Hi everyone!! I just have a few questions about SFS. Can any of you speak to the strength of the Chinese and Russian programs at SFS? I know SFS is highly ranked, well-known, etc… But I would really like to hear it from a current/past student. My second dovetails with the first: I studied Chinese at Nanking university in a multi-agency (state, defense, Ed) presidential scholarship, and because tax dollars fund it, all scholars were tested in an OPI at the end of the trip. I’m not sure how many people have experience with ‘oral proficiency interviews’, but should I send the test report to Georgetown? Thank you
Bump please
come on hoyas any comments on sfs language program??
Not a hoya so I cannot answer directly. SFS is one of the preeminent programs in the country. My son has classmates who turned down other ivy league schools to go to SFS. From what he has said, the general consensus is that everyone in SFS would have gone to Harvard or Princeton’s Woody Woo if accepted but SFS was their 3rd choice and chose it over lots of other very prestigious programs. He thinks the language departments vary but he has never expressed an opinion on the Chinese or Russian departments. I know he went to a party at the Russian embassy–that’s not an experience you are likely to get at just any university. good luck!
^^Thank you!!
With regard to OPI… can’t hurt, right?
I’m a heritage speaker of Russian and took a number of the more advanced Russian language courses. I enjoyed them very much. It is a relatively small, but close-knit community, and there are some truly wonderful professors, both as instructors and as people. Семейная атмосфера, так сказать.
I know much less about the Chinese program. I know that when I was in school, my classmates who took Chinese said that it focused heavily on literacy and learning characters over speaking. So you should be in great shape!
^^Cпасибо!
nsliyromanov,
The Russian and Chinese Departments are part of the College, not SFS. Nevertheless, SFS students can take Russian and Chinese courses to fulfill their SFS foreign language proficiency requirement. SFS also offers a Regional and Comparative Studies major that allows (I believe) a concentration in Russia and Eastern Europe as well as Asia.
I cannot address the merits of the Chinese department, but the Russian Department is excellent. Where other universities or colleges may offer three or four levels of Russian instruction, the Georgetown program has six levels. The professors in it are uniformly top notch. And it offers instruction in Polish and Ukrainian.
If you did well on your OPI, you might interweave that fact into one of your essays to show the value of your immersion experience in China. If you are admitted to Georgetown and accept your spot, the most likely scenario is that you will take a placement exam. That exam, not your OPI, will typically determine placement.
I hope this helps. Good luck!