<p>My last has been accepted EA to her top choice school so I'm just about done with all of this. So, now it's time to help friends, neighbors and family!!</p>
<p>A dear friend has a sophomore daughter already thinking about exploring college options. She attends a private school that has provided her with a very strong Chinese language foundation. Additionally, she has begun Arabic this year. She has been participating in a lot of diversity leadership conferences and wants a school where her Chinese heritage (she is adopted) will feel more comfortable. </p>
<p>She needs schools with depth in both Chinese and Arabic as she will enter college at an advanced level. Any ideas? Thank you.</p>
<p>You might be better off doing a search on one of the sites that has colleges and majors linked–perhaps College Board. Then look at those colleges for how many full-time faculty members (and how many native speakers) they have and what level of language they offer. It varies so much with languages.</p>
<p>For the colleges she is considering, she should investigate
the number of Associate and Full professors whose specialty is in the language she plans to study at the college
the number of upper level electives offered each year in that language
These are good markers of the depth and breadth of a program, important markers for a student who enters college at an intermediate level of reading, writing, and speaking the language she wants to major in.</p>
<p>One place to start is to look at major state flagship schools. These schools will often have large enough language departments to offer advanced studies in both. I just checked- UW-Madison has both a Chinese major and an African languages major which includes Arabic as well as Swahili and other African languages. You may need to check on a broader classification than “Arabic” since language groupings may dictate a different title to accomodate other languages of the African continent. I checked the UW dept of African Languages site and they had a link to NALRC-National African Languages Resource Center which has a list of universities that offer Arabic and a way of accessing other universities in this field. It seems as though UW may act as a resource center for the entire country. Sorry- my son won’t teach me how to do links and I don’t know how to.</p>
<p>Wisconsin has six Arabic semester-long courses, and this student might skip the first two, leaving only four available semesters of Arabic. If she wants to take Arabic on campus for three or four years when she’s in college, or to major or minor in Arabic, Wisconsin won’t work.
[African</a> Languages and Literature @ UW](<a href=“http://african.lss.wisc.edu/languages/arabic_page.htm]African”>http://african.lss.wisc.edu/languages/arabic_page.htm)</p>
<p>A college board search reveals 18 schools that have majors in both Chinese and Arabic. I would guess that if it’s deep enough to major in, it’s pretty deep. </p>
<p>Bard
Bard@Simon Rock
BYU
Dartmouth
George Washington
Georgetown
Michigan State
National University (La Jollla)
Ohio State
USMA
USNA
UCLA
UGeorgia
UMaryland
Notre Dame
Utah
Washington
Washington University St Louis</p>
<p>While I cannot speak to arabic, I have heard nothing but huge raves about their Chinese program and this is from other professors at rival schools who have encouraged their students to attend their summer programs and study abroad.</p>
<p>Pretty short list. A student who is talented in a language might test out of four semesters of a language, which really doesn’t leave much to take. MM2K is on the right track, I think, with looking at offerings. DD’s Japanese major requires four years of language plus some culture classes.</p>
<p>College Board is not accurate regarding which schools offer Arabic majors. Just scanning the list, I know that neither George Washington University nor Michigan State offer Arabic majors nor offer enough advanced coursework in Arabic for a student coming in with some Arabic. It’s hard; you have to look closely at each school’s individual programs, courses, and professors.</p>
<p>Harvard also has the largest Chinese studies program in the country.
