foreign language admission requirements

Transfer Students
1

<p>I'm just about to wrap up my 3rd year of community college (CC) and am starting to apply to universities. Unfortunately I learned last night that many of the universities that I am interested in require "2 years of a foreign language in H.S. or 2 semesters in college" for admission. Will I be instantly denied admission because I only meet half of the admission language requirements despite having great credentials? or do these schools sometimes make exceptions, admitting you and allowing you to complete your language requirement asap? It is too late now for me to start a two semester language sequence, as my semester starts tomorrow. </p>

<p>This information regarding language admission requirements was never conveyed well at my CC, I will contacting them regarding this issue, in hopes it does not happen to others in the future.</p>

<p>credentials:
I have a 4.0 GPA from my 3 years at CC
I will have two letters of recommendations from professors at my CC.<br>
I have volunteering experiences.</p>

2

<p>What language course do you have? One year of high school? </p>

<p>Without knowing a thing about where you are applying, this is what I would suggest: take a language this semester preferably what you took in high school if you remember anything and did not hate it. Then I would work diligently to learn as much as possible this semester. Ask at the college where you want to transfer whether you could take a placement test. I would ask the language prof this semester to help you self study if the college you want to transfer to will let you take a placement test.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response, and good ideas. Languages have never been my thing, I don’t feel I could ever get through a placement test. Also, semester starts tomorrow, doubt I will get into any of the level 1 language classes as they are all full.</p>

<p>Schools I am interested in are Madison, Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois -Champaign, Iowa. </p>

<p>I have one year of language completed in high school. I took Japanese 1 two years ago, got an A, but I never felt I learned a thing and more or less felt it was torture, why I did not continue with Japanese 2. I probably know more of the Spanish I learned in high school I took 12 years ago than the Japanese I took 2 years ago.</p>

4

<p>What is your home state and will you have an associate’s degree? If you will graduate, your CC should have an articulation agreement with your in-state schools. However, if you are not graduating, universities can nitpick about your credits.</p>

<p>Each of those large universities that you are considering will have transfer admissions counselors. Call and talk to them. They can tell you how flexible they are.</p>

5

<p>Minnesota is my state of residence. I wont receive an A.A. because I was naive and believed my GPA and volunteering experiences alone would be enough to get me in where ever I wanted to go. I just took all the math/science/select-general courses that were required(transferring school)/interesting, and am just now, this semester working on generals as I have exhausted all the “technical” courses at my CC. Yes, 3 years is a long time to not receive a degree, but I switched majors and schools, and 95% of the credits I took at my first CC wont transfer. Looks like my naivety or maybe ego, has caught up with me. </p>

<p>I plan on calling these schools tomorrow to find out if there is any hope.</p>

6

<p>I don’t know about any of the other schools, but you mentioned UIUC, which is my target transfer school when I’m done at my CC. I know they don’t require a foreign language to be admitted. They do require two years of a foreign language, but this is a requirement that you can fulfill after transferring there. Since you have some high school language classes under your belt, you may not even have to do the full two years. This requirement varies a lot from school to school. Not requiring it prior to admission is an important aspect for me, because I never took a language in high school, and there’s absolutely no way that I’m going to be able to squeeze a language into my schedule before I transfer.</p>

<p>As others have said though, contact an admissions counselor at the different schools you’re interested in and ask them. Even if it is usually required prior to admission, this is a requirement that can often be waived, and completed immediately upon transfer to the university.</p>

7

<p>comfortablycurt, I hate to be the bringer of bad news but Illinois-Campaign does require 2 years of language for admission requirement. </p>

<p>[U&lt;/a&gt; of I Admissions: Detailed Admission Requirements](<a href=“http://admissions.illinois.edu/apply/requirements_policies.html]U”>Page Not Found, Illinois Undergraduate Admissions)</p>

<p>I’ve been in near tears all day today as I have discovered one by one this tiny detail I was completely ignorant too is crushing my university dreams.</p>

