It was winter quarter 2020, and I was rethinking my four-year plan. What decided it for me was an email from a TA: he wrote several paragraphs about why I should only analyze philosophers “in the context of their own present.” His whole essay started with the exact words “At the expense of being loquacious,” so I knew right away that political science wasn’t right for me. That’s how I found myself searching for a new major a week before spring course selection.
I stopped my search at Linguistics. What even is linguistics? I asked myself. I watched a crash course video that left me with more questions. Phonology, syntax, semantics… they made up all of these words just to study other words?
But I was hooked. The department listed several combined majors (not to be confused with double majors), including Linguistics and Anthropology (the store?), Linguistics and Philosophy (Poli-Sci made me hate Aristotle) and Linguistics and Computer Science (… wait, this one might be interesting). I had never considered going into computer science before then, but suddenly it became an option: I could get a degree in computer science without the pain of transferring into the School of Engineering. A quick scroll through the requirements told me my future: I would take 8 classes each in computer science and linguistics with some math and foreign language sprinkled in between. It was nothing like the Computer Science and Engineering major that required a bunch of math, physics and electrical engineering classes I had no interest in. If I transferred into Ling and CS, I could study computer science while remaining a humanities major at my core.
No matter my major title, I still share the same lecture halls, grading curves and nightmares about misplaced semicolons as CS and Engineering majors.
Of course, Ling and CS isn’t a free ride to a CS degree. I still had to take classes with shining BruinWalk reviews such as: “Step 1: Don’t take the class” and “If I had known about Eggert before coming to UCLA, I wouldn’t have come to UCLA” (both CS35L). Another fun requirement was CS33. Before taking that midterm I cried all the way to Westwood Target and used their bathroom hand dryer on my drenched hair (it was raining the whole walk down). No matter my major title, I still share the same lecture halls, grading curves and nightmares about misplaced semicolons as CS and Engineering majors.
Despite the efforts and achievements of Linguistics and Computer Science students, some people disparage the major as not being “Real CS.” Like many STEM disciplines, computer science is notorious for being difficult. In some eyes, the lower number of STEM requirements in Ling and CS (and other combined CS majors in the College of Letters and Sciences) disqualify it from being a true computer science program. But the idea that STEM programs must entail overwhelming hardship and a lack of work-life balance is outdated and oftentimes born out of elitism. Even the stereotype of a computer science nerd with poor hygiene and nonexistent social skills was constructed out of sexist historical misinformation. If you add all this to the existing divide between North and South Campus majors, it’s no wonder that a combined humanities and STEM major is a hard pill to swallow. But that doesn’t take away from the value of my degree and the effort I put into obtaining it.
When I transferred into Linguistics and Computer Science, I knew I’d stumbled on a gold mine.
Even with the perceived stigma, I never regret my major. Studying linguistics opens up opportunities in research and academia that would otherwise be foreign to me. Understanding computational linguistics is an even bigger draw: my classes highlight niche programming specializations like natural language processing and speech recognition that go into developing tools like Siri and Alexa. Apart from CS, linguistics is a fascinating field with applications to art, medicine and much more. Also, because of the major’s lower unit requirement, I have the time to fully immerse myself in each of my classes and pursue outside interests. Altogether, the benefits of the major outweigh any misguided judgment it might receive.
When I transferred into Linguistics and Computer Science, I knew I’d stumbled on a gold mine. The major is growing more popular every year, and as I move into upper-level linguistics courses I am meeting more peers who share my interests and career goals. As I head towards graduation, my only regret is not joining sooner.