I am currently a social Sophomore , but I will be graduating at the end of the next academic year. In other words, I will be graduating one year early. I am hoping to apply to graduate school for US History with a focus on the moderm era/20th century. I know that most graduate schools require PhD students in history to prove translating proficiency in at least one, sometimes two, foreign languages. In order to prepare for this, I am taking French courses as an undergrad. I started last semster and got an A-, but it is going to be nearly impossible for me to maintain that in the current semester. The language courses here focus heavily on oral comprehension/speaking, which is something I am not great at and will never have to do in graduate school. I have consistently gotten As in all of my major specific courses, with a couple of A minuses, and my GPA is currently a 3.94. Would it be problematic for me to take French pass/fail for the next three semesters so that I can get prepared for the proficiency exam without taking a serious hit to my GPA. I was concerned that French being a 4 credit class as opposed to a 3 credit class might make taking it pass/fail more problematic. Will I be able to get into graduate schools for US history after taking three semesters of French pass/fail, amounting to a total of 12 credit hours?
I apologize that I do not know the answer to your question. However, there is one alternative that you might want to consider.
To me the key to learning a foreign language is to use it. You might want to watch TV shows and movies in French. There are at least a few of these on Netflix if you are a member. Find other students who are willing to get together once or twice a week and have a “déjeuner français” (French lunch) where you just speak French for the entire meal. There are also very good and reasonably priced French immersion courses that you could take over the summer in Canada (and presumably also in France, although these might cost more). 5 weeks speaking and hearing nothing but French 24/7 for the full 5 weeks can make quite a difference to one’s ability to understand and speak relatively competently in normal conversation.
The short answer is that a few Passes on a transcript is no big deal. They probably won’t even notice as they’ll be much more focused on your major coursework and grades. That being said, a few B’s in French ain’t gonna hurt your Admissions chances one bit. A 3.95 is not gonna be Auto-Admit over a 3.85.
Beyond the transcript, research will be paramount. Can you get some publications/research experience within the next year?
Thank you for your comment. I have submitted a few publications to a number of journals and am waiting to hear back. I am also doing some funded indpendent study research over this upcoming summer that I will submit for publication when complete.