degree (probably in linguistics, but maybe in something else) from a good college, but it’s not a big deal where you study.
Yup. Its official name is “Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey,” though it was a private institution for its first century or so. It was originally founded as Queen’s College in 1766. It was basically the same type of place as Princeton or Harvard were at that time. It faced a choice around the time of the civil war–should it remain an exclusive private college, or become a land-grant college? It obviously chose the latter. One really nice thing about Rutgers is that it has all of the advantages of a huge state school, while retaining that old Ivy League style charm and history at it’s main campus.
Here is a brief history of the school: http://ruweb.rutgers.edu/aboutru/inbrief.shtml
I realize I didn’t make one thing clear: Rutgers is New Jersey’s main public university. There is no “University of New Jersey.”
There is a College of New Jersey also. There are 2 of them even. Well, sort of. Several years ago, Trenton State sought to change its name. It’s well respected as an excellent school with several exceptional programs, and it’s a top choice for many people in the region. But the name…Well if you’ve ever been to Trenton, you’d understand. And it’s located outside of Trenton anyway, on a very nice campus. The administration felt (correctly) that the name was a handicap, so it tried to change its name to the College of New Jersey. But the problem was the College of New Jersey was the original name of Princeton University, and though it did officially changed its name in 1896, it claimed that it was still using the name to some extent. So it objected to Trenton State using it. Of course, the real story was that the Princetonians were terribly afraid that someone somewhere would confuse their most selective and exclusive institution with the respectable but plebian Trenton State. They finally gave in, though, but not until after a messy and rather embarrassing fight.
Is MIT private? I always just assumed that it was a public school, since it has the state name in it. Although that would through you off for U Penn as well.
People around here seem to think that Miami U is one of the great public schools. I reserve comment.
Rutgers is one of those schools that seems highly regarded outside of the state of NJ, but locals aren’t really impressed. I suppose Princeton takes all the glory.
Overall, it’s high 2nd-tier–not first–but certain programs are nationally regarded. Like the cognitive neuroscience program in Newark, or the ag school in New Brunswick. The criminal justice program in Newark is also super. Don’t know about Ivy League charm, though. Most students are the first in their families to go to college, with most coming from working-class, blue-color households. We aren’t as elitist as people seem to think.
Georgia Tech is a great public school. Not the best, but great. You won’t get a good classical education there, but you will come out being a fantastic engineer or scientist.
The College of Agriculture and Life Science at Cornell University is a state school (the Land Grant University for New York). The agriculture/agricultural engineering programs there are excellent.
MIT is a private school and always has been. There’s no correlation between whether a college has a city or state name and whether it is public or private.
If you’re interested in Criminology, Florida State is ranked #2 in the nation, and has the oldest school of criminology in the nation. It also has the largest chapter of Lambda Alpha Epsilon/ACJA, the criminal justice/criminology-related fraternity.
[sub]Note: criminology is an area that’s difficult to find universities and colleges that specialize in it, especially ones that are good at it. My other choice when choosing colleges for this was Northeastern, which is always in the top 5 as well.[/sub]
No doubt about that. I knew as many Jersey kids during my time at WVU as I did native West Virginians. I think you’ll find the same thing at any big Mid-Atlantic university.
It’s like they’re eager to get out of NJ. Go figure.
Just wondering, are you guys talking about the Miami in Florida or in Ohio?
The one in Ohio is actually “ranked” higher.
They have little choice but to leave New Jersey. The Newark Star-Ledger did a big story on it several years back.
Basically, there are very few selective/prestigious/well-known colleges in New Jersey. There are plenty of excellent colleges and universities in New Jersey, but most of them aren’t nationally known. Princeton is (arguably) the most selective school in the nation, so very few Jersey kids can go there. Rutgers is moderately selective, but not notably prestigious. If a Jersey kid wants to go to a “name” school, a school that will impress people and open doors to jobs, what choice does he have? There’s Drew University, and that’s about it. Drew’s a great school, but there’s no “Wow!” factor in being a Drew alumnus.
So we have a huge number of people seeking to go to colleges, and no schools to service a large segment of them.
I’m not sure exactly why so many of them go to WVU, (as my sister-in-law did) but that’s the reason why highly selective schools all over the northeast are crawling with Jersey natives.