Speaking as the director of a new professional MA program in computational linguistics
at the University of Washington, I'd say the answer depends on what you plan to do next, and what specific computational linguistics courses are available there at MIT.
Successful computational linguists have strong programming skills, a deep understanding of algorithms and/or systems architecture, and a linguist's perspective on language, linguistic patterns and linguistic structures. An understanding of machine learning and the probabilistic
methods typically employed there is important, too.
I think the best preparation you can get as an undergraduate to go into this field is a double major in computer science and linguistics, where you choose any offerings available in computational linguistics as elective courses. You might also investigate the offerings of your local library/information school as a source of possible electives (think information retrieval).
Likewise, if speech processing interests you, check out offerings in signal processing in the EE department, and be sure to take the prerequisite statistics courses. If a double major is not feasible, I think majoring in one field and minoring in the other would be a suitable alternative. Designing a custom major only makes sense if you can identify required courses in one major or the other as clearly not useful to you --- which is really only something you can do in consultation with an advisor.
What I doubt you'll find at the undergraduate level (and indeed at the graduate level
at most universities) is in-depth courses specifically investigating computational linguistics.
I'd encourage you to take whatever courses are available (including graduate courses once you
have sufficient background), but you'll probably find that a career in computational linguistics
requires further training, either a graduate degree or on-the-job training.
If you plan to go on for a graduate degree, there should be plenty of time to do the in-depth courses then. Your undergraduate degree should serve to give you the foundation you
need on both sides to go on in this interdisciplinary field, while giving you enough of a taste of
the intersection to be sure it's what you want to do!
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking as the director of a new professional MA program in computational linguistics at the University of Washington, I'd say the answer depends on what you plan to do next, and what specific computational linguistics courses are available there at MIT.
Successful computational linguists have strong programming skills, a deep understanding of algorithms and/or systems architecture, and a linguist's perspective on language, linguistic patterns and linguistic structures. An understanding of machine learning and the probabilistic methods typically employed there is important, too.
I think the best preparation you can get as an undergraduate to go into this field is a double major in computer science and linguistics, where you choose any offerings available in computational linguistics as elective courses. You might also investigate the offerings of your local library/information school as a source of possible electives (think information retrieval). Likewise, if speech processing interests you, check out offerings in signal processing in the EE department, and be sure to take the prerequisite statistics courses. If a double major is not feasible, I think majoring in one field and minoring in the other would be a suitable alternative. Designing a custom major only makes sense if you can identify required courses in one major or the other as clearly not useful to you --- which is really only something you can do in consultation with an advisor.
What I doubt you'll find at the undergraduate level (and indeed at the graduate level at most universities) is in-depth courses specifically investigating computational linguistics. I'd encourage you to take whatever courses are available (including graduate courses once you have sufficient background), but you'll probably find that a career in computational linguistics requires further training, either a graduate degree or on-the-job training.
If you plan to go on for a graduate degree, there should be plenty of time to do the in-depth courses then. Your undergraduate degree should serve to give you the foundation you need on both sides to go on in this interdisciplinary field, while giving you enough of a taste of the intersection to be sure it's what you want to do!