How does Yale’s Arabic language/culture program stack up to flagship powerhouses like Columbia, Harvard, Gtown, Hopkins, Penn. Etc? Would I be better off at a school like Georgetown for this?
Arabic would not be what immediately pops into my mind when I think of Yale, nor is Yale the first uni that comes to mind when I think of Arabic. See:
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/03/26/nelc-department-in-dire-straits/
Thanks for posting this @skieurope. Kind of shocking - my son’s first choice is Yale, in part because of his interest in studying the Near East and the fact that Yale has the nation’s oldest department in that area. We kind of assumed that age equated with quality. Apparently not. This kind of throws a monkey wrench in his plan to apply SCEA to Yale this year. Kind of a dilemma if he loves the university but his projected area of study is in such disarray.
@baltimoreguy exactly!! I was more or less turned off by reading that article. It was disappointing to get a sense of such dysfunction in Yale’s program. I still love the school and will apply…but this is a big con.
“Yale vs. Arabic Flagship Programs” “How does Yale’s Arabic language/culture program stack up to flagship powerhouses like Columbia, Harvard, Gtown, Hopkins, Penn. Etc?”
OP, though the schools you listed have good programs in Arabic, they are not what is known as Arabic Flagship Programs. http://www.thelanguageflagship.org/content/arabic
However, they are designated National Resource Centers for Middle Eastern language and area studies (along with NYU, Princeton, Arizona, Berkeley, UCLA, Chicago, Ohio State, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Utah, and U Washington).