<p>How are Dartmouth's foreign language departments? esp in comparison to other ivys and liberal arts colleges--middlebury, williams, colgate etc.</p>
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<p>ALso, how do colleges look at college courses taken senior year as opposed to APs?</p>
<p>I don't know the answer to your second question, but Dartmouth's language programs are really top-notch. The Rassias method of learning a language involves drills, which happen at 7:45 A.M. with an instructor's snapping at you to speak in a language you don't completely understand. It apparently works wonders. The college offers, if I am not mistaken, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian, along with the standard Greek and Latin. I might have missed one, but I'm not sure. I'd say the langauge programs are right up there with Middlebury's, but I'm an incoming '10 at Dartmouth and not on campus yet (though I will be in a few days!). In any case, if you're looking to study languages, Dartmouth is a good place to do it.</p>
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<p>The language departments at Dartmouth are large enough so that you will have plenty of classmates, but small enough that you will get individualized attention from the profs. Almost all language courses classes are discussion-based and very interactive. </p>
<p>I took both Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 here, and am going to go to Puebla, Mexico this winter with the Language Study-Abroad program. Both Spanish 1 + 2 require drill, which isn't the most fun, but will help you learn the language. And Johnny I have good news for you: you have the option of taking drill at 5:20 pm rather than 7:45 am. </p>
<p>I LOVED Spanish 1 with Profesora Saucedo, but did not enjoy Spanish 2 much with Carrizo. If you have never taken Spanish (like me), look for Saucedo and avoid Carrizo and Velez! If you took Spanish in high school it doesn't matter much.</p>
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<p>When I told my guidance counselor in high school that I wanted a school with a strong foreign language program, she said "Middlebury or Dartmouth."</p>
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<p>Not to hijack the thread or anything, but do many people start 2 languages (perhaps not simultaneously) during college (at Dartmouth)?</p>
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<p>i don't know anyone who has started two new languages, but i do know people who have continued one and started a second.</p>
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<p>the language study abroad is no doubt one of my s (08) highlights of dartmouth so far....this past spring he was in lyon france for 10 weeks..one prof from dart and 2 french profs ..a dozen kids in the 3 classes..french culture, literature and language...great host family which dartmouth arranges and on their own the students traveled by train througout italy, barcelona, munich, canne , monaco, and of course paris
he had 4 years of high school french but never heard him speak and now he is fluent</p>
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<p>awesome! Thanks all.</p>
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<p>do they have German?</p>
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<p>yes to schmivy. </p>
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<p>Yes, they have a German study abroad. One of D's best friends just left yesterday to do the program in Germany (they crossed met up at the airport as they were both flying out for their study abroad programs and will be meeting up with some of their other friends in Paris over the course of the term).
D's friend mentioned that the group this year is really small as she applied late and was still able to get a spot (the professor she had for one of her classes is doing the trip) During the german FSP, they are off for a week which she will use to do some other traveling. Depending on how you set up your schedule (for a number of study abroad programs) the classes meet once a week (she only has classes on monday and tuesday) leaving you time to travel while on your LSA/FSP.</p>
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