<p>I am a current Russian minor at Bryn Mawr. I’m actually leaving in three weeks for a semester abroad in St. Petersburg. I started taking it my freshman year, so I’m pretty familiar with the department (which is ranked third in the nation, btw). Dan Davidson is incredible, and even though he does only teach once a week, he has set up an excellent department and program. Elementary Russian is taught by a graduate student and and a TA who is a native speaker. Intermediate and Advanced Russian are taught by professors who are fluent in the language (not native speakers) and have spent quite a bit of time in Russia. The language classes are intensive (eight hours a week for elementary, five for intermediate, four for advanced) and you learn a ton. The department really encourages study abroad, either for the summer, semester, or academic year, brings Russian artists, scholars, etc. to campus to gives lectures, and gets students involved in other opportunities outside of Bryn Mawr (Russian events in Philly, essay competitions, etc). There’s also a weekly Russian table organized by the Russian club. I’m obviously biased, but I do think it’s a fantastic program, and I really recommend at least considering it.</p>
<p>I’m not a part of Flagship, but it’s an awesome program which provides funding for study in Russia both during and after your undergrad career. I know lots of people who are a part of Flagship and it’s done wonders for their Russian skills and their professional development.</p>
<p>OK! So I’m gathering that “increadible professors” teach BMC classes during the year and “bossy grad students” teach RLI in summer 
I read about Flagship in different languages all over Internet. Anybody knows anything about Bryn Mawr Flagship? First hand experience?</p>
<p>Although my daughter switched to Chinese, her best friend continued Russian and is a Flagship student (she’s in Russia now). She wasn’t excited about Russian Flagship (the course was called Pre-Professionals). As far as I understand, the goal of the course was to prepare them for life in St.Petersburg where they were supposed to go for a year. She didn’t feel prepared. Her instructor was a lady who grew up in Ukraine and she wasn’t that familiar with the culture of big Russian cities and coudn’t address culture-related questions. I think there were other issues, such as lots of unnecessary work she felt they had to do, not the kind of work that was important for studying in Russia. Anyway, my D’s friend didn’t enjoy BMC Flagship and her last year in college overall.</p>
<p>I apologize if this is a little off-topic but it seems like the commenters in this thread may have information that could help guide my high schooler in the college search process as it relates to developing a list of schools with solid Russian language departments.</p>
<p>What should a high schooler be looking at when formulating a list of schools that are able to accomodate an interest in learning Russian well? We’ve seen the four flagship programs referenced on-line(Bryn Mawr, UW Madison, UCLA and Oregon State). Are they all equal in terms of quality? What about other schools? Some schools seem to have a two person Russian department where others have a dozen or more faculty members. Is bigger better?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>My niece just started taking First Year Russian. She likes it so far. PaPv, I saw a similar review of BMC Flagship somewhere else, maybe your daughter’s friend wrote it or it was someone else who shares her opinion.
College4many, that’s the problem with smaller programs: limited choices. If one class is offered at a certain level, you have to stay with an instructor you might not like. My niece applied to all the programs you mentioned (she speaks three languages). She was accepted to BMC only (very small department). Everyone in our family thought that bigger is better because bigger means bigger course / instructor selection.</p>
<p>For any language department, look on the website to see how many full time faculty members there are and, if possible, how long they have been there and what else (if anything) they have done. The more faculty members, the better the chances that it is a good department. For instance, if there are only two Russian professors (one “associate professor” and one “adjunct professor”) the chances of them offering enough classes to support a Russian minor, much less a major, are slim. college4many – Dickinson has an excellent Russian department if you are looking for something a bit smaller & more personal than some of the flagships. Columbia and the other Ivies all have good programs, and Reed, Middlebury and Hamilton are both supposed to be good too I’ve heard.</p>