<p>If a student took French 1 in middle school, and French 2 and 3 in high school, would Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences "count that" as 3 years of foreign language, or just 2. S tried but could not fit French 4 into his schedule in either Junior or Senior year due to the way our HS schedules AP classes. Does he need to explain that (and/or have his guidance counselor explain it) or is he ok as is? I know that some schools that say 3 years just want to see that you got up to the level 3 class, and others want 3 credits taken during the HS years, and I don't see anything on Cornell's site that clarifies which applies to them.</p>
<p>CAS has a tough and time consuming language requirement. Make sure you understand the details before you decide. Many students who take language all the way though high school don’t qualify for the required 2000 level class right away. Also classes in popular languages close out early.</p>
<p>Lindz, I’m not sure why you’re telling me that. He’s a good language student, he just hasn’t had the opportunity to take the classes while in high school. I’m trying to help him figure out the admission requirement piece right now. He’s already aware of the graduation requirement in CAS.</p>
<p>I have no idea how much experience you and your son have with Cornell or how much detail you have read about the CAS distribution requirements. That is why I wrote the message, I was trying to help. I just wanted to share my experience that of all the requirements CAS seems to be most strict about language. For example, you can’t take language S/U and they won’t let you take a beginning class if you have already studied a language (they do this to be fair to those who are true beginners). If your son plans to start a new language he will be at it for at least three semesters and language classes are extremely time consuming, so if you are taking lab sciences at the same time it is very challenging. Another problem is that the popular languages (especially Spanish) tend to get closed out early and sometime it’s hard to get into the right level class until 2nd or third semester. </p>
<p>On another note, Cornell seems to love Vermont. I think they know Vermonters can take the weather. I know many many people from Vermont at Cornell.</p>
<p>OK, thanks Lindz, I was just confused since you were talking about “later” requirements than we were trying to figure out now. </p>
<p>What is S/U? If he already has 3 years of French, and wants to continue that instead of starting a new language, would they do a placement test? </p>
<p>He is looking at computer science and considering both CAS and the College of Engineering – the trade-offs are interesting, because he’s not 100% sure that Computer Science is his one true passion, and his other interests lean more toward the Biological/Physical sciences, but it CAS would mean he’d take on a language requirement rather than a Chem/Physics requirement which would be easier for him. </p>
<p>But OTOH he’d be happy to continue studying French. He won the school’s intermediate French award sophomore year but then couldn’t continue with it due to scheduling conflicts. He’d be less happy if he had to switch to another language if he fell into what sounds like a catch 22 that you are describing – too experienced in French to take the beginner class and not experienced enough to place into the next class?</p>
<p>The weather is a key factor in his liking Cornell. He loves winter!</p>
<p>I only took 2 years of French in high school, too. I e-mailed Cornell earlier this month about it, and they said it’s fine. You just have to e-mail Cornell admissions: your name, your birthdate, how many years of foreign language (high school leve) you’ve taken, and what college you’re applying to (assuming you’re doing CAS?). They also said to e-mail them this <em>after</em> you apply through common app, so that they can add it to your profile after. </p>
<p>:) Don’t worry about it. Cornell admissions is SUPER nice.</p>
<p>I believe that he will be asked to take a placement class in order to continue in French. S/U is a grading option at Cornell satisfactory (C- or above) or unsatisfactory (below C-). It can be a good option in some situations. The final grade is NOT factored into GPA. Have your son google “ask uncle ezra” for all kinds of info about Cornell. </p>
<p>ps. I understand the French department is a lot of fun, ie, they do cultural stuff like movies, food, theatre, and trips in addition to language and literature. Also, the French department has some great travel abroad opportunities.</p>
<p>Lindz so is there in fact a potential catch-22 where he wouldn’t be eligible for either the intro class or strong enough for the next one, or if he takes the placement test, would he be placed somewhere regardless?</p>
<p>Cornell has a class called “continuing” in most romance languages. What that means is he would not be allowed to start French at the very beginning (they are just trying to be fair) but instead of starting with a 2000 level class he would take “continuing French.” Then he would take the 2000 level class. </p>
<p>If he scores high enough on the placement test he could go right into the 2000 level class and be done with the requirement after one semester. But please do not rely on me as I am not sure about any of this and things change all the time. I recommend you look at the course roster. It is online and open to the public.</p>