Foreign Language Requirement

Applying to College
1

Hello!

I’ve been looking at the common data sets for Villanova, Georgetown, CWRU, UMN Twin Cities, and Univ of Pitt and I see that all of them have 2 years listed as the recommended foreign language.

I moved to the US when I was in 8th grade and I am bilingual. When I started high school, I didn’t really think of taking another language class since I can already speak two. In the second semester of junior year, I realized that for a lot of the colleges out of my state that I want to go to, they all require a foreign language. By then it was too late. My school stopped offering the only foreign language they have (Spanish). So, I decided to take two online 4 credit Intro French classes online through a state university over the summer, and now I am currently taking Intermediate French I online. The thing is, while I have earned all As so far, I really really really hate taking it online and I’m not really that much interested in French anymore (sorry). I am thinking of dropping Intermediate French II next semester to take Introduction to Statistics instead. (Note that these are all online dual credit courses). I plan to be a nursing major so Stats is something that I will need. Will doing this cause me to get rejected?

tl;dr
am bilingual, have taken online Introductory French I and II over the summer through local uni (4 cr. each), and Intermediate French I this semester, really hate online classes, dropping Int. French II next sem to take Intro to Stats instead, nursing major, will this significantly affect my chances?

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Check each college to see if proof of proficiency in your other language can count.

Also, third semester college French is commonly higher level than second year high school French, so check how each college sees that.

Knowledge of additional languages can be helpful to a nurse who may encounter patients whose best language is one of those other languages.

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Even as a nursing major, your targets can expect rounding. Two years rarely means only two.

And the point is to study those languages , their cultures, current events, etc. Not fluency.

Online is fine, in your case.

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If the college requires two years of foreign language and you cannot show the two years or its equivalent, then yes, you can have a risk at many colleges of being rejected merely for failure to meet admission requirements.

If the college recommends but does not require two years of foreign language, you can still apply but the lack of recommended language credits is likely be a factor considered against you.

What you should do, in either case, is check with the universities to determine if they consider other options to show the equivalent of at least two years of foreign language, e.g., the college may accept an SAT subject test score in a language as meeting its requirement or recommendation, or the college may accept some other proof that you are fluent in another foreign language.

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