Linguistics Applicants 2012!

OP

Original post by J.tytler

Thinking about it, I'd say Linguitics + a Language at Oxford is worth considering, especially if you're looking at Cambridge.

You can after all do a masters with very little prior knowlege of Linguistics anyway, so I think I'm gonna do a Language degree then a Linguistics Masters.

Even if I decide to apply for Linguistics + foreign language courses at other universities, I think I'm going to keep Cambridge one of my choices... the papers look interesting and the way the course is structured pleases me to no end :biggrin:

Also: Oxford's website looks odd and I don't read light on dark text very well :tongue:

What languages, if you don't mind me asking?

Reply 3

J.tytler

8

Original post by prettified

Even if I decide to apply for Linguistics + foreign language courses at other universities, I think I'm going to keep Cambridge one of my choices... the papers look interesting and the way the course is structured pleases me to no end :biggrin:

Also: Oxford's website looks odd and I don't read light on dark text very well :tongue:

What languages, if you don't mind me asking?

Don't let the website put you off (I know what you mean though :L) I was there at the UNIQ Summer School 2 weeks ago, pretty nice department.

I'm thinking of Arabic and French atm... at Cambridge because I don't like the course at Oxford either tbh...

Reply 4

Hiya! I'm in the same boat as you, prettified - considered doing straight Linguistics then saw all the other shiny subjects and just got so confused. Anyway, so far I'm considering:

- Cambridge
- UCL
- SOAS

... all for straight Linguistics.

And then I have two other choices to play around with! I'm thinking of applying for another course at SOAS (Chinese and Linguistics) ... but I have no idea what to do for the 5th choice. I wanted to do something more interesting than your stock German/French/Spanish! My A-levels are English Lang/Lit, German, Classical Civilisations and Psychology - and I reeeeally want to stay in London if possible. :colondollar:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5

Pi!

14

I'm planning on applying to Leeds and Newcastle for Japanese and Linguistics and a few other places for Japanese and Spanish.

Reply 6

OP

Original post by J.tytler

Don't let the website put you off (I know what you mean though :L) I was there at the UNIQ Summer School 2 weeks ago, pretty nice department.

I'm thinking of Arabic and French atm... at Cambridge because I don't like the course at Oxford either tbh...

I looked at the Modern Language with Linguistics courses and they don't appeal to me; my only possible option would be ab initio Portuguese with Linguistics, and I'm not really... interested in Portuguese. It's a shame that they don't offer ab initio Russian with Linguistics: I would have been on that like white on rice :tongue:

Original post by Jessikat

Hiya! I'm in the same boat as you, prettified - considered doing straight Linguistics then saw all the other shiny subjects and just got so confused. Anyway, so far I'm considering:

- Cambridge
- UCL
- SOAS

... all for straight Linguistics.

And then I have two other choices to play around with! I'm thinking of applying for another course at SOAS (Chinese and Linguistics) ... but I have no idea what to do for the 5th choice. I wanted to do something more interesting than your stock German/French/Spanish! My A-levels are English Lang/Lit, German, Classical Civilisations and Psychology - and I reeeeally want to stay in London if possible. :colondollar:

My location preferences are quite possibly opposite to yours; I don't think I really want to live in London, but UCL's course sounds pretty awesome and I'd hate to waste the opportunity to study at an institution just because London terrifies me (re: rent, cost of life, etc etc) :tongue:

Original post by Pi!

I'm planning on applying to Leeds and Newcastle for Japanese and Linguistics and a few other places for Japanese and Spanish.

Japanese and Linguistics sounds so fascinating! I was looking at Edinburgh's options and there were a couple of Chinese+Linguistics and other languages + Linguistics which sounded extremely interesting and appealing. :biggrin:

Reply 7

Original post by prettified

Japanese and Linguistics sounds so fascinating! I was looking at Edinburgh's options and there were a couple of Chinese+Linguistics and other languages + Linguistics which sounded extremely interesting and appealing. :biggrin:

Within the past day or so I've had that epiphany too! Edinburgh's Chinese and Linguistics course looks amazing, and you come out of it with an MA! I think I'm getting my heart set on this course...

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Jessikat

Within the past day or so I've had that epiphany too! Edinburgh's Chinese and Linguistics course looks amazing, and you come out of it with an MA! I think I'm getting my heart set on this course...

