<p>Tufts. Easy access to Boston, excellent science and language programs, 7% of undergrads are international.</p>
<p>Good suggestions here! I would add Carnegie Mellon and the University of Rochester. I would look at Colgate as well. Among the heavy hitters: Cornell, Northwestern, University of Chicago.</p>
<p>I have a little bit of experience with this in that my daughter started out wanting environmental science and Japanese. With the Asian languages, you have to be careful to choose a program that really has depth. Lots of colleges say they offer Chinese or Japanese, but how many courses do they really have? How many professors are teaching? If there are only two, suppose one goes on sabbatical? Does the language instruction go up to and include Fourth Year? Are there other resources such as clubs and a good library? In general, colleges have trouble expanding their programs due to a lack of qualified teachers.</p>
<p>Someone gave me a rule of thumb that is mostly correct for finding strong Asian language programs (in no particular order): Ivy League, or West Coast, or large state universities.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that language majors often require lots of credits. Your son would have to drill down and check the particulars of each school. For instance, my daughter started out wanting to double major in Japanese and psychology (switched from environmental science). The Japanese major at her school was 55 credits, and the psych major 45. I imagine a hard science major would be similar. So that would leave very little time for electives. It would be doable, however, for a kid coming in with lots of AP credits.</p>
<p>The answer for my daughter is to do an Asian Studies certificate. It’s halfway between a major and a minor. By the time she finished taking all the Japanese she wanted for fun, combined with the gen ed courses in international studies, she pretty much had all the credits she needed for the certificate.</p>
<p>Middlebury is the obvious choice for languages. Not so obvious for physical sciences but I think they’ve made concerted efforts in this area in recent years. I highly recommend the Middlebury summer language programs in Chinese or Japanese regardless of which college you attend.</p>
<p>For sheer academic quality in the physical science and Asian Studies combo, Chicago would have to rank very high, possibly #1. Other contenders include Berkeley, Princeton. Depending on what exactly you want and your criteria of course.</p>
<p>Macalester and Oberlin seem to be very good possibilities too.</p>
<p>Do not discount the options available at large public U’s. Consider the depth and breadth of courses available in languages and sciences in case a change in major occurs. A school like UW-Madison offers many courses not found at other, smaller schools in Asian languages- a plus if more than just learning the language is desired. Also consider the study abroad possibilities- perhaps in science in the foreign language country…</p>
<p>As noted, the University of Chicago has excellent hard sciences, excellent language instruction, and excellent area studies and literature programs. Its core program may make double-majoring a little difficult, but lots of students pursue serious language instruction and a hard-science major.</p>
<p>In the large public u, off the beaten track division, a close friend of my children is at the University of Toronto, and appears to be triple-majoring in Zoology, Philosophy, and Slavic Languages.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is a powerhouse in small-college sciences with a very high percentage of science majors. Chinese is now the most popular language on campus. They have a soilid program in Chinese and Asian studies.</p>
<p>As a practical matter, a double major in language and science could be a challenge, simply because of the required labs in the sciences and the time-consuming nature of language majors with converasation sections, etc. Probably a major/minor is more practical, but that’s something to be figured out way down the road.</p>
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<p>If Caltech were a realistic option, he might consider it, but we know how that goes.</p>
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<p>Chicago is, in fact, his number-one choice, but since admission is far from assured, we’re looking for less selective backups.</p>
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<p>This prompted me to do some sleuthing, and indeed, many Asian studies programs seem to be light on faculty and available classes. Thanks for pointing this out.</p>
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<p>This makes a less-selective school attractive in my son’s case. He could have around 40 credits from AP, which would free up a lot of time for a second major.</p>
<p>Continued thanks for all of your suggestions.</p>
<p>Reed indeed allows double majors:</p>
<p>[Guidebook</a> to Reed](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/academic/gbook/acad_pol/study_options.html]Guidebook”>Study options - Guidebook to Reed - Reed College)</p>
<p>They’re just exceedingly difficult to complete in four years, mainly due to two senior theses.</p>
<p>There indeed no minors.</p>
<p>My daughter wants the option of Japanese and ES too (but started with Chinese).
You may want to look at the following:
University Of Vermont
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
St. Lawrence University
Seton Hall University
Clark University
Ursinus College
Dickinson College
Duquesne University
Furman University
Juniata College
StoneHill College</p>
<p>Stonehill College’s website says that languages must be taken as directed study or at another school:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.stonehill.edu/x10612.xml[/url]”>http://www.stonehill.edu/x10612.xml</a></p>
<p>I can’t find anything about any Asian language on Juniata College’s website either.</p>
<p>What is it about these schools I should be looking at?</p>
<p>For strong LACs in northeast metro areas, consider (some named already):
Johns Hopkins
Goucher
Haverford
Swarthmore
Ursinus
Brandeis
Tufts
Drew</p>
<p>Obviously, all the Ivies are excellent, although Cornell and Dartmouth are rural, and NYU, Georgetown, Boston U and Boston College are fine metro universities.</p>
<p>Beloit is not in a city, but 2 hours from Chicago. But it is good in sciences, and language instruction is strong. Many, many students double major.</p>
<p>Stonehill & Junita - both have Chinese offered in their course catalogs:
[Course</a> Listings - Stonehill College](<a href=“http://www.stonehill.edu/x9647.xml]Course”>http://www.stonehill.edu/x9647.xml)
[Juniata</a> College Class Schedules](<a href=“http://www.juniata.edu/services/registrar/schedules/]Juniata”>http://www.juniata.edu/services/registrar/schedules/)</p>
<p>But maybe they would not be the best - sorry</p>
<p>Thanks for tracking down those links, _me. True, those are not the strongest Chinese offerings, but it’s more than most small schools offer. I appreciate your recommendations.</p>