My son and I were talking about thoughts on the language requirement. He has had 4 years Spanish in HS, but did not do AP Spanish. He is debating trying to pass out of Spanish or doing an entirely new language. He is leaning towards majoring in economics, but might do poly sci, or history or something else entirely. While he has always done well in STEM type classes, he is more intrigued by the social sciences.
So, we have very little understanding what the requirement means other than show you have the equivalent of one year of college language competency. If you start from scratch, is it 3 quarters? Can you test out of 1 or 2 quarters of a language and just take the third? With his current thoughts on his major, are there languages that are better than others? I’m sure there is more, so I’m just hoping for a knowledge dump of information and ideas/advice.
You need to satisfy the language competency via placement out (in full or in part), AP (3 or higher for certain subjects) or 3 quarters of intro. Here are the specs (scroll down to “language competence”): http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/thecurriculum/
If your son is considering History, then several quarters of a foreign language will help a lot for a variety of reasons. And that’s just one reason to invest in taking a foreign language, either to improve an existing skill set or to branch out into something new.
Edit to add: intro sequences will specify whether they satisfy the FL requirement.
So this language requirement is still confusing to me.
As I understand it:
take a placement test during the summer
if you place into somewhere during the first year sequence, have to take through 103
if you place into second year, can take a Competency test during the winter quarter and pass that or take a second year class and get a letter grade (the second bullet in the curriculum)
get a 5 on AP test
study abroad options
DD had done 4 years of HS French (no AP) and attended couple of 2 week immersion sessions of Concordia Language village so had decent French background. She took the placement test (during the summer before matriculation) and placed into 202 (so first year + 201). Yet, she was told she still had to take a quarter of French !?! She heard that the Competency Test was hard and difficult to pass so opted to skip that and just take a class to fill the requirement. As it was, she decided to take 201 (rather than 202 that she’d placed into) and said she learned a good bit and was fine with it. Now she’s doing a quarter abroad in Paris so will get yet one more quarter of French :0.
Looks like they’ve tightened up the AP credit for languages and only accept a 5. When she started in 2016, they were accepting a 3 on AP French for language competency. We did not know that at the time or else she could have taken the AP test and probably gotten a 3.
I think it’s more complicated than it needs to be.
Wow - just saw the 5 in the link…my son is in the same boat (4 years of Spanish but no AP). We had reviewed the requirements earlier and saw a 3 on the AP so he thought he’d give it a shot, but if it’s changed to a 5, I think he’ll skip the AP exam!
Guess he’ll give the placement test a shot this summer and then decide where to go from there. Not sure that he will want to start over in a new language, but will mention this idea to him…
Yeah - it’s great that the new catalog is now out but that 5 hurdle is going to be a bit of a shocker for some! Probably a good idea though, as that’s been a pretty easy path for a lot of kids to waive FL altogether. Getting through a liberal arts education w/o a stitch of FL seems a bit odd, so the hurdle for doing so should actually be pretty hard to clear.
@ihs76 the complication might be that the placement test results are pretty accurate as long as you land somewhere in the first year sequence, but not if you place higher. The Competency test then serves as confirmation that you, indeed, have a sufficient level of proficiency. Perhaps it’s based entirely on the 103 curriculum, as FL will be cumulative. They’ve also cleaned up the wording a bit so that it’s clear you need to complete 103 at minimum (assuming you opt for instruction rather than waiver). All in all: complicated - but more coherent than in prior years.
Can anyone tell me more about when the Competency test happens for incoming first-year students? Will they be sent information over the summer? I am assuming this happens during O-week so that they can make decisions before registration starts?
@booklady123: winter quarter, since you need to complete the placement test first and those happen in the summer. Here is the wording from the catalog section I linked above:
"The language competency exams are given each Winter Quarter; students can sign up through their advisers. To qualify for the competency exam, students must have placed into the second year of that language or completed an approved beginning-level sequence at another institution with a C or above (see Transfer Credit rules)
@JBStillFlying, yes I read that, but my brain is not computing how this schedule works for incoming students. Wouldn’t that mean that they can’t take a language their whole first year if they are waiting until winter quarter take this placement test?
