<p>My high school junior has informed me that she will not apply to any college that has a foreign language requirement unless they offer Sign Language and will accept that for the requirement. This is not a new thought from her but it is growing, not diminishing, as we look at schools. We're looking at small Liberal Arts schools with creative writing, history, studio art, and theatre classes as she is interested in those areas. We have Hampshire and some other requirement loose schools but so far most of the schools that meet her class requirements also require a foreign language (Skidmore, Knox, Denison, Kenyon, Middlebury etc.) Honestly I don't care if they don't learn a language at college, I just need to find some that don't require it!</p>
<p>What is her reasoning? I know for me, I was scared of classes taught in the foreign language as my listening skills were pretty poor. Turned out that I decided to major in Classics, thus had to take Latin and Ancient Greek. Both classes taught in English. I loved Latin, and even found it helped my Spanish skills.</p>
<p>Our DD also said she would NOT take a foreign language on the college level. SO she chose a major that didn’t require one at her school…engineering. However, in the end, she decided to double major in biology and DID have to take one term of foreign language. She had taken the Spanish proficiency test as an incoming freshman (all majors at her school require a foreign language except engineering)…and needed to take only one term of Spanish to complete her double major.</p>
<p>I was awful at foreign language and even spending a summer with a family in Mexico didn’t help. Of course I had a language requirement at college but I was so bad I finally went to the Dean and begged to be able to skip it. I promised I would never have a job where any foreign language was required. I got my way but was required to do an internship instead. It worked out really well as I met my husband there.</p>
<p>Smith, Brown, Bennington… I don’t know which schools would accept a classical language taught in English. At URI you can satisfy the foreign language requirement with study abroad but I don’t know the details. Also, if she’s gone far enough with it in HS, she may be able to test out. </p>
<p>My D has some similar taboos-- but as she sees what she might have to give up just to avoid one subject she becomes more willing to accept certain requirements.</p>
<p>A lot of schools consider the language requirement fulfilled with a good score on a language SAT II. My S is thrilled that his 700 on the Latin SAT II will mean no language in college. The required score is different for every college it seems, and you will need to do a search on their websites to find the number.</p>
<p>I know about Bates but I haven’t really looked into it as it’s in Maine, I’ll look into that, thanks. Bennington does not and that is on our list although I’m not thrilled with the 30/70 ratio boys/girls. Can’t make heads or tails out of Brown’s requirements from their website but I have good friends whose son is a Junior there so I have a call into them. I’ll have to look at what U. of Rochester offers as that wasn’t even on our radar.</p>
<p>I believe she has 3 years high school credit for foreign language as she took the NYS Regents last year but I would be incredibly surprised if she were able to place out of a college language requirement either through the SAT II or a college placement test. Even with some spelling exemptions due to her LD she had a tutor for most of the last two years and it was still her lowest grade.</p>
<p>thumper1 my older daughter, a Sophomore MT student at Northwestern has opted for a BS instead of a BA just so she wouldn’t have to take a foreign language so I know there are majors out there, just not sure one my younger daughter would be interested in.</p>
<p>emilybee - I was thinking that might be a possibility but it would be tough to arrange prior to being admitted. </p>
<p>She is incredibly stubborn and I highly doubt she’ll budge on this. We will probably visit some schools that require foreign language and hope that might sway her but somehow I doubt it. Thanks for the advice so far!</p>
<p>Williams, though very competitive in admissions, does not require a foreign language. There is an arts/humanities requirement that can be satisfied by Art, Music or Foreign Language (including Classical Languages.)</p>
<p>Amherst has no language requirement either.</p>
<p>My daughter’s college (a state U) has a language requirement but if you are doing a BS then 2 years of HS foreign language meets it. If you are doing a BA the HS foreign language does not meet the requirement. Which seems odd to me.</p>
<p>My daughter and son both flat out refuse to do any foreign languages. I love learning (or trying to learn) foreign languages. I returned to college 2 years ago and have completed 2 semesters of Spanish and am in the middle of one in French (at a CC). Next semester I am going to a 4 year U to finish an accounting degree but am also going to continue to do some languages. Next semester intermediate Spanish and elementary French 2. Hoping to get some French, Spanish and German under my belt. maybe it will give a, cough cough, older accountant a little edge in the job market.</p>
<p>I think some languages will be a benefit to most students in their job hunt. I often see jobs advertised where they ask. Can’t convince my two though.</p>
<p>OP…what schools is your daughter interested in? Some of the suggestions here are for some highly competitive schools…is that where she hopes to enroll? Any particular geographic location? Have you looked into the public universities in your state? Not all of those require a foreign language. </p>
<p>It sounds like foreign language is a challenge for this student (I’m saying that based on your comment about needing a tutor for it in HS). It sounds like she might be right in looking for a school that doesn’t make this a requirement for her.</p>
<p>Just FYI…I refused to do a major that had math required courses…I just wasn’t very good in math. I sort of forgot that I would need to take statistics…but at least I didn’t need to take Calculus…which I would have failed.</p>
<p>As for Amercian Sign (which is wonderful and a fabulous thing to learn!) being accepted to fulfill a college’s foreign language requirement, I found this list online:</p>
<p>I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but if any of the schools are interesting otherwise, then it would be worth a little research to confirm they accept ASL to meet requirements. (And of course, there may be schools that do, but for whatever reason are not on this list.)</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence would be a good match for her interests (creative writing, history, studio art, and theatre classes) and would not require a foreign language. (Also a good option if your d. does not test well, as they do not consider standardized tests in admissions).</p>