Foreign Languages

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi,
Is it necessary to take more than two years of Language to get into Ivy League?? I speak 3 languages fluently and am now taking a fourth in school-something I plan to do for only 2 years. Will the admission officers look down on me because of that???</p>

2

<p>Many top schools require that applicants have taken a minimum of two years of just one foreign language. To be sure, check the websites of the schools you are interested in.</p>

3

<p>Most Ivy Leaguers have at least three years of a foreign language. The majority of the Ivy Leagues place on their Common Data Set that they recommend four years of any foreign language (except Brown, I think, because they don't pubish a CDS). There are a great number of Ivy Leaguers who even have 5.</p>

4

<p>Taken from Common Data Set:</p>

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</p>

<p>I was wrong, it was Yale that didn't publish a CDS. As you can see, you can't even apply to Brown without at least three years of a foreign language, and every Ivy except Cornell and Dartmouth recommends you have four.</p>

5

<p>Let me rephrase: I speak Enlish, Hebrew, and Russian fluenty, and am currently taking Spanish. I'm planning on taking the SATII Hebrew exam(which I plan to get 800 on, seeing I'm Israeli) and I can demonstrate full fluency in reading and writing all three languages. The spanish is just for the required amount of two years of language in high school. Will the SATII help along with the fact that I went to school in Israel for two years?</p>

6

<p>IMO if you ace the SATIIs, the officers shouldn't be hard on you. you've already mastered 3 languages, sounds enough to me...</p>

<p>PS: i have a question: if you are a native and get foreign language credit for your native tongue, would colleges still expect you to take another language course? and would the officers look down on you if you take the SATII of your own language (since it may seem dishonest)?</p>

7

<p>toothpick: Yes, you're expected to still take another course, but no, colleges will not "look down on you" for taking the SAT in your own language, but it simply won't count nearly as much as if it wasn't your native tongue.</p>

<p>For example, a white or black dude with an 750 on SAT II Chinese will blow away college admissions officer. I have a friend (white guy) who was 4th in his class out of ~100, 1600SAT, 800 Biology, 800 Physics, 760 Chemistry. After he sent in these scores, he decided to take the SAT II Chinese and Korean (for fun) and guess randomly. He got a 580 and a 560 respectively, and he sent these in. At every interview he had, the interviewers were way more impressed by the 580 and the 560 than anything else on his resume, despite the fact that he was in the bottom 10 percentile for both scores.</p>

8

<p>crosscurrent,
any sensible person would say that you are fine, but this is college admissions we're talking, and I don't know the answer. My advice to you is to contact the admissions office at every school you are remotely interested in and ask your question of them. If you are ok with 2 years of Spanish at the schools, have your GC remind the schools of this in the GC rec. </p>

<p>The other thing you might consider is taking the AP test for a language - might be more useful than the SAT II for advanced credits.</p>