<p>I'm considering applying to Tufts, but since I want to major in biology or biopsych, I don't find much interest in a school that has language requirements. How many semesters of language do you have to take at Tufts? Is there anyway to test out of them? Do you, as a student, find that it hinders your choices in courses? I've studied French in HS, but if I had to take a language in college, it would definitely be Hebrew. Would that mean I'd have to take more semesters of it? Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.</p>
<p>Hey JustMaybe,</p>
<p>You can test out of languages with AP scores, SAT IIs, and placement exams. If you're good at French, you could take a placement exam and see if you test out of, say, three semesters. If you did that, you'd only have to take three semesters of Hebrew.</p>
<p>There's also a culture option: you could do three semesters of Hebrew, and three of, like, French literature or film (in English).</p>
<p>From that standpoint, it shouldn't limit your classes too much. But if you want to use Hebrew to fill your entire 6-semester language requirement, then yes, you may think that having Hebrew be one of your four/five classes every semester can be limiting.</p>
<p>I've never felt like language requirements hindered my course choices; I tested out of 6 semesters' worth, but I still take advanced Russian classes b/c I think they're so beneficial and well done.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info bluirinka. May I ask how you yourself got tested out of 6 semesters?</p>
<p>I too tested out of 6 semesters of a language but chose to start a new language (I was an IR major). </p>
<p>You can test out of a language by doing that well on the language tests given during the orientation period (i.e. as well as a student in a sixth-semester language course at Tufts), or by getting a perfect score on an SAT II language test or a particular score on your AP or IB exam. </p>
<p>I happened to have an 800 on the same language I had a 7 (highest) on my IB exam, so either one of them got me out of that language, had I wanted to not take any more language at Tufts.</p>
<p>For IR majors, can some of the language requirement still be satisfied with the culture classes, or do they all need to be pure language courses?</p>
<p>IR majors have to go above and beyond the normal Tufts requirement of 6 semesters — they have to do the equivalent of 8 and they must all be language (i.e. culture classes don't fulfill the IR requirement).</p>
<p>Sounds challenging. Does this dissuade many students from pursuing the IR major? Am guessing political science would be the next closest thing(?)</p>
<p>I don't know, I'd say not very many are dissuaded by it, because I mean IR is still the most popular major at the school! ;) Plus, if you want to do IR and you're not interested in REALLY perfecting a [new] language, then you must not really want to do IR.</p>
<p>And yet one more question-- somewhat related--
when students take their semester abroad, do they usually choose the country based on the language they chose, or can they go anywhere that has programs related to their major?
(and thank you for your patience!)</p>
<p>IR policy may be changing - courses taken in a language when studying abroad may now be accepted as language credit toward IR major.</p>
<p>You can go anywhere. You don't even need to find a program related to your major, if you choose to. </p>
<p>Many, many students chose to study abroad in a country where they can hone their language proficiencies, but that certainly isn't required, and our study abroad office doesn't expect that to be everyone's goal when they go. </p>
<p>It's really about the experience you want to have, and achieving the goals that you set forth for yourself.</p>
<p>Thanks-
I was wondering how that would work- in terms of taking a semester abroad, yet still fitting in the 8 semesters of language in order to graduate on time, esp. if the language and study-abroad country don't "match."</p>
<p>^^^ If you chose to do that, then you would probably have to have come to Tufts with at least 2 semesters of equivalence in your IR language, if you're going to take 2 semesters off to study another.</p>
<p>Rats.
S. was only able to place out of one.</p>
<p>To JustMaybe: I took a Russian placement exam during Orientation, and they said I was good for about 6 semesters' worth.</p>
<p>I think that some people are dissuaded from majoring in IR because they can't manage the language requirement; or, they will do it only if they have a bunch of other requirements covered by APs. Some people do find learning languages difficult and will opt instead for Poli Sci, as the above poster surmised. But most, I think, just say "It's hard, but I'm still majoring in IR."</p>
<p>That is true in S's case so far. He's actually doing pretty well in his new language, though it (foreign language) was not a strong point in high school.</p>
<p>^^^ I might attribute some of that to the fact that language professors at Tufts are simply amazing.</p>
<p>In the School of Engineering, we don't have a language requirement at all. I didn't know that when I came to Tufts, so it was a nice surprise when I got here.</p>
<p>Also, in the School of Arts and Sciences, you can't minor in a language because if they allowed minors, then EVERYONE would have a minor in a language. But in engineering, since we have don't have any language requirements, there are special minors in languages.</p>
<p>Yes, this is true about the engineers.</p>
<p>Yes, you can definitely minor in a language in the School of Arts and Sciences, you just can't minor in a Romance Language. As far as I know, the only languages they don't offer minors for are French, Spanish, Italian, etc. Some languages only offer minor programs (I'm not sure which ones: Hebrew maybe?). But if you take a language like German or Chinese, I think you can minor in them.</p>