I understand that you can take a test and fulfill this requirement. Would it make sense to take something like Spanish or some other language at a local CC and then fulfill the requirement through an exam at UChicago?
I don’t know if policies have changed this year, but as of the past 3 years no community college credit could be used towards the degree at UChicago for current undergrads.
My 4th year S took 4 years of hs German (no ap level offered) and scored well enough on the test during o-week to only need one quarter of a language at UChicago. He, however opted to take at least 5 quarters if I remember.
The test needed to completely fulfill a language requirement is quite demanding it appears.
“Students who matriculate in or after September 2009 may meet the language competence requirement in one of the following ways:
passing a College-administered competency examination. The language competency exams are given each Winter Quarter; students can sign up through their advisers. Students must have placed into the second year of a given language in order to take the competency exam in that language”
http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/thecurriculum/#Language
Also, depending on the major, many grad schools have language requirements-that specific foreign languages must be taken at the undergrad level.
I know that you can’t get credit for the language course taken at a CC, but what I was wondering was if he could take the language course over summer, then take the placement test and if he gets placed into the second year of the language, then take the competency exam, without having to take the one year language course at the University. That way he can save those spots for some interesting electives at UChicago, instead of investing 300 credits (3 quarters) in a language course out of the 4200 credits required to graduate
That would work if he can learn enough over the summer to place out of the first year and pass the competency test. That is far from a certainty. Chicago’s idea of what you learn in a year of language study is pretty daunting. One of my kids met the language requirement by taking an intensive, triple-credit, essentially full-time summer course at Chicago. While taking that course and getting a quality grade satisfied the requirement, when he started a normal second-year course a few weeks later it was clear that he was nowhere near the level of the other students, and I would be surprised if he could have passed the competency exam at that point.
He had five years of another language before starting college, through the IB SL level, and he only placed out of two quarters of that language. The placement test consisted of three short-paragraph translation passages, one corresponding to each quarter, and he knew as soon as he looked at the test that he wasn’t close to placing out of the third quarter.
With the number of Spanish-speakers in the US, especially among younger demographics, taking a year of Spanish wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. This’ll likely be his last chance to learn a language as a full-time student, something that shouldn’t be discounted, especially given the relative ease of doing so at his young age. My mother - who’s shown a little talent for languages; she earns a living translating in three and speaks two more at an almost-fluent level - says the task of picking a new language up was hard work at 20, a stiff challenge at 40, and a Herculean feat thereafter.
@JHS Thanks. Based on what you are telling me, looks like taking a single language course during the summer at the CC and hoping to clear the competency will prove daunting.
There is also the option of doing study abroad one summer or quarter. Many of these programs give a full year of the language credit and a year of one of the core classes (Civ I think) too. .
@JHS By IB SL level do you mean the normal Language A Language & Literature/Language A Literature or something like Language B level? The latter was a cakewalk for me but I would get wrecked by the former (this being for Chinese).
Also, do you know what the standard of the Chemistry and Calculus placement exams are like in comparison to IB? The curriculum is really skimpy on credit for IB and I’m struggling to fit extra electives over what I’m already planning to do. How would they compare to Chemistry HL and Mathematics SL (Not expecting much for the latter but could I get one credit? We learnt at a level slightly higher with First Principles included)
Students cannot completely place out of the language requirement unless they completed part of their high school education in a foreign country with an official language other than English. Thus, students who completely skip the out of the foreign language requirement are normally international or moved around a lot growing up.
Students who are native speakers of a language or learned a language in school but grew up in a country without that language cannot place out of the language requirement outright. They can be placed into a more advanced language class, but they must complete at least 1 quarter of the language at UChicago at level 103 or above. Taking language courses at a community college would definitely not get a student out of the language requirement, but it could help a student place into a higher level and take fewer language courses at UChicago.
@qzombie I can’t say this as a normative fact, but from my experience I’ve noted that IB Students generally didn’t cover as much content in their courses as their AP student counterparts. That being said, many of my IB student friends did manage to place decently high on the math placement test. I would definitely suggest reviewing your calculus at least a week or two before O-Week (which is a good time to study since most of your semester-school friends will have moved out by then). Many of my friends who deserved higher math placement ultimately got placed a level below where they wanted because they were rusty after a four month long, integral- and derivative-free summer. I can’t comment much on the chem placement test, but it’s generally considered to be harder than the AP test. There are a few concepts that are not covered in most high school curricula but feature prominently in the general chemistry sequence, including thermodynamic pressure-volume cycles, derivation of kinetic molecular theory, particle in a box calculations, and hard-soft acid-base theory, to name a few.
@ramboacid Haha well I’ll be worse off than them. 2 years of military service + 9 months waiting time x.x.
My school has a habit of making our internal exams much harder than the actual IB (so we can wreck the paper by then), but it looks as if some of the chem concepts there are pretty much untouched by us. Oh well, looks like I might have to reconsider my elective space then. Thanks!
@ramboacid That’s not true about placing out. My son placed completely out of language requirement by AP test score and also by his placement test. I think you need a 4 on the AP test (but check that) or need to do well on placement test. He is not a native speaker nor has he lived abroad but he did take 5 years of the language.
@toots13 Sorry you are right about the AP test credit, I should know because I also placed out of the language requirement through AP credit. I think it’s a minimum score of a 3 in the European language AP tests and a 4 (maybe 5?) in the Asian language AP tests, though someone should check me on that.
But with regards to the placement test administered by UChicago, I can confirm that it cannot get one out the language requirement. It was your son’s AP score that got him out of the language requirement. Had he not had the AP score, he’d still have to take at least 1 quarter of the language, even if he placed into the 200-level or above. I was responding with regards to the OP’s question about taking classes at community college and so the AP test criteria completely slipped my mind.
So my son took three years of a foreign language, but did not take the AP test. Is it possible to prepare for and take the AP test for that language after he matriculates as a freshman at the University? I think it is too late to take the AP test this May before he matriculates. In other words are freshman in college allowed to take AP tests? and will UChicago recognize the score in such a test to waive the foreign language requirement?
Some of the posts are confusing the foreign language placement test with the competency exam. The placement test determines which level of class one is prepared to start in. The competency exam is given during the winter quarter. Students who have placed into the second year of the language on the placement exam area allowed to take it. If they pass, they satisfy the college foreign language requirement. This does not require an AP exam or any of those other things claimed in post #8. My S successfully did this–he had had 5 years of language in middle and high school–they say they are looking for language competency equivalent to one year at UChicago.
http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/thecurriculum/#spanlanguagecompetencespan