college's requirement for foreign language

momrath
Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:28:08 +0000

There are two sides to this coin: what you need to get in and what you need to graduate once you matriculate.

Colleges vary widely in admissions. Many RECOMMEND three years of the same language. We were told by the admissions rep one very selective ivy that most of their top applicants have four years and fluency. Bear in mind, however, that this is a recommendation, not a strict requirement.

If you decide not to do three years of the same language then you must have a good reason for it. A good reason could be scheduling conflict or precedence given to other special interests. If you drop the language it should be because you want to do something else that will have a positive impact on your application, not because you just don’t like language. In other words, don’t drop language in order to have a lighter schedule. For my son, because of circumstances, it made sense to take two years of two languages and this didn’t seem to have much bearing on his eventual acceptance.

Once you’re admitted you need to look at the school’s language proficiency requirements. Some schools have none. Some require that you take a test to determine your proficiency. Or they may use your SATII or AP score as the determining factor. If it is determined that you are not proficient enough you may be facing one or even two years of college level language. For the language adverse, this can be very challenging, so depending on what colleges you are interested in, you may be better off gaining proficiency in high school rather than delaying until college.