One interest of mine is linguistics and learning foreign languages. Whatever time I can that is not occupied, I spend on language. Aside from the interest and getting more into the nitty gritty of it, I am fluent in English. I’ve received an average upper B2, lower C1 level for Spanish and have received an excellent recommendation from an international Spanish school that I attended over the summer. On top of Spanish, I have been teaching myself Russian and am currently at an upper A2, lower B1 level. I’m making great strides in Russian within short periods of time due to the fact that I have Russian blood and immigrant family.
Anyway, my questions are these.
How much will this help for admissions to something like Columbia?
Will I have to obtain some kind of certificate to prove my proficiency in either language?
Also, unrelated to the admissions themselves, will there be the opportunity to take more than one language course in university?
and
What strategies might I have to take in order to maintain a foreign language if my schedule does not have enough time for formal academic practice? So if I don’t have enough time to take a Spanish class.
Not at all. Many of us are multilingual. Now if it ties in to future plans in IR or something, then it can make an interesting essay
No
Concurrently? It depends upon the university and it depends on your major. Columbia has a heavy Core requirement, so a math major probably could not also take 2 languages simultaneously. Brown, with an Open Curriculum, makes it more possible.
Many colleges have foreign language tables at lunch or dinner. Some colleges will have events through the department. And there’s always the oppy to read the news and watch telenovelas on the internet.
If you are not taking Foreign lang class at your HS, I think it would be good to take a test to show your level.
It can basically be an extra curricular and it shows intellectual curiosity.
Take the Sat subject tests in English and Spanish.
What’s your native language if it’s not English?
You’d need some sort of language assessment for Russian.
And participate in all the language competitions you can find.
Create a Spanish club at school, a Spanish table, Spanish speaking partners, a matching program between native speakers and English speakers (etc, etc)
If your passion resides in studying foreign languages without strongly defined limitations, then I’d recommend you look into colleges with notably flexible curricula such as Hamilton, Amherst and Brown. Middlebury, mentioned above, makes a nice suggestion as well for languages.
Also, Dickinson, Vassar.
But all of those assume top 1-5% SAT/ACT scores, a top notch GPA, and strength in Humanities/social science courses in high school.
I’m taking a high-level Spanish course as a sophomore and will be taking AP Spanish next year. As for Russian, I hope to find a program at a local community college.
If you want to continue with language in colleges they often offer placement tests. Taking a course (like an AP or CC course) is plenty to show your proficiency.