<p>My son is an honor roll student, with exceptional gifts in the Spanish language.
He was recenty lawarded his HS’s highest language award as a sophomore.
My question is; what does he need to gain admissions to Williams using his language skills?
Can these skills help him through admissions?
We are gearing up foreign exposure this year, but don’t know what he’ll need to differentiate himself from his peers.</p>
<p>Thanks;
RB</p>
<p>Skibum… to be honest, when I was at Williams, very very very few people majored in Romance languages. People definitely took Spanish-- but mainly for educational enrichment. However, Williams has begun a Latino Studies program recently, and has been attracting increasing numbers of hispanic students.</p>
<p>Is Spanish his primary academic interest?</p>
<p>Finally someone else (potentially) from the Class of 2011!:)</p>
<p>I’m an intl with relatively good English, and the one thing I had to make myself stand out was competitive Scrabble. I know, I know, competitive scrabble sound stupid and all, but I became the best high school player in my country, and was nomionated to represent my country in Australia, within a year of starting so it must have been impressive(probably akin to winning the spelling bee, albeit on a smaller scale). </p>
<p>For a person with gifts in Spanish i’d suggest things like joining essay writing competitions, perhaps speech & drama in spanish, tutoring/mentoring other students in Spanish. They’re nothing special individually, but put them together and they show commitment, which is truly something special in this day and age where many high school students are committed to nothing but filling their applications with fluff and pomp.</p>
<p>rskibum: My daughter (Williams 2010!) is also a serious language student. Has your son thought about branching out and adding another language/languages to his repertoire? If he enjoys Spanish and it comes easily to him, the same may be true of other languages. Multi-language proficiency would likely get the attention of his application readers.</p>
<p>mikey: don’t want to take this off-topic, but any advice for incoming students very interested in Spanish, e.g. how to find the best the dept. has to offer? Feel free to PM me!</p>
<p>Hi Basil and company,</p>
<p>My interests were primarily in quantitative studies, and the last foreign language class that I took was in 10th grade! From looking at the registrar’s home page, it appears that enrollment in Spanish has grown since I graduated a few years ago. This could be the result of a sizeable increase in the Latino population coupled with the addition of a Latino Studies Dept. My personal opinion (please feel free to discard it) is that foreign languages are an excellent supplement to a Williams education. I would advise someone NOT to major ONLY in Spanish (for example). If you match a foreign language with another subject (say a double major in Economics and Chinese), I think you’ll find that graduation will bring a wealth of opportunities.</p>
<p>I have heard wonderful things about the Asian languages at Williams. Many more people seem to enroll in Chinese, Japanese than in French/Spanish.</p>
<p>Asian language programs are great!!! I am learning Chinese right now, and the professors and the department overall are phenomenal.</p>
<p>Mikey and Basil and sixsixty and Hope;
I agree with all your assesements. You’ve opened up new avenues for us to pursue.
How about a dual major in Spanish and pre-law, or economics.
The an international law degree?
Does anyone know of colleges that specialize in talented language students?
Thanks!
rb</p>
<p>Middlebury and Dartmouth both have wide-ranging and excellent language departments.</p>
<p>Williams also offers an Asian study major, which includes one of asian languages plus political/economical/cultural studies of Asia. I am very sure this will go very well with Pre-business or pre-law curriculums.</p>
<p>Thank you hopemanjkjk;
It appears Williams has multiple offerings for talented language students, as does Middlebury and Dartmouth, with thanks to basil for this info.
Latino Studies, Asian studies…I’ll dig deeper into this.
Thanks!</p>
<p>rskibum,I think it helps to strategize against the grain. Williams is not particularly known for strength in language. Especially in romance languages there are colleges with stronger departments. </p>
<p>Now we know that Williams HATES weakness in any area and therefore it would seem to me that attracting kids with advanced language skills and a commitment to continue in the area who would contribute to beefing up the language departments would be a priority, especially with the focus on latino studies and recruitment. </p>
<p>Many, many kids at Williams have dual majors. Spanish could fit with just about any other discipline depending on the students interest e.g., political science, art history, economics, other languages or even the sciences.</p>
<p>I think your son as a sibling of a current Williams student (by the way, congratulations! :)) has a good chance admissions, especially if he expands his Spanish focus to include another area of interest and thus characterizes himself as a multi-dimensional applicant. What he does with the language is as important as facility with the language per se.</p>
<p>Thanks Momrath for the congrats!
You have an interesting take on the Williams language depts I never even considered.</p>
<p>I’ll PM you with more.
rb</p>