[EALC</a> - Harvard University](<a href=“http://harvardealc.org/home.php]EALC”>資格の所持で派遣採用率がアップ | 派遣のお仕事情報)
This does not include courses taught in different departments (Art history, sociology, government, history, anthropology).</p>
<p>She should keep in mind that in most schools it’s going to be very hard to major in both Arabic and Chinese unless she’s just going to take Arabic and Chinese classes. But I guess since she doesn’t know which she’ll ultimately pick, it’s good to look for schools with depth in both. Middlebury being an obvious choice, one of the most well-respected language programs in the nation for a variety of languages, especially Arabic. Well known for their summer intensives as well, which are purportedly almost as good as immersion study in a foreign country (and a lot cheaper). </p>
<p>With Arabic, when she goes to visit colleges, she should try to meet with the prof and ask what kinds of course materials they use. If she’s used to a particular system (Al-Kitaab, for example) it may be very hard for her to switch to a different system (such as Ahlan wa-Sahlan) if she’s going to jump into intermediate courses. Yes, it’s all the same languages, but the different systems teach things very differently and in very different orders, and most of the students in her upper level classes will have started Arabic at the college level, using whatever system the college uses. So they may be all on the same page, and she may be quite out of sync and get lost easily, even if she was good at Arabic in high school. Once she reaches a semi-fluent level it won’t matter as much, but for the first three years or so, it will make a big difference. </p>
<p>Also, she should ask about what kinds of study abroad experiences are available in either China or the Arab-speaking world. Many schools have programs, but not all programs are created equal. She can probably best research that on the college website, and then get more specifics when/if she gets to talk to a professor.</p>
<p>Midwestmom, you are misinformed about Michigan State. I am a current student at MSU and Michigan State definitely has an Arabic major (one of my good friends is an Arabic major). It is a relatively new program, admittedly (established in spring 2009) but MSU overall has one of the strongest language departments in the U.S.</p>
<p>I went to the web site and I see what you mean about a strong Arabic program. There is still no major (I had checked that), but I see a lot more Arabic classes available for undergrads there than there were two and a half years ago when we were looking at Arabic programs. Thanks fa la la lena! This is good to know.</p>
<p>Like Harvard, the University of Chicago has strong offerings in both Arabic and Chinese within its Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and East Asian Languages and Civilization majors. For example, 5-2/3 full years of Arabic are offered (3-2/3 years of standard, plus separate courses in Egyptian colloquial and classical Arabic), along with numerous courses in Islamic history, culture, and literature. Not to mention the ability to take Farsi, Kazakh, Sumerian, Akkadian, etc.</p>
<p>The College Board list looks a little wrong. I bet there are lots more places with strong Arabic and Chinese. A quick glance at the Stanford course catalog convinces me that Stanford would be a fine place to study both, too.</p>
The CB list quoted above is of colleges with majors in both languages; a list of schools with “strong” offerings in both would obviously be a lot longer, depending on where you set the bar.</p>
<p>My D is also taking Arabic and we have noticed that many schools which offer it do not list it as a major or degree program. Partly this is because it is very new at a lot of schools – it’s a “hot” program so lots are adding it. Partly this is because it can be buried under other programs such as Near Eastern Studies. Chinese (Mandarin) is also “hot” – new programs at a lot of secondary schools around here – and probably has similar issues.</p>
<p>The suggestion to look at how many years of a language and how many advanced electives are offered in a recent semester is an excellent one. You really need to look closely at these programs. We found schools which offer an “Arabic major” which is really just self-directed study (meeting once a week with a tutor)!! Other schools seem to have full programs that are difficult to identify.</p>
<p>sorry midwestmom I hate to correct you again, but the website you looked at at is not updated to show that there is indeed a BA offered in Arabic at Michigan State - I’m guessing you looked at the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages website which does not list Arabic as a major, but merely a “program.” However upon browsing there are sites that verify that MSU does have a complete Arabic major, not just a program: </p>
<p>Another consideration is what she plans to do with the languages. She should look at the other majors available that may reflect her interests as well as study abroad programs. There are probably only so many semesters of a language one can take before needing to branch out into culteral matters. She should consider if the literary or political aspects of each culture is more her emphasis and pick a school strong in related humanities, social sciences and/or business studies as well as just the two languages. She is likely to evolve and modify her major while she’s in college. She should see where a study of these languages can lead her in the colleges offering them. The school with fewer pure Arabic/Chinese classes may have a wealth of courses that they are useful in or that may take her places she didn’t think of.</p>
<p>I can’t thank you all enough for your time and wisdom. I will share this information with my friend. This will be extremely helpful in working with her daughter as she begins to think about college choices.</p>
<p>Smithie-just curious how you know about the different techniques for learning Arabic? Does Smith College have a strong program in Arabic or was this from elsewhere? Just curious as my daughter has applied to Smith and is interested in languages.</p>