<p>Question How helpful is fluency in multiple languages in the admissions process? I read an article in Journal of Higher Ed breaking down this at elite schools. It seems like the exceptional talent category is often viewed as all or nothing. Meaning ones exceptional talent either elevates one into a separate category or does not. [...]</p>
This linguist thinks so.
No. It only seems exceptional if you’re American.
Most of the people I work with and the kids in my kids’ int’l school are multilingual since early childhood.
This European polyglot thinks not. Most international applicants are multilingual, and they certainly have no advantage in admissions.
Agreed- at least my D’s colleges didn’t seem even slightly interested in their languages, citizenships or living on multiple continents…
I think it’s exceptional for an American, but I have to tell you, I work with multinational clients all the time; I am leading a workshop now which includes folks from France, Japan, Russia, Brazil, India and China, and it is so impressive to me how fluent they are in English (and often in other languages as well). Indeed, the only country in which I use a translator is in Japan - because the Japanese want to be perfect with their English so we set up simultaneous translators (E to J and J to E) and all wear headsets.
It’s probably exceptional for Brits, too.
I remember some survey that showed more Members of Parliament in Britain were versed in a dead foreign language (Latin) than a live one.
No exceptional talent. Most Europeans speak 4-5 language.
I’ll address the first question here: how helpful is fluency in multiple languages in the admissions process? I think this is a legitimate question. And for American applicants to American schools, I think it may provide a slight edge to certain schools, or has in the past. But I am assuming this as a (near-) native proficiency, and thus more than the typical four years-plus of normal high school language study.
While there has been a great increase of international students on U.S. campuses in recent years, I also think that traditionally, a degree of privilege may have been involved with the presence of multi-lingual, international students at competitive schools. I very much agree that in other countries – including some I had the fortune of living in later in life – multi-lingual is the rule, and not the exception. But growing up in suburban North America, it was a linguistic vacuum for my household. And the high school study, per above, was also somewhat anemic compared to the lived experience plus school study I witnessed in other countries, where daily pressures and exposure forced one to adopt dialects and provided experiential practice beyond the schoolroom.