<p>Hi! I'm going to make this short and sweet. I'm a homeschooled student with only 1 year of Spanish under my belt. I hate foreign languages with a passion, not because I find them difficult but for other reasons that I won't get into. ANYWAY, does anyone know which of the following schools have/do not have language requirements (both for admission and graduation)? I know that some have just a "foreign cultures" requirement which can be met in other ways (i.e. you don't have to speak the language to learn about the culture). Also, if they DO have a requirement, is there anyway to get around it? I remember reading somewhere that you can do a petition about a part of the core curriculum to be reviewed by the school....</p>
<p>Harvard
MIT
Tufts
Johns Hopkins
Brown University
Boston College
Boston University
Duke</p>
<p>Sorry to break it to you, but I haven't heard of ANY schools who do not look at foreign languages. Like it or not, culture and foreign languages are a part of the world and here to stay. Unless you have other outstanding aspects in your application, your lack of languages or appreciation for culture (well, I think maybe that's what your saying, I could be wrong) is going to hurt you.</p>
<p>Yeah, foreign languages are gaining more and more importance in the application process, especially because we will all be working in a globalized atmosphere by the time we start building our careers.</p>
<p>Boston U is the safest school on your list, but unfortunately the university has a large international focus, so your lack of a foreign language will be a bane there, too, as with the rest of the schools at which you are looking.</p>
<p>Don't you need two years of a foreign language to graduate from high school? I thought that was almost a national requirement.</p>
<p>The problem is, even if they don't require it, you're at a disadvantage to the overwhelming majority of applicants that do. It might be the case where its not so much that you have foreign language that makes you stand out, but that you DON'T have it that makes you competitively weaker. Colleges won't necessarily look favorably on someone who takes it, but it does show the well-roundedness of a candidate, and it exposes him/her to more of the humanities side of academics so that colleges can see whether or not a candidate is balanced in both science and the arts.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm sorry (for you), but most of the schools on your list require at LEAST 2 years of a foreign language... and what I'm most sorry about is your disdain for foreign languages to begin with. No one can afford to live in a monolingual bubble anymore. Welcome to the 21st century.</p>