Best Colleges for Linguistics

When you tell people that you are studying linguistics in college, they will mistakenly assume that you are a walking Rosetta Stone or a pair of United Nations headphones that has assumed human form. While some teens studying linguistics are speakers of more than one tongue, the field itself is more about the scientific study of language. You’ll study topics like language acquisition, the structure of language, and the sometimes hidden ways in which language influences human interactions. The vast majority of our Best Colleges for Linguistics are prestigious liberal arts schools like Swarthmore and Macalester or elite universities like Georgetown and Northwestern. Sharpening skills such as critical thinking, communication skills, and analytical processes can make graduates very marketable. Common careers pursued by linguistics majors include: translator, technical writer, editor, speech therapist, speech writer, librarian, and attorney.

Click the links below for more information about each college’s linguistics program. Click here to read our methodology.

Brandeis University

Brown University

Carleton College

Carnegie Mellon University

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

Duke University

Emory University

Georgetown University

Harvard University

Indiana University

Macalester College

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

New York University

Northwestern University

Ohio State University

Pomona College

Princeton University

Reed College

Rice University

Stanford University

Swarthmore College

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, San Diego

University of California, Santa Cruz

University of Chicago

University of Delaware

University of Maryland

University of Michigan

University of Pennsylvania

University of Texas at Austin

University of Wisconsin – Madison

Washington University

Yale University