<p>If these schools don’t make exceptions, I go somewhere less “prominent” which is not my first choice, but life goes on. I’m an “old geezer” in terms of college students, I need to get done and start a career.</p>

8

<p>now that I am re-reading their transfer information, I may be wrong. I thought I saw somewhere in my 12 hour long search of how to get around this issue that Illinois does have a foreign language admission requirements.</p>

<p>this page isnt clear though, so I have no clue.</p>

9

<p>Jawzzy, for every rule there is an exception. :wink: </p>

<p>Call the schools. Ask the question. The worst thing is that you take a semester of Spanish and then the second semester in summer school. </p>

<p>Being a non-traditional student is an advantage. Write out your questions. Come up with two or three options. </p>

<p>Go to the Spanish class that is full at your school. Ask whether you can add. Most profs will let you add if there is a seat.</p>

<p>I teach at a CC. Do not beat yourself up about taking three years. No one is judging you.</p>

10

<p>Yeah, I think you’re wrong.

</p>

<p><a href=“https://my.illinois.edu/uPortal/render.userLayoutRootNode.uP?&uP_sparam=activeTabTag&activeTabTag=Academics&uP_fname=illinois-ssdt-courseinformationsuite&pltp_action=genedCatView#[/url]”>https://my.illinois.edu/uPortal/render.userLayoutRootNode.uP?&uP_sparam=activeTabTag&activeTabTag=Academics&uP_fname=illinois-ssdt-courseinformationsuite&pltp_action=genedCatView#&lt;/a&gt;

</p>

<p>And, from the Transfer Handbook ([U&lt;/a&gt; of I Admissions: Transfer Handbook](<a href=“http://admissions.illinois.edu/apply/requirements_transfer_handbook.html]U”>Page Not Found, Illinois Undergraduate Admissions))

</p>

<p>So there’s no foreign language requirement for transfers, but you’ll need to have 3-4 semesters of foreign language for graduation.</p>

11

<p>I can try that MD Mom, but the school I go to has all online registration, including wait lists for courses. All the beginning Spanish courses have a 5+ people on the wait list. Can’t hurt to try though, I know we drop students from classes who neglect to show up on the first day.</p>

12

<p>Can you take something on-line through another local CC?</p>

13

<p>I guess I was wrong on UI. Fair enough :)</p>

14

<p>I plan on going tomorrow to the first CC I went to and seeing if they will let me take their Spanish 1 class (over 10 slots open). I wish it was online, but its on campus, not ideal…but beggars cant be choosers at this point.</p>

15

<p>Thanks allyphoe for digging up the information for UIUC. I remembered reading on there that a language was no longer a pre-admission requirement. They prefer that it’s done previously, so that you can focus on your major, but it isn’t a requirement.</p>

<p>There can always be exceptions made though. If you qualify for a school in every other category, aside from this one small detail, I’m sure many of them will still be willing to work with you to get you in. </p>

<p>The language requirement has been something that’s worried me too. I’m a non-traditional student, and the one semester of high school spanish that I took was like 10 years ago now…plus I’m planning on taking French now anyway, so that spanish won’t be of much help…lol I was hoping that I’d be able to get my language requirement done at my CC before transfer, but it’s simply not possible. </p>

<p>What’s your major? I’ve looked around at a lot of schools in the northern Illinois area, and many of them don’t require a language before admission. Most of the Illinois state schools don’t require it before admission. Depending on your major though, many of the Illinois state schools may not be to your liking.</p>

<p>If you still have a decent knowledge of your HS Spanish, it may at least be worth the effort to try and place out of the requirement. Even if you can’t, you’ll be much better prepared for the classes when you do get to them.</p>

16

<p>Thanks for the info comfortablycurt. My major will be civil engineering. Many of the state schools here in MN are the same way, don’t require a foreign language so they are my “back up” plan if I can not get anything worked out with my first choice schools.</p>

17

<p>Why Iowa instead of Iowa State for engineering? Bummer that engineering schools want a language.</p>