The only problem is, the language+Linguistics courses at Edinburgh seem pretty language-oriented, and I don't know whether I could write a PS good enough for both straight Linguistics AND Japanese + Linguistics (which is the course I'm interested in). Ugh ugh CHOICES :s-smilie:

Reply 9

Original post by prettified

The only problem is, the language+Linguistics courses at Edinburgh seem pretty language-oriented, and I don't know whether I could write a PS good enough for both straight Linguistics AND Japanese + Linguistics (which is the course I'm interested in). Ugh ugh CHOICES :s-smilie:

Yeah, that's the thing. I was originally doing a straight linguistics personal statement; now I've got to try and adapt it. I'm now going to aim for something along the lines of, 'I will study any language in depth, and the linguistics of a language is one of the most important parts of it to me.' Thing is, that might not sell me enough, because I won't be closely looking at culture or history! I'm in such a rut! This is so difficult.

Especially as pure Linguistics at UCL and Cambridge are (or were!) my definite choices :frown:

Reply 10

OP

Original post by Jessikat

Yeah, that's the thing. I was originally doing a straight linguistics personal statement; now I've got to try and adapt it. I'm now going to aim for something along the lines of, 'I will study any language in depth, and the linguistics of a language is one of the most important parts of it to me.' Thing is, that might not sell me enough, because I won't be closely looking at culture or history! I'm in such a rut! This is so difficult.

Especially as pure Linguistics at UCL and Cambridge are (or were!) my definite choices :frown:

My problem is mostly that I really want to study linguistics at Cambridge or UCL, but the other straight linguistics courses at other universities do not appeal to me as much :redface:

so I'd like to apply for language degrees as well, but the personal statement is turning out to be a real pain... "I AM A GODDESS AT EVERYTHING, PLEASE GIVE ME AN OFFER :frown:

" is going to be my personal statement's introductory line, I suppose :rolleyes:

Reply 11

TurboCretin

20

Original post by prettified

The only problem is, the language+Linguistics courses at Edinburgh seem pretty language-oriented, and I don't know whether I could write a PS good enough for both straight Linguistics AND Japanese + Linguistics (which is the course I'm interested in). Ugh ugh CHOICES :s-smilie:

Original post by Jessikat

Yeah, that's the thing. I was originally doing a straight linguistics personal statement; now I've got to try and adapt it. I'm now going to aim for something along the lines of, 'I will study any language in depth, and the linguistics of a language is one of the most important parts of it to me.' Thing is, that might not sell me enough, because I won't be closely looking at culture or history! I'm in such a rut! This is so difficult.

Especially as pure Linguistics at UCL and Cambridge are (or were!) my definite choices :frown:

Just graduated from UCL with a 1st in Linguistics. If you guys want any pointers on PS stuff I'd be happy to help.

Reply 12

Original post by TurboCretin

Just graduated from UCL with a 1st in Linguistics. If you guys want any pointers on PS stuff I'd be happy to help.

Thank you! Where else did you apply? And is UCL serious when it asks for mainly maths and sciences? I'm aware the course is quite science-focused, but will they not bother with me because I'm an arts student? Oooh, and what's the outside-of-degree language tuition like? Sorry for the 20 questions - you probably shouldn't have offered :biggrin:

Reply 13

TurboCretin

20

Original post by Jessikat

Thank you! Where else did you apply? And is UCL serious when it asks for mainly maths and sciences? I'm aware the course is quite science-focused, but will they not bother with me because I'm an arts student? Oooh, and what's the outside-of-degree language tuition like? Sorry for the 20 questions - you probably shouldn't have offered :biggrin:

I only applied to UCL and Manchester because those were the only unis that did the course the way I wanted. There's a lot of variation across different courses as you're probably aware. UCL's research strength lies in theoretical linguistics, which encompasses the core elements of syntax, morphology, phonology and semantics. That's why they like science-y people I think. They just want people who aren't going to fall apart when they study a bit of logic, or have to do a bit of problem solving. However, that's not to say that you need to have done sciences or maths at A-level. If you've done English and a couple of languages I'd have thought you'd be fine as long as you did well. I'd say the course was split down the middle between sciencey and non-sciencey people.

I can't say much about the language tuition from first hand experience - I was more into logic and syntax than the more languagey aspects of the degree, weird as that sounds. However, I do know a fair number of people took language courses, and they sound pretty good. They assess you first to figure out what level you're at, and they stream you on that basis. If you're interested in pursuing language modules, it's a very common thing for people on the course to do.

If you have more questions, it's no problem. There aren't many UCL linguistics grads on here and I appreciate that it's difficult to know what you're getting into sometimes.

