<p>Typically, a BA requires a certain number of hours of foreign language. At my university it's 6 hours at the sophomore level. If you don't have the freshman prerequisites, it's actually 12 hours. I'm just curious if a university ever makes a waiver, or substitute rather, for a requirement such as this. It would be interesting if instead of a foreign language requirement, they would accept linguistics courses, which would be much more appropriate to a science BA.</p>
<p>The only person I know who ever got an exception was my father because he had severe dyslexia. They substituted more English classes in lieu of foreign language classes so that he would be at an average level.</p>
<p>However, I have no idea about linguistics. It’s worth asking your advisor if you can do it!</p>
<p>My college has the very same foreign language requirement. International students are allowed to substitute English courses for a foreign language, and I am sure that students with learning disabilities can make arrangements, but that’s probably it.</p>
<p>The stated goal of our language requirement is to raise awareness of cross-cultural differences and acquire medium-level fluency of another language. Linguistics doesn’t do much on either front, but you can certainly ask.</p>