<p>I plan on becoming a translator and am wondering the best schools (and majors/minors) to become a translator. If you could, I'd appreciate all levels of schools in terms of admissions difficulty. </p>
<p>Oh, and in case you were wondering, the languages in question are Spanish/French (translating into English). Thakns very much in advance.</p>
<p>Probably GW , american,Georgetown Univ... look at DC area universities</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, but could we shoot for easier admissions than those? To be honest, I really don't even know how hard it is to get into those schools.</p>
<p>Among the LACs, for romance langauges and area studies, the best are probably Middlebury, Smith, Macalester, and Wellesley. (Two don't allow y chromosomes, but I don't know your persuasion.)</p>
<p>I don't know about Macalester, one of the reasons my daughter turned it down was because they didn't offer Chinese at and advanced level; had to take it at U MInnesota or something. That's a pretty important and mainstream language, methinks. We heard talk about how international the student body is there , but don't recall much about language instruction per se.</p>
<p>Here is a list of top liberal arts colleges sorted by the proportion of bachelors graduates who majored in foreign languages. based on 2004 IPEDS data.</p>
<p>college, SAT 75th percentile, total bachelors graduates, number of bachelors in foreign languages, proportion of foreign language graduates
DICKINSON COLLEGE 1370 512 65 0.13
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE 1410 299 32 0.11
SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE 1255 132 13 0.1
HAMILTON COLLEGE 1420 457 43 0.09
GRINNELL COLLEGE 1490 367 31 0.08
WELLESLEY COLLEGE 1460 603 46 0.08
AMHERST COLLEGE 1550 428 32 0.07
BELOIT COLLEGE 1300 261 19 0.07
BOWDOIN COLLEGE 1460 414 31 0.07
MACALESTER COLLEGE 1450 428 30 0.07
SMITH COLLEGE 1370 688 49 0.07
WELLS COLLEGE 1230 91 6 0.07
COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS 1350 675 39 0.06
EARLHAM COLLEGE 1340 249 16 0.06
HAVERFORD COLLEGE 1460 323 18 0.06
HOLLINS UNIVERSITY 1280 189 11 0.06
KNOX COLLEGE 1340 265 15 0.06
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 1500 632 40 0.06
REED COLLEGE 1460 310 19 0.06
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE 1530 364 23 0.06
AUSTIN COLLEGE 1340 310 14 0.05
CARLETON COLLEGE 1480 455 24 0.05
COLBY COLLEGE 1430 486 25 0.05
COLGATE UNIVERSITY 1430 646 32 0.05
DAVIDSON COLLEGE 1440 426 22 0.05
DEPAUW UNIVERSITY 1320 522 26 0.05
FURMAN UNIVERSITY 1370 643 32 0.05
HOPE COLLEGE 1260 638 30 0.05
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY 1340 314 17 0.05
SEWANEE: THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH 1320 313 17 0.05
UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND 1355 579 31 0.05
WABASH COLLEGE 1310 181 9 0.05
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 1450 398 19 0.05
WHEATON COLLEGE 1420 604 30 0.05
WHITMAN COLLEGE 1440 337 16 0.05
WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY 1340 420 21 0.05</p>
<p>Here is a list of top national universities sorted by the proportion of bachelors graduates who majored in foreign languages. based on 2004 IPEDS data.</p>
<p>university, SAT 75th percentile, total bachelors graduates, number of foreign language graduates, proportion of foreign language graduates</p>
<p>GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY 1470 1670 120 0.07
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 1530 1014 72 0.07
BROWN UNIVERSITY 1520 1490 93 0.06
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE 1550 1064 63 0.06
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY 1320 6829 312 0.05
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST LOUIS 1520 1634 78 0.05
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 1560 1804 72 0.04
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 1560 1114 48 0.04
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA-MAIN CAMPUS 1430 3207 121 0.04
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON-SEATTLE CAMPUS 1310 7194 315 0.04
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 1390 6336 239 0.04
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY 1440 1514 57 0.04
COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY 1440 1418 37 0.03
DUKE UNIVERSITY 1530 1539 39 0.03
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 1580 1797 49 0.03
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY 1300 1397 36 0.03
STANFORD UNIVERSITY 1550 1713 47 0.03
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN 1340 8917 245 0.03
TUFTS UNIVERSITY 1470 1336 44 0.03
TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 1435 1452 49 0.03
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY 1450 6650 179 0.03
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SANTA BARBARA 1300 4564 144 0.03
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER 1280 5196 175 0.03
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA-TWIN CITIES 1280 6049 170 0.03
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH-MAIN CAMPUS 1330 3861 97 0.03
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER 1410 1174 34 0.03</p>
<p>Wisconsin has an extensive program with many extras such as language houses, summer intensive etc.</p>
<p>The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor has excellent Language programs, particularly in French and Spanish. If I recall, Michigan has exchange programs with 3 or 4 French universities and 4 or 5 Spanish universities. Although intro classes are generally taught by graduate students, most classes have no more than 20 students.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lsa.umich.edu/rll/%5B/url%5D">http://www.lsa.umich.edu/rll/</a></p>
<p>"I don't know about Macalester, one of the reasons my daughter turned it down was because they didn't offer Chinese at and advanced level; had to take it at U MInnesota or something."</p>
<p>Only referenced Spanish and French. But it ranks with the other three in language/area studies majors - just concentrated in fewer language areas (as essentially you noted.) (One needs to include "area studies" as well as language majors, as at certain schools, that is the way what we would think of as language majors are classified. You'll notice on the IPEDS chart above, for example, that Mount Holyoke doesn't even make the list, despite having extremely robust programs in foreign languages, especially the Romance ones - but their majors are in area studies.)</p>
<p>My daughter is looking for advanced Japanese. We have looked into several of the schools on your lists. But if you have any other suggestions, I would be most appreciative. The problem is that we are on the East Coast, and she wants to stay relatively close to home, ruling out the West Coast schools.</p>
<p>Would she consider Earlham?</p>
<p>UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-ANN ARBOR 1390 5923 145 0.02
Michigan has among the largest number of foreign language grads, but the proportion was smaller so it didn't make my above list.</p>
<p>MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE 1380 553 12 0.02
Mount Holyoke grads in area studies:
Asian Studies/Civilization 12
Latin American Studies 4
German Studies 3
Russian Studies 3
European Studies/Civilization 1</p>
<p>Collegehelp, the fact that few undergrads major in foreign languages at Michigan is a plus.</p>
<p>To give you a sense of how important it is to combine languages with area studies:</p>
<p>At Middlebury, 11% of '05 grads were language majors; but an additional 6% were in area studies.</p>
<p>At Smith, 9.05% were language majors, but 8.44% are in area studies.</p>
<p>At Macalester, 7.7% were language majors; 2.6% were in area studies.</p>
<p>At Mt. Holyoke, 4.4% were in languages; but 7.3% were in area studies.</p>
<p>How does this play out? My d. is a double major (at Smith) in music and Italian studies. They have both an Italian Language and Lit. major, and an Italian Studies Major. Both require linguistic fluency. The Language/Lit major requires an extra senior seminar in literature. The Studies major requires one to go to Italy for a year and an Italian history course (after two full years of language study, and a pledge not to use English as part of the program.) The data would only show the language/lit majors in IPEDS, not the studies major.</p>
<p>Dickinson College in PA.</p>
<p>take a look at Kalamazoo if you're looking for a small LAC. They have one of the strongest foreign-language programs around, and their website says 85% of their students study abroad!</p>
<p>^^Kalamazoo College</p>
<p>Translator-- Spanish/French
<a href="http://www.kzoo.edu/international/%5B/url%5D">http://www.kzoo.edu/international/</a>
<a href="http://www.kzoo.edu/language/spanish/%5B/url%5D">http://www.kzoo.edu/language/spanish/</a>
<a href="http://www.kzoo.edu/language/french/%5B/url%5D">http://www.kzoo.edu/language/french/</a></p>
<p>LurkNessMonster--Japanese
<a href="http://www.kzoo.edu/japanese/courses.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.kzoo.edu/japanese/courses.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.kzoo.edu/cip/programs.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.kzoo.edu/cip/programs.html</a></p>