<p>I am the mother of a HS jr who plans to study French & Spanish, maybe Arabic, in college. We've talked to several language teachers at different HS and all mention Middlebury 1st as the place to go for foreign language studies. So Middllebury is now at the top of my son's list of colleges. However, we know Middlebury is fairly selective. My son is second in his class presently (out of about 600), but we do need some other suggestions for college applications.
I'm looking for schools with excellent foreign language programs and great undergrad experiences. Suggestions?</p>
<p>The LACs with the highest percentage of students in language/area studies majors are Middlebury, Smith, Macalester, and Mount Holyoke. Two are for women only, so you can cross those out. Others relatively high include Grinnell, Pomona, and Vassar. All very, very fine schools. (I like Macalester's location and setting a heck of a lot better than Middlebury's.)</p>
<p>Percentages of students majoring are very, very important, as they help determine the size of the faculty, depth of upper-class offerings, language tables and language halls, film series, outside lecturers and the like. You can find this data within each college's common data sets. '</p>
<p>Another source of information is the number of Fulbrights awarded to a school over the past 3-5 years. Fulbrights often represent depth of language study, coupled with the mentoring necessary to put together a good application.</p>
<p>Not an LAC, but an LAC-esque small university with excellent foreign language programs is Tufts.</p>
<p>I live a couple blocks from Macalester & can also give that school a strong endorsement. Also, it has a very international student body, which I think would be appealing to a student majoring in foreign languages.</p>
<p>I'd consider looking at schools that have residence halls devoted to that language. That's true at a number of LACs I know of, but I would know how to compile a list.</p>
<p>Oh, wait, yes I do! CC-ers?</p>
<p>When I was in college -- stone age, I realize -- UC Berkeley was a language powerhouse. You could literally study ANY language on the planet, including dead ones. (Friend studied ancient Tibetan.) Language classes were small and intense.</p>
<p>I don't think any of the schools mentioned can be counted as a safety though... (although a boy will have easier time getting in at Vassar...)</p>
<p>Take a look at Dickinson.</p>
<p>I helped in a minor way this year as a guide to a young lady seeking foreign language studies, especially Arabic and Russian. Here was her list: UCLA, Fordham, SUNY-Binghamton, American U, Ohio State, USC, St. Johns in NYC. Middlebury.
She got into half of them. She also considered George Washington, Univ of Maryland at College Park (brand ne</p>
<p>w program supporting arabic studies at flagship universities, with state department funding...might apply to other state universities, too. Google it up and explore. Funding helps.) </p>
<p>Of all the SUNY's, Binghamton is famed for its foreign language program.</p>
<p>Not a safety, but Georgetown has a special school or program for language studies.</p>
<p>
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I am the mother of a HS jr who plans to study French & Spanish, maybe Arabic, in college.
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<p>When you say, "plans to study", so you mean that he wants to take courses in those languages or do you mean that he has already decided, three years ahead of time, to major or double major in those languages? There's a big difference in the implications for college selection. For example, those big language departments mini mentions could actually work against your son if he ends up majoring in Physics, but just wants to take some small Spanish lit courses and get accepted to the school's study abroad program in Spain as a non-major.</p>
<p>As a general premise, I think it's a mistake to START the college search looking at the trees (this particular Department versus that particular Department) rather than the forest (size, location, campus culture, and so forth).</p>
<p>It's fine to look at the offerings at each school, but don't get so caught up with the details early on that you lose sight of the big picture. The truth of the matter is that you have NO IDEA what he will ultimately major in. Most kids completely change their minds after going to college.</p>
<p>You do not need a program that offers Akkadian, Xhosa, and Khazak in order to find classes in French, Spanish, and maybe Arabic. French and Spanish are the two most commonly taught foreign languages around, and thousands of colleges can teach them well. Arabic is the strategic language of choice for many these days, and every college that can offer it does. If you can find a self-respecting college that doesn't offer these languages, I'd be surprised.</p>
