*i *think so, the pace is extremely fast and i have absolutely no interest in language so i found it hard to concentrate on the materal. by the end of the first year (30 weeks) you are expected to literally know every tense in the spanish language (minus one that they show you but don’t test you on)</p>
<p>ridewitbd… double-majoring in LOC and econ is a popular path for pre-business types.</p>
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like i said, fast pace, and the fact that i had no interest in it. also you always get the inevitable kid who is basically fluent in spanish but somehow cheating the system and taking spanish 1. in my case, kids like this would answer all the questions in class (and i had no idea what they were saying) and the teacher assumed just because this person knew the language, everyone did, so they did not provide much help to people who were falling behind. really irritating.</p>
<p>If you got a 5 on either of the AP exams you will be fine. (I did and I was started at 201-2 in the Fall). It will take some time getting used to the pace (like just about every other class you take) but if you get a good professor (esp. Baena) you won’t have any problems with the pace or workload. If you are interested in Spanish then you’ll be fine. And even if there are fluent/native speakers in your class, you won’t be graded in comparison to them… Or at least I don’t think the kids in my class were graded in comparison to me.</p>
<p>atardecer0, you are fluent/a native speaker? If so, how do you know the kids weren’t graded in comparison to you and how can you be an objective judge of how tough the class is? Hell, if I was fluent, I’d do great in the class too! Am I missing something here?</p>
<p>I decided to take a new language (I thought it would be fun and useful) at NU. I ended up getting A’s, but it was the biggest pain of my life. There are tons of daily assignments, online activities and a quiz practically every day in class. I realized (the hard way) that I don’t find learning a language (aka memorize a lot of words and grammar rules) stimulating at all and I would rather spend my limited time in college reading interesting books and learning new ideas. </p>
<p>I had some friends in my class who just loved it though, and would do all sorts of extra assignments to improve their skills. </p>
<p>I can easily see how it could come down to motivation in the end. If you really want to learn a language, as I do, you do what it takes. If you aren’t passionate about it, it could be horrible.</p>
<p>zoomers, my mistake. I meant to say that I didn’t think ** I ** was graded in comparison to the native speakers in my class (which was about half native, half gringo). If you are in a 200-level course, you have to be at least close to fluent so it really doesn’t matter if there are native speakers in your class. If anything they’ll just help you learn more. And, for your information, I am not a native speaker.</p>
<p>zoomers- I did French in high school (got a 4 on the AP test, so I was decent but not great) and then switched to Spanish. You would think that they would be similar but I don’t think my prior French knowledge helped me at all for Spanish. I still had to do all the assignments and most of the vocab words were nothing like French words.<br>
And I really like the idea of spanish, because it’s so useful. But honestly, I would rather take a philosophy course that makes me think instead of becoming a memorization robot (ok- that takes it a little too far, but you get the picture.)
I had one friend though, who took 2 language classes at once (HALF her schedule one quarter), and she was really sad when she had to give one up so that she could get started on distros and her major requirements.</p>
<p>Goodness. What a treasure trove of Northwestern experience! Is it advisable or even possible to take two brand new foreign languages? I really want to learn Russian, but I also feel I should take Chinese for future business potential. Is that outlandish? Also, I have to graduate in three years, and I have enough AP credits to place out of almost a full year, is it possible to work the extra 3 or 4 “credits” or “units” or whatever into my schedule and not overload myself?</p>
<p>You have to graduate in three years? What’s the rush man? </p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing about language, almost exactly. I kind of want to learn Russian, but I definitely want to learn Japanese. Two completely different languages for a mediocre language student might kill me though…</p>
<p>I’m a little unclear as to Northwestern’s policy on that. So some extra classes don’t charge more, but some classes, namely ones that will speed graduation, do?</p>
<p>Well either way you’d save money on housing by graduating faster. But if you can’t afford 4 years, wouldn’t fin. aid potentially cover that 4th year?</p>
<p>idk if you know this, but NU does offer good aid. i dont see the point in graduating early at all unless you want to speed up grad school. you wont get the same job opportunities as a 4 year student. you will not have accomplished nearly enough. i dont think you can graduate in 3 years at NU without some sort of tuition hike and working yourself to death. this isnt a state school where you can come in as a second semester sophomore. only 2 out of the 12 distro requirements can be fulfilled plus all of your major classes. idk but I would think math is the only one a hs student could get ahead on b/c it is the same material if taken advanced classes in community college. i believe you need 45 credits to graduate from NU.</p>
<p>That’s how I understand it. For example, I don’t think I’ll be charged extra tuition for dance technique classes (which I’m planning on taking for fun) because they’re not required and aren’t going to help me graduate any faster. But if I were adding on all these extra classes that I would have plenty of time to take as a senior… that would probably count. I hope that made sense.</p>
<p>In any case, you’d only save like 10k from the last year of housing. And not to mention, 5 classes a quarter is pretty killer, especially when you’re coming to upper divs.</p>
<p>It’s going to be a chore to pay for 3 years even with the financial aide. However, based on what I’ve heard, I may rethink going there at all. If I go to an admissions counselor and explain my situation, do you think they’d be able to help at all or would they say the same things that have been said here more or less?</p>
<p>I’d definitely recommend that you talk to an official admissions person. You may get the same message as on the board, but a lot of this is supposition. I’d want to get the facts before I discounted NU altogether.</p>