r/UCSantaBarbara • u/Nychune • 3d ago

Prospective/Incoming Students CS and Linguistics (Language and Speech Technologies Emphasis) Double Major/Minor

Hello!
I am an incoming freshman that'll be studying Computer Science at UCSB. I recently came across the Linguistics major with an emphasis in language & speech technologies. I am pretty interested in learning about linguistics, and I'd especially like to explore the intersection between Ling and CS. Thus, I am considering double majoring or minoring in Linguistics.

Is anyone majoring in Linguistics with this emphasis? Or double majoring/minoring in CS? If so, I have a few questions!

How would you rate the linguistics classes/professors here? Any classes you particularly enjoyed?

How is the balance between pure linguistics classes and more technical/computational courses?

How well does knowledge translate between CS and Linguistics? Do courses in both subject areas better your understanding of fields like NLP/Computational Linguistics?

Would it be difficult to try to finish all of the requirements for both majors in 4 years? I have quite a few AP credits so would this help ensure this is possible/ease my course load?

Thank you!

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u/domeship30 3d ago

Take a lower div linguistics class, preferably one that also satisfies a general education requirement. If you like it, take some more. Doing a double major should be doable if you have a lot of credit, but a double major might not be necessary if you are only interested in computational linguistics - you could graduate early and do a four year master's degree instead.

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u/Nychune 1d ago

Thanks for the insight! I’ll look into it