Re: A bit of advice re University and such is requested

J Matthew Pearson wrote:
>
> Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> > So my main question is: What applications of a B.A. in Linguistics are
> > there, career wise? My ultimate goal would probably be a professorship,
> > however likely that may or may not be, but what can I do with a B.A. and
> > a Masters degree in the Interim. I don't want to get a degree in
> > Linguistics if I wouldn't enjoy any of the careers I can get with it,
> > although in a land without consequences I'd take Linguistics in a
> > second.
>
> Speaking as someone who's just finishing up his PhD in Linguistic Theory, I
> should report that the job situation right now for linguistics
> professorships is extremely bleak.  We're talking a placement rate of
> perhaps 5% (I'm just pulling numbers out of the air, but that's my
> impression).  Things could very well have changed by the time you finish
> your PhD, but it's something to keep in mind.
>
Oi, woah is me. But I like linguistics. How bout I get the PhD, and see
how things go from there...

> That said, I definitely think you should take linguistics courses in college
> if you have the opportunity.  Not only is it inherently interesting, but the
> concepts and methodologies you would learn have applications to a wide
> variety of fields.  People with BAs in linguistics have gone on to get good
> jobs and advanced degrees in a wide variety of fields (software companies
> and law schools especially seem to be very interested in people with a
> linguistics background).  One option you should seriously consider is
> double-majoring in linguistics and some other related field that you love
> (say, computer science):  My impression is that, while there are very few
> academic jobs out there for people who just do linguistics (like me), there
> are lots of other jobs out there (both academic and private-sector) for
> people who do linguistics-plus-something-else.
The Ling & Something else courses that interest me at UToronto are Ling
& German, and Ling & Comp.Sci. However, and I've said it before, the
Ling & Comp.Sci. combo doesn't interest me as much as it should, seeing
as I'm interested in the two areas on their own.

> As for schools, I think that U Texas is an excellent place to get an
> undergrad degree in linguistics.  But if, later on, you choose to pursue an
> academic career in linguistics, it's important that you get into one of the
> very top schools in the country to even have a fighting chance at a job in
> academia.  I can recommend UCLA (my department), as well as UPenn, Stanford,
> and MIT.  MIT gets a bad rap from the anti-Chomskyans on this list, but the
> fact is that it's a damn good school, with an outstanding faculty, good
> financial support, a novel approach to teaching, and *by far* the highest
> job-placement record of any theoretical linguistics program.  (Of the 7 or 8
> tenure-track jobs in syntax that I've applied for over the last two years,
> at least 6 went either to MIT grads or to people who had done postgraduate
> work at MIT.)
>
Again, I should clarify that I meant University of Toronto, not Texas. I
should have been clearer about that in my original post. Would it matter
if I got my B.A. in Canada to apply to a top school in the US for grad
school?

With all these good things I'm hearing about U of Texas, I might just
have to look into it.

> Having given you all that hard-nosed advice, though, I should repeat what
> other people have said, which is that you'll have plenty of time to decide
> what you want to do, so don't worry about it too much at this stage.  Just
> worry about deciding what you really love to do.  If you *do* decide to
> pursue a career in linguistics, getting a BA from U Texas is a great way to
> start--but who knows?  You could decide to go in a completely different
> direction in two years...
That's true, I'm not commiting to anything yet, but it can't heart to
know as much as I can so I can make the right decision when it comes
time.

--
Robert