@booklady123, that’s part of my complaint about this being confusing.
There is an online ‘placement test’ during the summer before, that directs the student to the level of class they can register for. The test is a series of 20-30 min sections that progressively become more difficult. They stop when they don’t pass a section. They can then take a class in the fall if they want to.
If they place out of first year altogether, they can either take (minimum of) one class to fill the requirement anytime, or take the ‘competency test’ during the winter to demonstrate competency and not have to take any classes at all.
I don’t understand why, if the requirement is for one year of FL, someone like DD who placed into 2nd year still had to take a quarter of FL when she had demonstrated she had one years worth of knowledge. It was OK for her but makes no sense to me.
^^ @ihs76 - Think of the FL requirement as equivalent to the math Core - unless you pass the accreditation exam, you still gotta take some Math at UChicago.
@booklady123 no need to skip F/L in any quarter. You can always start in whatever course you place into, be it 101, 102, 103, 201, 202, etc. If you opt to take the competency exam intead, then you’d likely wait on any F/L till the results. Guessing those would be available well before spring.
Anyone wishing to take F/L first year probably doesn’t need to worry about the competency, since their goal would be further education rather than waiving out of a subject.
Here’s a translation into English: We don’t want you to take the competency test, we want you to take at least a quarter of language instruction. If you bet on taking the competency test and don’t pass it, you may not be able to take your next language quarter until the following fall. For the most popular languages, however, like Spanish, you can take any quarter of the intermediate course in the spring. And for almost every non-dead language (and even some dead ones), you can take any quarter of the introductory course in any quarter, i.e., you can start 101 in the winter or spring, and you can take 102 or 103 in the fall.
Some majors have a language requirement in excess of the Core requirement.
I have written elsewhere about my kid’s disaster of starting a new language vs. taking the third introductory quarter of the language he had been studying for five years. He had taken, and done reasonably well on, the IB SL test, but not the HL or AP. Anyhoo, the bottom line is that I shelled out for a summer intensive language course, he didn’t learn enough to be able to keep up in 201 in the fall, and he retains practically nothing. He met the requirement, and didn’t learn anything. Completely not the University of Chicago ideal.
^^ That “translation” seems about right. Prior years’ instructions were confusing due to the relatively (much) easier ability to waive the requirement entirely with a 3 on the AP. No more. The result is that a whole bunch of kids are now going to end up taking at least one quarter of a F/L at UChicago.
One more point: It would be incredibly easy to cheat on the FL placement exam. Basically an online unsupervised test. Requiring a second step of either the competency test or a quarter of 2nd year language would put a damper on anyone so unfortunately inclined…
The prior acceptance of a 3 on AP did provide independent verification of some level of mastery.
So “placement test” which happens this summer, is not the same thing as “Competency test” which happens next Winter? Sorry, this is about as clear as mud.
So you can take the placement test in the summer and it “could” lead you to believe you can place out, BUT you’d still have to gamble by not registering for a FL for first two terms and hope that competency test confirms that?
Reading under “Placement Tests”: “Language placement tests determine where a student begins language study; results do not confer credit or satisfy the language competency requirement.”
Then under Curriculum: “completing (with a quality grade) the third course of a first-year language sequence or a higher-level course offered at the University of Chicago”
So, if my son places in third quarter of Spanish after taking the summer Placement Test, does this mean he only needs to take that one quarter of FL?
Sounds to me that if by chance he tests out of the first year sequence, he would still need to take one quarter beyond the first year sequence - whether or not he takes the Competency Test… Why take the Competency test at all?
Most kids seem busy first two quarter taking other classes (Hume/Soc, math, science/bio, fun elective) so waiting till spring to take the one required FL class (if s/he doesn’t pass the Competency Test) doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. DD only threw on a FL in Spring because she dropped her Hume class after 2 quarters.
yes
If he passes the Competency Test, he will not need to take any classes in FL at all. The rumor is that the test is not easy so I think some kids (like DD) just decide to take a quarter of 2nd year of a FL rather than cranking up to take the test.