My son is currently a junior at a small college prep high school. He’s interested in colleges with strong international relations/political science/government programs. He’d like to continue his study of languages, especially Arabic, so the school must have a good language department.
He’d prefer to stay on the east coast, but would consider schools in other areas if they have the programs that he wants. Medium to large size campus with a liberal student body. Not a party kid, nor is he interested in Greek life. A school that offers merit money for his stats would be a huge plus.
His school doesn’t do class rankings, but 100% of graduates attend college
4.0 unweighted average, with all honors or AP classes
31 ACT
Fluent in French
Summer Rotary exchange in France
3 years of Mandarin (scheduled for 4th year as a senior)
Summer Mandarin language immersion through STARTALK
1 year of Arabic through a college-level distance learning program (will take 2nd year as a senior)
Model United Nations awards at major conferences, including international conferences
National Honor Society
TASP semi-finalist
2 varsity sports
Will have great teacher recommendations
Any suggestions of schools that might fit the bill?
Boston University
Tufts University
Middlebury College
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Ohio State University
William & Mary
University of Virginia
Indiana University
George Washington University
American University
New York University
UNC Chapel Hill
Villanova University
Best … but long reaches and no merit money
Princeton
Harvard
Yale
Columbia
Georgetown
Tufts
Cornell
Very Good… and more realistic, with some possibility of merit money or else lower sticker prices
American U
George Washington
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Pittsburgh
University of Denver
Syracuse
A strong Arabic program probably will be harder to find than a good IR/government program.
These programs teach the language very intensively while letting you major in any subject you like, and they also teach some subject matter courses in the language, have regular tutoring, and required study abroad. The goal is mastery.
Note that some other universities have Chinese language flagship programs and some other languages – see the first link above for details. The Chinese programs are at these universities:
Arizona State University
Brigham Young University
Hunter College
Indiana University
San Francisco State University
University of Hawaii, Manoa
University of Minnesota
University of Mississippi
University of North Georgia*
University of Oregon
University of Rhode Island
Western Kentucky University
Georgia Tech also has a Chinese language flagship program, and again I’m not sure why it is not included in the list on the main website (perhaps the language flagship website isn’t current). See:
25 colleges with Arabic language and literature
70 colleges with Middle Eastern and Semitic language and literature
49 colleges with Near Eastern or Middle Eastern studies
Note that some colleges are in more than one of these sets.
International relations is a part of poli sci/government departments at many schools, so be wary not to dismiss them just because they don’t have the program itself. Good luck!
^^ That list of 25 does not include all colleges that teach Arabic or have related majors.
For example, it does not include Princeton, which does not offer an “Arabic” major, but which does have a “Near Eastern Studies” program (with ~8 undergraduate Arabic courses plus graduate level “readings” courses). UChicago has a “Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations” program that offers a number of Arabic language courses (http://timeschedules.uchicago.edu/view.php?dept=ARAB&term=462).
That is why I mentioned the 49 schools with Near Eastern and Middle Eastern studies majors, which often do include Arabic language instruction (also the 70 schools with Middle Eastern and Semitic language majors).