<p>I will be entering as a CIT freshman in the fall, but I would really like to continue my foreign language studies at CMU. I would ideally like to continue studying Chinese. I looked on the website, and I noticed that it said there are only placement tests for French, Spanish, and German (I think), and for Chinese (along with some other languages), you need to contact a professor. So basically, I was just wondering if anyone has had experience with getting placement for a language like Chinese? Should I just email the professor and say that I'm interested in continuing to study Chinese, and would like to place into the appropriate level? I'm just a little confused about exactly how this works, so if anyone has any insight, that would be great!</p>
<p>A little bit of digging turns up this page: </p>
<p>[Step</a> 2: Placement Tests](<a href=“http://www.cit.cmu.edu/current_students/first_years/registration/step_two.html]Step”>Page not found! - College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University)</p>
<p>The process seems to be similar across all colleges, as those are both professors in HSS, not CIT. So email one of those two names (under Chinese) and one of them should be able to give you your placement exam :)</p>
<p>You may also want to consider taking classes at Pitt. I taught there many years ago and the variety of language courses was greater and may offer more advanced offerings than at CMU so you may end up cross registering after the first semester. My H made it a condition of attending CMU that S (in CFA) take at least one course over at Pitt in Latin American Studies (it is one of the best programs in the country). I understand Pitt has a strong Asian studies and language programs also. Great study abroad programs for summers also. This is the beauty of being so close to another great university with different strengths and offerings.</p>
<p>Course policy is such now that, as far as I was told by my counselor, you cannot get credit for a Pitt course unless CMU doesn’t offer that course. (IE you could take Latin, but not Japanese.) This is to prevent kids from taking the “easy” way out by going to Pitt for classes like Intro to ECE or math/programming courses.</p>
<p>Wait wattttt. So the six hours I spent studying while on vacation for my CHS Pitt Calc Final was for nothing???</p>
<p>I imagine if you have to contact a professor in order to get placement in Chinese they’ll probably have a sort of oral exam. Maybe try to have a conversation with you and see what sort of level of comprehension you have with the language.</p>
<p>No, no, I don’t think that applies to credits you took while in high school, steelers 
just once you’re at cmu. For example, I had a friend who felt the Japanese was too difficult at cmu and he wanted to take it at Pitt. They wouldn’t let him use the credits because he’s a current cmu student.</p>
<p>The only person I know that was able to take an equivalent class at Pitt was double majoring in another field whose required classes were the same time as her other major’s required classes. We were all mad because she took the Pitt version of our toughest classes and her homeworks/tests were significantly easier making it a ton easier to get As in all of them.</p>
<p>Yeah, that would be very frustrating. Pitt’s a great school, but I don’t think anyone’s going to argue that the classes are as difficult as CMU’s. It’s not fair for everyone else to suffer through a CMU course only to have Timmy the Freshman go to Pitt and say ‘LOL GUYS CHECK OUT MY A IN INTRO TO ECE.’</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! I will definitely email one of the professors about the issue of placement.
I’m a little nervous, since I’ve only ever studied Chinese with one teacher, so I’m not sure quite what to expect from a Chinese placement test, but at least I know what to do now ;)</p>
<p>CK you’re right about the classes having to be offered only at Pitt. This is actually more likely with some of the humanities and languages courses because this is a more limited area at CMU–(also film courses) Pitt, as a much larger university, sometimes offers specialized topics that are not available at CMU and you can make the case why you want/need to take it. For example, I took Quechua at Pitt and there were several CMU students in it…certain Spanish lit classes and Latin American policy and politics courses were also attended by CMU students. For the OP, the advanced standing in Chinese may make you eligible for specialized and advanced courses at Pitt. Just keep it as an option so you don’t feel limited by what CMU offers.</p>