Reply 14

Marisa_Grace

13

Original post by prettified

My problem is mostly that I really want to study linguistics at Cambridge or UCL, but the other straight linguistics courses at other universities do not appeal to me as much :redface:

so I'd like to apply for language degrees as well, but the personal statement is turning out to be a real pain... "I AM A GODDESS AT EVERYTHING, PLEASE GIVE ME AN OFFER :frown:

" is going to be my personal statement's introductory line, I suppose :rolleyes:

Yeah that was the same for me; I liked the look of the straight linguistics course at cam but not so much for the other unis; at durham for example I applied for languages. Luckily I was successful with both; the trick is to write your personal statement in such a way that it is ambiguous as to what you're actually applying for. So what I did was say how I wanted to study 'this course' (makes it ambiguous what you're applying for), and talked in my PS about different languages I had studied. The advantage with Cam is that you have the SAQ where you can talk about why the Cam course particularly attracts you.

Also in reference to an earlier statement of yours about wanting to do ab initio russian, most unis will have a language centre where you can do this. For example, at Cambridge, you can study Russian (just language though, no culture/literature) from beginners through to advance. If I meet my offer, I'd like to do intermediate russian and beginners arabic alongside the main degree. You then get awarded certificates from the language centre for completing these.

Reply 15

OP

Original post by Marisa_Grace

Yeah that was the same for me; I liked the look of the straight linguistics course at cam but not so much for the other unis; at durham for example I applied for languages. Luckily I was successful with both; the trick is to write your personal statement in such a way that it is ambiguous as to what you're actually applying for. So what I did was say how I wanted to study 'this course' (makes it ambiguous what you're applying for), and talked in my PS about different languages I had studied. The advantage with Cam is that you have the SAQ where you can talk about why the Cam course particularly attracts you.

Also in reference to an earlier statement of yours about wanting to do ab initio russian, most unis will have a language centre where you can do this. For example, at Cambridge, you can study Russian (just language though, no culture/literature) from beginners through to advance. If I meet my offer, I'd like to do intermediate russian and beginners arabic alongside the main degree. You then get awarded certificates from the language centre for completing these.

I was in fact considering university language centres-- I don't know if I'd enjoy learning languages as a degree, because I kind of realized that I don't like being formally taught languages (my dislike of formal French lessons probably has something to do with this) and I think that I will make my application as straight-linguistics-centered as possible, I guess. I will perhaps change my mind again next week, I am so bad at making choices :frown:

Ugh, I hope that Cambridge will give me an offer, because the list of papers I saw online is absolutely amazing-- paper It. 10, about the language of Italy, for example, tickles my fancy, and the papers that can be borrowed from the classics tripos look incredible. I love that the Department is part of the MML Faculty. :colondollar:

Thanks for your post, I found it really helpful! :biggrin:

Reply 16

bumblebee17

I'm applying for English Language and Linguistics at
Bangor
York
Leeds
Queen Mary for 2012.
It seems like you guys know what your doing with your PS, really struggling with mine, they are too many reasons why I love language. I'm really interested in Forensic Linguistics, Bangor has a module in it and has really good connections with the Forensic li guistics Institute, but York only does Forensic Phonology, I know it would look better to go to York but I love Bangor, for my Postgraduate, I'm thinking of going to Cardiff University and doing a masters in Forensic Linguistics so what's best - Bangor or York? Is a high valued Univerisity that important?

Reply 17

Marisa_Grace

13

Original post by prettified

I was in fact considering university language centres-- I don't know if I'd enjoy learning languages as a degree, because I kind of realized that I don't like being formally taught languages (my dislike of formal French lessons probably has something to do with this) and I think that I will make my application as straight-linguistics-centered as possible, I guess. I will perhaps change my mind again next week, I am so bad at making choices :frown:

Ugh, I hope that Cambridge will give me an offer, because the list of papers I saw online is absolutely amazing-- paper It. 10, about the language of Italy, for example, tickles my fancy, and the papers that can be borrowed from the classics tripos look incredible. I love that the Department is part of the MML Faculty. :colondollar:

Thanks for your post, I found it really helpful! :biggrin:

Well you've got lots of time yet before you need to make final decisions. This time last year I thought I might be applying for Classics, though obviously didn't in the end, except for Manchester where I applied for Latin and Linguistics. Yeah I know what you mean about the paper choice at cam; they seem really good.

Reply 18

OP

Original post by Marisa_Grace

Well you've got lots of time yet before you need to make final decisions. This time last year I thought I might be applying for Classics, though obviously didn't in the end, except for Manchester where I applied for Latin and Linguistics. Yeah I know what you mean about the paper choice at cam; they seem really good.

Coincidence! I wanted to apply for Classics courses as well, but then I discovered linguistics and fell in love :tongue:

I still really enjoy Latin, but linguistics, oh my gosh. :colondollar:

I really need to get on this personal statement thing-- I seriously have no idea where to start...

How did results day go for you? :biggrin:

Reply 19