Easy way to filter schools based on foreign language requirement?

Parents Forum
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<p>So my senior really doesn't like foreign language and it would be great if he were able to go to a college or select a major that doesn't require it. Does anyone know of a filter (something akin to College Board Big Future) that could make the search easier?</p>

<p>He's taking Italian at the community college this semester and is stressed out by it. He's pulling a B at this point, which is great, but doesn't think he can handle another semester of Italian. The first semester is worth two years of high school (for some reason, that's the way this California community college does it), and I was hoping he'd take the second semester, so have the equivalence of three years of foreign language. </p>

<p>But in the event he either 1) decides he just can't handle a second semester, or 2) these classes don't transfer to wherever he might go, it would be nice if he didn't have to struggle through foreign language in college.</p>

<p>We tried to pick the easiest one (wasn't interested in Spanish or French). For whatever reason, his brain just gets really tired when trying to learn a language. He did Latin back in 8th grade and did fine (got an A), but didn't enjoy it.</p>

<p>He loves his college Literature and Writing class, though. It's just learning a foreign language that seems to weary him. Even his his math disability, he's somewhat enjoying his pre-calc class at the college, and might possibly pull an A.</p>

<p>His majors of interest are:</p>

<p>Animation
Game Design
Computer Science and Game Design
Product Design
Industrial Design
Engineering
Literature/English
Film Production/Media Studies</p>

<p>Are we out of luck as far as making this an easy search? Do all UCs and Cal States require foreign language for all majors? What about highly selective universities? There are no LACs currently on the list. Most schools on the list are either state schools or mid-size private universities.</p>

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<p>Do you mean admission or graduation requirements?</p>

<p>UC and CSU require high school level 2 or equivalent (e.g. college course work, high enough SAT subject or AP score) for frosh admission (level 3 recommended for UC). But foreign language graduation requirements vary by campus, division, and major, so there probably is not a way to do a quick check other than by going through the various college web sites. Foreign language is less likely to be required for graduation for engineering majors. When required, it is usually 2nd or higher semester level of college foreign language or equivalent.</p>

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<p>To clarify, I mean graduation requirements, ucb. </p>

<p>I figured we’re just going to have to go school by school, major by major, but was hoping of some magical search engine that could streamline the search.</p>

<p>Yes, he’ll have met the admissions requirement with the one semester, but I think three years looks better than two years on a transcript.</p>

<p>He was dealing with remediating a hearing loss in 10th and 11th grade (surgery/pe tube and a hearing aid); thus, he didn’t begin his foreign language study until this year. He is definitely not enjoying it.</p>

<p>I was thinking engineering majors are less likely to require it, but I’m sure some schools do. Well, guess we’ll start the search…</p>

4

<p>ucb, am I seeing this right for Penn? All majors are required to take four semesters of foreign language unless there’s a proven disability? </p>

<p><a href=“https://www.college.upenn.edu/language-requirement”>https://www.college.upenn.edu/language-requirement&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That school might go off the list quickly. My son’s got disabilities, but probably nothing that would show he’s not capable of learning a foreign language except very low processing speed and a relatively weak working memory.</p>

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<p>Two of my kids have LD that for some reason make foreign language courses difficult if not almost impossible. First one probably could have gotten a waiver from his U but he got lucky in that he ended up in a BFA program that because of the high number of required courses in different art forms did not have a foreign language requirement. When he was considering engineering we notice that some BS programs don’t have a language grad requirement.</p>

<p>Younger D is in the School of Agricultural and Enviromental Sciences at Davis. This majors in this school don’t require a language. Majors in Arts and Sciences do have the requirement unless you test out of it. When she was looking to change majors this was a huge factor. </p>

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<p>I don’t know of any list that talks about foreign language req. I think I would look for colleges the normal way and then take a look at the requirements. i shoudl think LACs would be more likely to have that requirement.</p>

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<p>DD was an engineering major at SCU. No foreign language was requires in the college of engineering. DH was an engineering major at U of Hartford…also no foreign language requirement.</p>

<p>I’m guessing you will need to check the requirements for each major at each school.</p>

<p>As an FYI…my DD added a biology major to her degree program. This was in the college of arts and sciences…so she actually ended up having to fulfill that foreign language requirement.</p>

<p>So…you not only need to check the major your son matriculates in…but also any other that he might switch to…</p>

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<p>

Yes, unless the student is in SEAS. However, Penn is not unique. Many top colleges will have a foreign language requirement for graduation.</p>

