<p>If I wanted to become fluent in Arabic... what schools offer a program that would require me to become pretty proficient in Arabic... i was looking on princetonreview.com as a starting point but they usually leave a lot of colleges that offer majors out for some reason...</p>
<p>Columbia's Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) major requires proficiency in languages in the region. </p>
<p>Princeton and Chicago both have excellent Middle East studies programs as well.</p>
<p>georgetown and wellesley offer Arabic, as does University of Washington and university of Michigan.</p>
<p>I am a little confused -- what do you mean by "what schools offer a program that would require me to become pretty proficient in Arabic" ?</p>
<p>You can be an English Lit major and take Arabic.</p>
<p>If you want a job which involves Arabic or you want to major in Arabic or Middle Eastern Studies, that is different. </p>
<p>Make sure that the school you apply to has study abroad available to study Arabic -- it is invaluable to truly becoming fluent.</p>
<p>
I am a little confused -- what do you mean by "what schools offer a program that would require me to become pretty proficient in Arabic" ?</p>
<p>You can be an English Lit major and take Arabic.</p>
<p>If you want a job which involves Arabic or you want to major in Arabic or Middle Eastern Studies, that is different.
</p>
<p>Well, preferably, I would like to major in something along the lines of Middle Eastern Studies or Arabic. But it seems like not that many colleges, especially colleges which I would have a good chance of getting into, offer majors such as these. The colleges that I have found that offer these are usually very elite schools that I have a slim chance at (such as Columbia) or public schools outside of my state where I would likely receive little financial aid and not be able to afford.</p>
<p>So, I'm willing to settle for a World History degree with Arabic taken as a foreign language all 4 years. But preferably I would like to major in it. The more proficient I become in it the happier I will be.</p>
<p>In alphabetical order:</p>
<p>Columbia University
Georgetown University
Princeton University
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</p>
<p>Browsing department websites of some top schools will give you Columbia, Princeton, Duke, Georgetown, Chicago, and Yale - all real selective so not sure if this is the range of admissions difficulty you were looking for</p>
<p>Thethoughtprocess, Duke may have a decent Middle Eastern and Arabic departments, but it isn't on par woth those at Chicago, Columbia, Michigan and Princeton. In fact, I can't even find a department, let alone the faculty or courses offered in the field.</p>
<p><a href="http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/facultydept.html%5B/url%5D">http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/facultydept.html</a></p>
<p>Yale is indeed quite good in Middle Eastern studies, so is Penn if I recall.</p>
<p>Arabic is becoming more commonly offered, due to the mid-east conflict. There are scholarships available for those who plan to study it -- and universities are getting incentives to offer it as a course.</p>
<p>If you are not looking for super-selective schools, you won't have the same level of teaching -- of course -- but you can still find the classes available. Add a semester or year abroad to an ok curriculum and you will do well.</p>
<p>Even the University of Colorado in colorado springs (where I live) offers a "certificate" in middle-eastern studies. It includes classes in Arabic and middle-eastern philosophy and history.</p>
<p>do some more research on the level of schools you are interested in. Have you checked Rugg's recommendations? It is a book that lists schools that offer a particular major in categories from selective on down. It would be a good starting point.</p>
<p>Then double check on the study abroad. My son spent the summer in Cairo studying Arabic and the amount of language he learned was phenomenal!</p>
<p>Alex....I googled Duke Arabic and this is the first hit:
<a href="http://www.duke.edu/web/aall/arabic/%5B/url%5D">http://www.duke.edu/web/aall/arabic/</a></p>
<p>Fluency in Arabic is fluency in Arabic...I guess if he wants to major in it he should look at Arabic rankings, if those exist somewhere</p>
<p>shazilla -- make sure that you do a thorough check on the school if it doesn't offer a major in arabic. I know that some schools will list it in the course catalog, but don't actually offer classes (maybe they did at some point). </p>
<p>Talk to the department it would be taught in and make sure they offer advanced courses -- if the school offers an intro course each year, that won't help you much.</p>
<p>another possibility is to attend a college that has a reciprocal agreement with other schools in the area that allow students to take a limited number of classes at the other school. That way, if the other school is too competitive for you to enter, you can still take advantage of the Arabic classes.</p>
<p>Penn's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (<a href="http://www.sas.upenn.edu/nelc/%5B/url%5D">http://www.sas.upenn.edu/nelc/</a> ) offers instruction in eight different languages (including Arabic) as well as a variety of Middle Eastern culture and civilization courses. The major has a language proficiency requirement.</p>
<p>you guys have offered some good advice but the schools you are listing aren't really what i'm looking for... i was hoping for a school that wasn't super selective (everything you guys have listed are pretty selective) like i said i don't really have a great chance at these schools... i have a better (very good, i think) chance at schools ranked around the 60s and below on the USnews list...</p>
<p>Check out Indiana University-Bloomington and the University of Washington. Also check out the University of Minnesota.</p>
<p>these schools offer a major in arabic language and literature:</p>
<p>majors.</p>
<p>Dartmouth College
Georgetown University
Ohio State University--Columbus
SUNY--Binghamton
University of California--Los Angeles
University of Notre Dame
University of Texas--Austin
Washington University in St. Louis</p>
<p>We often think that the only way to learn something is to take a college class in it. High school and college classes are notorious for NOT teaching people to speak the language. Arabic is one of the tougher languages for English speakers to learn. So learning it in a college classroom is a longshot.</p>
<p>Three options:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Go to a country where they speak Arabic for a summer or a whole year.</p></li>
<li><p>Join the military. The Defense Language Institute in gorgeous Monterey, California is where all branches of the military and some federal agencies send their linguistically talented people to learn every major language and a lot of minor languages. You get paid to sit in classrooms 6 hours per day, 5 days per week, doing nothing but learning the language.</p></li>
<li><p>Move to a part of the US or Canada where there are large neighborhoods of native speakers. Get a job in a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco; work at a convenience store, restaurant, or gas station in the Detroit area to learn Arabic; Toronto has neighborhoods where only Mandarin, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, or Russian are spoken; in all of Quebec you can speak French daily; in Chicago, NYC, LA, Texas, Phoenix, & Miami, enclaves of Spanish speakers are hard to miss; LA has huge Korean neighborhoods; thousands of Japanese live in Hawaii.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I know somebody who specializes in the area of Middle Eastern Studies. According to him, the top department is at the University of Chicago. Other great schools in the field, however, include Columbia and Georgetown. Princeton is another one, but not as good and a harder school to get into, so I don't know if you'd consider that necessarily.</p>
<p>If you are more interested in the language Arabic than the political tensions and history of the Middle East, consider Middlebury or UCLA.</p>
<p>Confused_student, the OP has already indicated that the ideal place would be less selective. UCLA, Chicago, Middlebury Georgetown, Columbia--IMHO those are just as problematic (from that perspective) as the suggestions already given.</p>
<p>I see Arizona offers Near Eastern studies--that's a place that isn't as tough to get into. Arkansas also has a program through the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies.</p>
<p>TourGuide446 could you tell me more about The Defense Language Institute looked on their website and wikipedia but they weren't very helpful.</p>
<p>Wisconsin is home to the summer intensive Arabic program and also offers Middle Eastern Studies.</p>
<p><a href="http://global.wisc.edu/apip/%5B/url%5D">http://global.wisc.edu/apip/</a></p>
<p>Check out Ohio State (Go Bucks!). They're a state U, but a pretty good one, and definitely have the best Arabic department of among other schools in its tier.</p>