Do many graduate programs in the sciences require applicants to have course work in a foreign language at the college level? Many thanks!
Usually not, no.
Math is a special case, often wanting PhD students to have reading knowledge of French, German, and/or Russian (to the level needed to read math articles and papers in those languages).
Yeah, as soon as I posted this I thought of math. I wasn’t sure what the OP meant by “the sciences” and I decided to assume it was the natural/physical sciences.
A few decades ago, it was common in chemistry to require reading proficiency in one of French, German, Russian or Japanese. I haven’t heard of any schools still requiring this.
I really appreciate your replies. Thank you.
Yes, we just found out that a couple of the programs my D is looking at (undecided between CS or Math) require testing in another language. I think she’d be fine as she’s had several years of Spanish and is completing her second year in Arabic but it came as a surprise to us.
@NEPatsGirl, testing as a condition of admission, or as a condition of graduate degree conferral? Thanks.
@NEPatsGirl - Is she sure that Spanish and/or Arabic are acceptable languages to those programs? I’m not in either of those fields, but I don’t know how much computer science or math scholarship is written in Spanish. (Some of the old stuff in math might be written in old Arabic, but I’m not sure how useful modern Arabic would be in that endeavor…)
Typically languages are specific to the subject and its research, they often involve French or German in math& science.
@juillet the two programs where I noticed it as part of the requirements both included Spanish, neither included Arabic.
@MatzoBall, the way I read it was a requirement for admission.
Thanks for reply, @NEPatsGirl.