Once upon a time I was interested in theoretical physics, mathematics, and computers. So when I started uni back in 1988 I studied physics at the University of Toronto and I scraped by with a BSc in 1993. At the same time, I got a BA in logic and a year later I finished the requirements for a major in mathematics. By then I knew that physics wasn't for me. Instead of going to grad school, I puttered around, programming computers and doing related jobs, including tech support, repair, and copy editing. Sadly, i never did get the big bucks.
So why linguistics? That's pretty far from physics, you say... maybe, But not from logic. I was always intrigued by the difference between formal and natural languages. off I went to study linguistics at the University of Toronto as a mature student. From there I went to Calgary where I got my Master's Degree in liguistics at the university of calgary. From Calgary I came here to UMass. I've gotta say, time is just flying by. I've now been at Umass longer than any other linguistics department. I studied physics and math for six years and now I've been doing linguistics now for eight years. Too weird!
I can't say enough good things about the departments in Toronto and calgary. undergraduate linguistics at Toronto is excellent. I couldn't have asked for better grounding in generative Linguistics. The same goes for Calgary, where I learned much semantics from Hotze Rullmann and syntax from Martha McGinnis and Elizabeth Ritter.