<p>"Has anyone heard of Barnard having a good language program? "</p>
<p>Actually yes, i’ve heard that the romance languages are quite strong there, for one.</p>
<p>Regarding Japanese, once when I was in their bookstore the checkout person was reading an oriental language instruction book, and, since my D1 was in China at the time, I inquired about it. It turned out she was taking Japanese there, through upper level I believe, and she was very happy with the instruction she’d received. I don’t know whether the courses were technically at Barnard or Columbia or both, though it hardly matters there.</p>
I’ve just read that recently (although the news may not have been recent). That is quite exciting (for me, anyways) :P</p>
<p>^ That sounds great! One of my good senior friends is going there and she really wants me to go to Barnard.</p>
<p>From my understanding, Barnard is a college of Columbia… separate schools, but some classes are the same… and you get a Columbia degree when you graduate from Barnard.</p>
<p>Barnard is a separate institution, technically/actually, which is a Columbia “affiliate”, the exact meaning and implications of which are the source of some confusion and controversy. There is a high degree of cross-enrollment in courses and activities between the institutions, and their students share the same neighborhood and community. Barnard students on average take 30% of their courses at Columbia.</p>
<p>You might look at Georgetown for German. Do a college board site search and see what colleges offer German. Then go to the college sites and see how deep their departments are (how many full time faculty, how many courses and levels are offered).</p>
<p>I’m really pleased to see that Indiana University - Bloomington has been placed in the ranks of Yale and Cornell (in regards to foreign language). I can tell you that a very small number of colleges can match the expanse and organization of IUB’s study abroad programs. In fact, IUB has been meet with so much success in this area, that they offer programs to in state high school students as well. I have five friends who studied abroad last summer through IU as juniors in high school. All five came back perfectly fluent.</p>
<p>If you wish to pursue language, IUB is a fantastic place to be. (Awesome campus too!)</p>
<p>The truth: Languages can be learned at most colleges and universities. Larger faculty and greater course offerings at larger schools do not always mean a student will receive more personal interaction. The suggestion that McGill works for French also points to the need to understand “context” when choosing a school. For instance, if I wished to pursue German, near the top of my list would be a relatively unknown school in Indiana called Valparaiso University. This school is Lutheran–church related–at has a built in “context” of German Lutheranism. While most colleges have merely a “floor” in a dorm deemed a language “house”, Valparaiso boasts an entire dormitory (Kade-Duesenberg) for German language students. The faculty is small (3), but they hold PhD’s from Princeton, Wisconsin-Madison, and Minnesota. Students as early as their Freshman year are assigned to help teach German in the local elementary school. Study abroad programs abound. I remember years ago when the University of Pittsburgh did not possess the strong reputation it now enjoys (btw, Pitt PhD’s teach at Middlebury), and yet its Philosophy department surpassed the Ivies. Every student must do the diligence to “find” the departments rather than the school. Some schools without the national ego may still have a stellar department. In the end, there will always be a trade off between the small LAC with personal interaction but smaller offerings and the universities with larger faculties who know their students by their ID number.</p>