Hi, I’m a junior and will likely be a Questbridge candidate for this coming year. Since I’m fairly close geographically, I was able to visit Vanderbilt, UChicago, and Northwestern. I’m confident that if I get into the National College Match (I expect I will but obviously there’s no guarantee) these three will be among my choices. For the remaining five, are there any Questbridge partner schools that excel in foreign languages? I’ve done some searches online but no lists seem to provide concrete reasons for their rather arbitrary rankings.
“Foreign languages” is extremely vague. About two dozen languages are offered fairly regularly among colleges in the US, and a few dozen more are offered at certain colleges. It would be helpful to know which languages you’re interested in, keeping in mind that you won’t have time to develop proficiency in more than two or three.
You’ll have a lot more flexiblity in picking a college if you’re interested in commonly offered languages (Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, etc.) than for languages like Indonesian or Wolof. You’ll generally find more language offerings at larger colleges. Universities like Wisconsin and UCLA offer up to a hundred languages or more, for example, compared to about a dozen languages at liberal arts colleges like Middlebury and Williams.
Middlebury is an obvious answer - it’s pretty much the standard-bearer for foreign language learning and teaching.
So, do you want to study one or two languages in dept or study one less commonly taught language (Urdu, Wolof, etc)?
I am a QuestBridge College Prep Scholar and a National College Match Finalist entering my first year at the University of Chicago, and as a word of advice, you really need to change your mentality about QuestBridge, and even the college process as a whole. QuestBridge is one of the most selective programs in the country. 13,000+ applied for the match last year, around 4,000 became finalists, and of those, only 440 people were actually matched to an institution. Your “confidence” comes off as petulant, and college admissions committees despise that kind of attitude. Nothing entitles you, or anyone else, to anything in this process. Look at it as a lottery, because that’s what it basically is. Give it your all, but maintain your humility. I am yet to meet any QuestBridge applicant who did not remain humble and grounded to reality, and I’ve met applicants from all over the country. I suggest you do the same if you wish your prospects to be successful.