<p>I was wondering which foreign language would be most useful for a science major, if any at all. I heard that German was a good language to learn and was considering taking some classes. Also, do you know of any phd programs that require a foreign language?</p>
<p>Math PhD programs may require one or more of French, German, and/or Russian.</p>
<p>German, French. Not so much Spanish unless you are trying to pursue medicine.</p>
<p>thanks but do you know what specifically they would be used for. Is it mostly just reading foreign research articles?</p>
<p>Yes, reading knowledge of those languages is supposed to be useful in reading research papers written in those languages.</p>
<p>Chemistry majors have long been advised to take German because so much of the early organic chemistry work was published in German. Who cares? Nobody’s ever going to read that. I took five semesters of Russian and only ever ended up translating the figure captions in one research paper.</p>
<p>My advice is to take whatever language interests you most and don’t worry about what anyone tells you is “best” for a science major.</p>
<p>Well i’m already taking spanish and have the option of taking an advanced german class next year as an elective (i’m in high school). I would like to take german, but the class is weighted less than some of the others, and could possibly lower my rank. I was pretty much just curious as to if it was worth taking and risking my rank for a language i may never use.</p>