I currently attend a community college, and previously had no intentions of transferring. Now I hope to transfer to UCB, but have taken a substantial amount of units at my school. My dilemma is that all my classes from this point forward have to be strategic, because I only have so many units left that I can take before I lose my priority registration. I need two years of a foreign language. I currently have one year of Spanish, so it would be easier to take Spanish 2 and be done with that requirement. On the other hand, I want to take Chinese, for the following reasons: 1) China has the worlds #1 Economy so it will definitely be of use in the future (in regards to business). 2) San Francisco/Berkeley has large Asian population. 3) I feel that taking into consideration the first two reasons, could potentially strengthen my chances of getting accepted. (or at least I think so…would it?). So should I just take Spanish to satisfy the requirement, of will Chinese significantly strengthen my application? Thanks in advance to everyone.
The foreign language requirement for admission to the business major is actually the equivalent of the second semester course at Berkeley, according to http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/foreign_language.html .
However, that second semester of Spanish is a higher level of proficiency than second semester of Chinese, due to the greater difficulty of learning Chinese than Spanish for English speakers. Foreign language skill courses in Spanish at Berkeley are 5 semesters or 23 units (1, 2, 3, 4, 25), while those in Chinese are 8-10 semesters or 34-42 units (1A, 1B, 10A, 10B, 100A, 100B, 101 and/or 102, 111 and/or 112). Note that intensive foreign language courses for diplomatic or military personnel are also considerably longer for Chinese than for Spanish.
As a Haas graduate, I can tell you that it really doesn’t make that much of a difference. The reasons you gave although valid, are not as relevant as you think in the context of Haas. Stick to Spanish!