<p>I'm thinking about transfering from my current school, the University of Maryland, College Park. I am currently a sophomore studying abroad in Germany and I hope to continue my German studies, along with Political Science, when I return home. Unfortunately, UMCP has next to no German department. I've been searching the internet to find some sort of ranking of German departments, but I haven't had any luck. Does anyone have any idea about the best schools to study German or perhaps just foreign language in general?</p>
<p>UW Madison has one of the top 5 at least. I think Indiana is good also.</p>
<p><a href="http://german.lss.wisc.edu/about.htm%5B/url%5D">http://german.lss.wisc.edu/about.htm</a></p>
<p>middlebury is tops. great german faculty; head of the Language Schools is German prof.</p>
<p>some of the best german programs are at cornell, princeton, columbia, uchicago, northwestern, berkeley, wisconsin, indiana, minnesota, virginia, chapel hill, and wustl. since german studies is a small field you kind of have to look at these bigger schools--the german departments at most lacs consist of usually one or two professors and you'll probably be in the admittedly awkward 2 person seminar.</p>
<p>The German department/club has a lot of activities outside the classroom (Oktoberfest, Faschingsfest, film showings, coffee hours, etc.), which is sooooooo great for learning the language. Once you're fully comfortable with German, you can take some of the interesting upper level courses offered by the German department or Medieval Studies department. Duke has a top 10 political science department, so that fits as well. Another plus is that you can cross-register at Chapel Hill (1 course per semester).</p>
<p>
[quote]
the german departments at most lacs consist of usually one or two professors and you'll probably be in the admittedly awkward 2 person seminar.
[/quote]
Believe it or not, the opportunity to enroll in a 2-person</a> seminar is regarded as a major selling point at some LACs: </p>
<p>"At a time when every institution is searching for a way to distinguish itself, the college has decided to make the tutorials a signature program and market them as part of a more personalized curriculum."</p>
<p>Taking a small class from the same two profs does not sound that great to me. Even at large schools most advanced language classes are small but large enough to have a little more than two people in a class which would seem stifling and claustrophobic.</p>
<p>UW does have a German House program too.</p>
<p>I'm a senior in AP german right now, and from what I can tell from the research I've done for the schools I want to apply to, the University of Chicago has an absolutely stellar German program. You should check out the variety of course offerings as a rule of thumb - the worse German departments won't have a good variety of upper-level offerings, whereas the best will have a larger selection of courses. </p>
<p>Viel Glueck! Wo in Deutschland studierst du?</p>
<p>Gourman Report ranking for undergrad German</p>
<p>Yale
Wisconsin Madison
Princeton
Indiana Bloomington
UC Berkeley
U Texas Austin
Stanford
Cornell
UVA
Harvard
U Illinois Urbana Champaign
UCLA
JHU
U Michigan Ann Arbor
U Penn
U Mass Amherst
Washington U St Louis
Ohio State
UNC Chapel Hill
U Minnesota
Rice
Penn State University Park
U Pittsburgh
UC Irvine
U Washington
Brown
U Kansas
UC Santa Barbara
Duke
Northwestern</p>
<p>"Awkward 2-person seminar."</p>
<p>Unless the professor is wearing lederhosen and uses the word "knockwurst" inappropriately, it shouldn't be a problem.</p>
<p>Haha. Thanks so much everyone for all the responses! To answer sous, I'm currently studying in Tuebingen, a small uni-town in Baden-Wuerttenburg. In February I'm moving to Berlin for a State Dept internship in the US Embassy there. I'm glad to see some very good schools at the top of the list of good German departments. I can't imagine going back to the University of Maryland after being here for a year, only to have two or three upper level classes to choose from.</p>