Yes, it IS based on specific knowledge of these schools.
You’re the exception that confirms the rule – it’s good for you but it’s not appropriate for most applicants. (There must have been something in your application that made lacking 2 or 3 levels in a core class okay : either your school didn’t offer them, or you had specific circumstances justifying this, etc.) The fact you could graduate HS without 2 levels in a foreign language is highly unusual, for instance.
Foreign Language is one of the 5 core subjects. We’re not “acting like it’s a requirement”, it IS an entrance requirement, separate from the college graduation requirement.
Because students come with different levels of preparation and because not all students want to continue the language studied in HS nor is it the most relevant to their major or career choices, there’s always a choice in college. As a result, students can either continue with a foreign language they started in HS and generally take a placement test to determine how many semesters they’ll have to take the language, or they decide to take a brand-new language. This graduation requirement assumes the student will start at the appropriate level and reach either Elementary 2 or Intermediate 1 level in the appropriate number of semesters. Typically, students with an AP score get that requirement waived, except at some highly selective universities.
Not all colleges require foreign language for graduation, but many of the most selective do and there’s always a large choice of foreign language courses, covering several European and non European languages, unlike high schools (most US high schools offer Spanish, many offer French, fewer offer German, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, depending on geographical location, ie., Oregon v. NJ, or type, ie., parochial schools typically offer Latin but very few publics do.) Foreign language graduation requirements can also vary depending on major or college within a university, ie., the Colleges of Agriculture, Engineering, Nursing… usually have different requirements than Science, Business, and Arts.
Generally, the college graduation requirement is 2 or 3 semesters, more rarely 4 (Tufts being an outlier with 6), as expressed in achievement reached rather than number of semesters taken.
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