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<p>If his Italian class is moving at the rate of two HS years per semester, that is very challenging. (I wonder if it is because they expect students to have some Spanish first, which would definitely make it easier…) It may well be that your S will find Italian easier if he continues to pursue it, especially since one can assume that his lack of foreign language background combined with his hearing issues must make this introductory phase difficult, to say the least. It would be great if you could manage some kind of immersion experience for him. Has he tried watching subtitled Italian movies?</p>

<p>In my experience, undergraduate language requirements can usually be tested out of. IMHO, it would be preferable to boost his expertise to that level, or to enable him to take one or two semester courses in college, than to have to restrict his college selection.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Probably true, even within Unis. UCLA for example, requires FL for its Arts & Sciences undergrads, but not the School of Engineering.</p>

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<p>Thanks, all.</p>

<p>Consolation, that is exactly what my son told me this morning. He thinks it’s so difficult because there is so much to learn in a short period of time. I encouraged him to ask his professor if the second semester is a little less intense.</p>

<p>The teacher has offered an Italian tutor for the class and dh and I have encouraged our son to use the (free) tutor, but so far, he hasn’t, saying he doesn’t think it will help. It does seem to be the sheer volume of new information. </p>

<p>I think the only kids who are doing well are the ones that have come in with some background in foreign language or Italian. We are very satisfied if he gets a B in the class! Heck, a C wouldn’t be a deal breaker, but it does seem from his first two tests, both B-, but with a chance to bump up to a B (he didn’t do it on the first; says he’ll try this weekend to bump up the second), he’s not getting any worse, so a B seems very doable at this point.</p>

<p>I like the idea of Italian subtitles for a movie-not sure he’d go for it.</p>

<p>Re. Penn-the first choice major is music at this point at Penn, though the preferred major is Digital Media Design, but I don’t know if he can get a decent portfolio together, and also don’t know if Penn’s DMD program is too intense. (Assuming he somehow got in, which is unlikely anyways) </p>

<p>He says it might be a deal breaker if there’s intense foreign language requirement.</p>

<p>Interesting that engineering majors usually don’t have the requirement. I need to go through each school, I guess.</p>

<p>So far, I did see that Stanford allows you to meet the requirement with a decent SAT II or AP score, UCI does require a semester, but it’s a second semester class, so I would assume my son would need to take two semesters at the college since Italian 101 isn’t on the transfer list-only 102 is.</p>

<p>U Rochester has no requirements, Princeton has a lot, similar to Penn, and I’m trying to find out about the Cal States next.</p>

<p>I would assume if my son applied to ME at UCSD and SDSU it might still be a requirement. Hm. More research, but google is my friend, at least!</p>

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<p>Check and see what is required if your kiddo places out of some FL classes. When I was in school, I places out of two years of French. The only thing I needed to do was take one term of conversational French. It met twice weekly at dinner time for a semester. Trouble was…I absolutely could NOT converse in French. I understood it, but never could speak it. I would have failed that one class.</p>

<p>So I took a full year of French 2. I hated it.</p>

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<p>

Many schools have this. Penn for example:

For Italian, a score of 4 or 5 on the AP test exempts one from the language requirement, as does a score of 650+ on the SAT subject test or the departmental exam.
<a href=“https://www.college.upenn.edu/sites/www.college.upenn.edu/files/u31/C’18.2.pdf”>https://www.college.upenn.edu/sites/www.college.upenn.edu/files/u31/C’18.2.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>

</p>

<p>No, what I meant was Italian movies with English subtitles. So that he could hear the Italian and get a hint about what they were saying. There are lots of great Italian movies out there. If you have access to a good video store, you should be able to rent some.</p>

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<p>The most general rule of thumb is that at public universities BS degree is less likely to have FL requirements than BA. And in public universities often much or all of the requirement can be fulfilled by placement tests/AP tests, etc. In music, BM less likely to have it than BA or BFA. Lots of exceptions though and have to check each school. What a pain. My feeling is that privates are more likely to have requirements that aren’t so easy to bypass.</p>

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<p>Thank you for finding that, skieurope!</p>

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<p>

</a></p>

<p>All majors in the College of Arts and Sciences at UPenn. Other divisions may be different.</p>

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<p>If I’m not mistaken, at Penn, you can take Intensive Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic (?) for two semesters and that will satisfy the four semester requirement. The bad news is the class meets for two hours four days a week, maybe five days. It looks like there is an accelerated Italian class that may also do the same thing.</p>

19

<p>

Not for Korean or Arabic, but it is an option for the more commonly taught languages. The downside, in addition to the time commitment, is that this is a 2 CU course, which means some other course would need to drop out to be at at courseload limit. </p>

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<p>If the most difficult thing about the language is the conversational piece, I’d recommend Latin. Most places it’s taught in english, so you just need to be able to read and write it. And since he already has a background in English and Italian, it shouldn’t be that difficult to pick up.</p>