Does anyone know what the Arabic program is like at Dartmouth, and are there any other comparable schools I should look at that have better programs? Thank you!
Depending on what you want to do with Arabic, you may want to look into one of the Arabic Language Flagship schools: https://thelanguageflagship.org/content/arabic
Dartmouth is a relatively small school to begin with, and Arabic is not usually a popular major, so the program may be very small. College Navigator shows 1 bachelor’s degree in Arabic issued during the 2016-17 academic year.
For comparison, Maryland (one of the “Flagship” programs referenced in the previous post) issued 18 bachelor’s degrees in Arabic.
St Andrews, Scotland
@Corbett Do you think that majoring in Arabic would help or hurt me as an applicant at Dartmouth? It is pretty apparent in my application that Arabic is what I want to pursue because of my personal statement, extra-curriculars etc… dealing with Arabic
It will make no difference - Dartmouth does not admit by major.
If you are a strong applicant otherwise, then a demonstrated passion for Arabic might help you stand out from other qualified applicants. It would be something unusual, especially if you are not of Middle Eastern descent.
On the other hand, If you are not a strong applicant (i.e. weak GPA or test scores by Dartmouth standards), then I doubt that a passion for Arabic would compensate. Schools like Dartmouth don’t typically have a set admissions quota for each major; in fact, Dartmouth won’t even allow you to officially declare a major until you are a sophomore.
It is a small but very good program, my nephew does it
@oscar63 When I visited, they mentioned something called the Rassias Method for language learning that was developed there. It is supposedly great, but I don’t know how it compares to say Middlebury’s Program and others.
mmm, not sure
The Rassias method was developed by a Dartmouth professor, but I do not believe that it is used by any of the language departments at this point. although the Rassias Center itself is still a thing (http://rassias.dartmouth.edu). I could be wrong, but I recall reading that traditionalists were against it, and a couple of adherents were denied tenure (many years ago), so I would be very surprised if it is part of the core curriculum at this point.
The one thing I would ask about in trying to choose between schools (assuming you are admitted) is the range of course offerings. From previous answers, Arabic appears to be a small department. That was true of my daughter’s major (Classics) as well, and it was sometimes a struggle to get a desired class offered. I believe there was a required minimum of 6 students, so some horse trading had to go on sometimes (I’ll take X with you if you agree to take Y) among the majors.