<p>Ultimately, if you want to learn any of them well, you are going to have to spend time somewhere other than an American college anyway, somewhere where people speak the language, not just learn it.</p>
<p>Finally, a lot of Middlebury's reputation for language studies rests on its justly praised summer institute, which is taught by faculty from many places, not just Middlebury. If you can afford it, it's a great way to accelerate your language study: a year's introductory course at a college, plus a summer at Middlebury, probably equals at least two years of college study.</p>
<p>I agree with both interesteddad and JHS.</p>
<p>I've heard Dartmouth. </p>
<p>Make your list of possibilities and check all of their websites for course offerings. Make sure that you see which courses are being offered currently. </p>
<p>Good luck! It's a great area of study because it goes beyond languages, into literature and the arts, history, international relations.</p>
<p>As others have said, since you can study French and Spanish most anywhere, and Arabic is offered at lots of schools too, although not so often as a major, you might want to use other criteria, e.g. size, location, to narrow down your list before focussing in on particular departments. </p>
<p>Once you have a smaller list, you could then consider what it is about languages your son likes and what he plans to do with them. Is he interested in the culture of other countries, or the literature, or is he more interested in the technical side of things, linguistics, translating? Does he plan to use his languages in a business environment, in policy, law, interpreting, to work in something else abroad? Then look for schools that have strengths also in these areas. Where do his other interests lie, e.g. is there a possibility he might ever want to major in, say, engineering, so his schools should have an engineering school/dept.</p>
<p>Dartmouth and Georgetown are known as amongst the best schools for languages, but are no less selective than Middlebury.</p>
<p>Other LACs often mentioned as having good language programs:
Pomona (CA)
Scripps (CA)
Connecticut College (CT)
American U (DC)
Grinnell (IA)
Earlham (IN)
Kalamazoo (MI)
Macalester (MN)
St Olaf (MN)
Colgate (NY)
Vassar (NY)
Kenyon (OH)
Bryn Mawr (PA)
Dickinson (PA)</p>
<p>State schools:
UCBerkeley (CA)
UCIrvine (CA)
UCLA (CA)
UCSD (CA)
UMich (MI)
UTexas Austin (TX)
UWisconsin Madison (WI)
UVA (VA)
UMass Amherst (MA)
Ohio State (OH)</p>
<p>I remember the people at Indiana University at Bloomington making a big deal about their language department, so you might want to check that out as well. (Though of course, IU doesn't really have the LAC feel. It is a nice campus, though, from what I remember.)</p>
<p>As a general premise, I think it's a mistake to START the college search looking at the trees (this particular Department versus that particular Department) rather than the forest (size, location, campus culture, and so forth)."</p>
<p>But as a particular premise, I think it is crucial that, if you plan to seriously considering majoring in a language that, 1) the school offers it; 2) there are enough upperclass electives; and 3) there is a very sizeable core of other people majoring in the subject. In this particular case (when it comes to liberal arts colleges), quantity really DOES equate with quality - if there are too few, the richness of the common offerings will suffer, regardless of a school's endowment, selectivity, or general campus character.</p>
<p>The</a> Language Flagship</p>
<p>I agree, mini. That's why I was asking whether "plans to study" means that he has made a decision in the 11th grade to major in one or more languages.</p>
<p>If it's just "I sorta think I'll keep taking some languages", then you would hate to pick the wrong school because it had great languages and end up majoring in mediocre chemistry department at a school you hate.</p>
<p>I mean, just look at the recommendations in this thread. From Earlham to Berkeley. Now, one of those (at least) has to be the wrong choice for any given student, regardless of the language departments. Without regard to big picture stuff, suggestions are being thrown out from left field, right field, and the bullpen in a way that isn't really focused enough to be of much value.</p>
<p>katliamom -- not to hijack the thread, but thanks for the heads up on UCB offering Classical Tibetan, my son is looking for schools offering Classical Tibetan and UCB had not shown up on any list, so I just let him know.</p>
<p>Thanks, P3T. Sent it to my S for reference. He is interested in studying either japanese, chinese, or arabic. Still doesn't know what the application would be yet, (foreign service, corporate, law, NPO, etc) but it's still early.</p>