Curriculum

Courses at MIT

Most courses at MIT in the departments of brain and cognitive science and linguistics and philosophy can count towards the cognitive and linguistic sciences major. You should, however, consult the Director of the major to determine if course credit can be transferred from MIT. A student may not receive credit for the same course taken at both MIT and Wellesley College.

Students going away junior year should consult with the Director about approval for courses taken at other institutions.

 

Data Science Major with Linguistic Concentration

A concentration in Linguistics should include LING 114, one course in Formal Systems (LING 240 or 244), and one additional 200- or 300-level elective from the provided list of approved classes (see below). PSYC 105 would count as the introductory statistics course, rather than part of the concentration. It is also possible for students to pursue Data Science with a Concentration in another subfield of linguistics, such as Psycholinguistics or Corpus Linguistics; students interested in this route should consult with Prof. Kim (for Psycholinguistics) or Prof. Lee (for Corpus Linguistics) to clarify the appropriate expectations and requirements.

 

To fulfill the required three electives, one of which must be in CS, we suggest CS 232, 234, 305, or 315 given their relevance to linguistic data analysis. The suggested STAT course to fulfill this requirement is STAT 318. If there are other courses of interest, please consult your advisors.

 

Courses in Italic are the required foundational courses for Data Science.

Courses in bold are the required three electives for Data Science, at least one of which must be STAT, and at least one of which must be CS.

 

Data Science with a Concentration in Linguistics

(MATH 115 Calculus I)

CS 111 Intro to Programming

 

(MATH 115 Calculus II)

LING 114 Intro to Linguistics

 

MATH 205 Multivariable Calculus

 

PSYC 105 Statistics

LING course in Formal Systems (LING 240 or 244, depending on offering)

 

STAT 260 Applied Data Analysis

CS 230 Data Structures

MATH 206 Linear Algebra

 

CS 305 Machine Learning

or

CS 234 Data, Analytics, and Visualization

 

STAT 318 Regression and Statistical Models

CS 232 Artificial Intelligence

or

CS 315 Data and Text Mining for the Web

 

Experiential Capstone: QAI internship focused on linguistic analysis, research assistantship with CLSC faculty via CLSC 250 (consult Prof. Carpenter or Fisher for ongoing research within the CLSC program), an Independent Study project via LING 350, or a senior thesis (CLSC 360/370).

 

The following is the approved list of courses for the Linguistics concentration. The courses were selected because of their emphasis on understanding and interpreting linguistic data. Note that LING 114 and one other 200-level course is a prerequisite for most 300-level courses.

 

LING 238       Sociolinguistics (offered in Fall)

LING 246       Digital Language: Corpus Linguistics (offered every other year in Spring)

LING 248      Introduction to Historical Linguistics (offered every other year in Fall)

LING 312       Bilingualism: Language, Mind & Culture (offered every other year usually in Spring)

LING 315       Invented Languages: Wilkins to Navi (Fall)

LING 338      African American English (Spring)

CLSC 300      Topics in Cognitive & Linguistic Science (Spring)