Three small liberal arts colleges in Pennsylvania -- Swathmore College, Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College -- work cooperatively to form the Tri-College Consortium. According to "Find the Best," a website that combines published college rankings and other statistics to calculate a "smart rank" for college programs, all three of these colleges rank among the top 30 linguistics programs in the U.S. Swathmore College is especially highly ranked at No. 4, and Haverford and Bryn Mawr placed 15th and 29th, respectively. All of these colleges have undergrad populations of fewer than 1,600 students, but due to the connection to the other nearby colleges, students have access to a wider array of courses, faculty and facilities than would otherwise be available.
Scripps College is also part of a college consortium -- the Claremont University Consortium of seven independent Southern California colleges. "Find the Best" ranks Scripps 27th among linguistics programs in the United States. Although Scripps is a small women's college of fewer than 1,000 undergrads, it works with consortium members Pitzer College and Pomona College to create its dynamic program. In addition to a traditional linguistics program, students may choose a cognitive science track that studies languages from the perspectives of psychology and neuroscience.
Ranked 23d among linguistics programs by "Find the Best," Barnard college is a small women's college of about 2,500 undergrads in New York City with ties to the much larger Columbia University. Because linguistics is not a standard major at Barnard, students must apply to complete a special major in linguistics in addition to another major, such as English or a foreign language. Students then have access to courses at either college, including those that are part of Columbia's well-respected program in Slavic languages.
"Find the Best" ranks Carelton college's linguistics program 18th. With approximately 2,000 undergrads on campus, Carleton claims to produce linguists with "enhanced versatility, intellectual bravery, and an appreciation of the value of rigor." Housed in the Goodsell Observatory, constructed in 1887, the program's students and faculty focus on discovering how language abilities arise in the human being and how those abilities affect human society. Students in the program have the opportunity to study in Kyoto, Japan, through the Linguistics and Culture in Japan program.