<p>me, again. the art history student..</p>
<p>Most art history programs require you to speak German + French/other languages. My research will be on French art so I need German + French.</p>
<p>I just took elementary French with the grade of A-, and will be taking a certificate test this month. </p>
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<p>I have a choice of taking an intensive beginner's German (6credits in one semester), in which case I would have to give up one art history class that falls into my area of research (19th century French art) - schedule conflict / OR take a year-long class and keep that art history course.</p>
<h2>I'm not sure whether the grad schools would prefer to see my German grades at the time of application? My french is not the strongest, but I do have a pretty good start and able to read given material with some help of dictionary. And I also sort of want to take the art history class and build some relationship with my professor who, I intend to ask for a LOR.</h2>
<p>What's your opinion?</p>
<p>Zoom - you don't have to be able to speak those research languages. Only read them with a dictionary. </p>
<p>Unless your professors are telling you otherwise, having one language "in the bag" before starting grad school is usually enough. (Or so I've been told, but we Classics folk already have two ancient languages up front, so things might be more lenient for us.)</p>
<p>You should also know that some/many universities offer summer "reading knowledge" courses to grad students so they can get their research languages whipped without conflicting with their regular first and second year coursework.</p>
<p>So I'd go for that AH class and worry about German in the summer before you start grad school.</p>
<p>D (musicology PhD) was advised to presentfor grad school apps with one language already "in the bag" so she added two semesters (6 cred) of German during the second half of junior year and first half of senior year..therefore the 2nd German class was in progress at the time of applications.
She had taken Italian during HS but was advised German was most desired.
During the summer between her first and second grad year,she took the class William C mentioned above(3 weeks= 3 more German credits) and that finished off her 1st language req.She's now this summer taking Intensive French for grad students (6 weeks=6 credits,4 hrs a day) which will satisfy the 2nd language req.The costs are covered by her fellowship.Theres a mixture of students in the class,from Art History,Philosophy,English,History,etc.No scientists or mathematicians.</p>