<p>What exactly is a certificate? How long does it usually take? How is it compared to a minor? Ex: International Business certificate.</p>
<p>Please somebody respond!</p>
<p>A minor indicates a level of interest less than what is required for a college major as part of the baccalaureate degree.
A certificate, could be for anything.
Are you speaking of a program that is part of a 4-yr degree or is this from a community college or vocational school?
If part of a community college, look to see if the coursework will transfer to a local 4-yr college. Those will be worth more to you generally than those which are strictly vocational and wont transfer.</p>
<p>At my university “certificates” are given to students who take a prescribed set of courses, perhaps of an interdisciplinary nature, on a particular theme. For example, they may receive a certificate in “European Studies.” Typically the number of courses needed to qualify is less than would be required for a “minor” and certainly less than for a “major.” </p>
<p>Certificates are used both in undergraduate and certain graduate programs. For example, I have a BA, MA, and PhD but also a certificate in a certain interdisciplinary area. </p>
<p>Certificates are noted on a student’s transcript, but are not a discipline or field in which the student can be said to have majored. They are not placed on the student’s diploma. But to be frank a printed diploma is just something to be framed. If any employers need evidence of your degree completion, they will request an official copy of your transcript or a proof of degree – but not, literally, a copy of your diploma. The transcript will list not only courses taken but also degrees completed, major and minor fields, and certificates.</p>
<p>When I was initially on the job market, it was quite relevant that I had not just my PhD in my major discipline but also a certificate in cross-disciplinary studies. It was a way to signal that I had studied certain foreign languages as well as taken a set of courses in multiple disciplines outside my major field. I list all my degrees and certificates on my curriculum vitae (cv).</p>
<p>UW-Madison has only (comprehensive) majors, no minors. One can obtain a degree with more than one major and there are a few “certificates” in select fields available. One is in computer science- that would show having taken some of those courses without having enough for the major. This may be worthwhile in a job hunt, showing some skills.</p>
<p>I always ask for a transcript from a college applicant. When I review it, I pick out courses that are relevant to the job that I am hiring for. Doesn’t matter to me what the major, minor or certificate is one the degree. Obviously, the more classes and the better the grades show me how prepared one is for the job.</p>
<p>As a HS sophomore you may easily change your goals. Many college freshmen change the proposed major. You will also discover much more about colleges and should broaden your search when it is time to apply as a senior. Definitely remember what posters have said about having language skills versus having a minor or major in a language (and some prominent U’s only have majors, no minors). Also keep in mind there is often more than one major leading to the same career. For now do not obsess on the language issue. Do research many public and private colleges/universities to see what comparable majors are offered. You may want to do a masters degree in a field after one of several potential undergraduate majors to prepare yourself for this career goal. Please do not limit yourself to the options you currently know about. </p>
<p>Do not think too far ahead. Far too many variables. Concentrate on optimizing your HS courses so you have options for colleges. Explore many areas- you may find a love of other fields. You may, despite a facility for it, decide you don’t want the 5th year of
Spanish but would rather take another HS class senior year. The 5th year of a language may be more culture than refinement of proficiency.</p>
<p>Actually, the 5th year of a language IS NOT anywhere near proficiency because even the AP level is pretty low on the scale (and on the Dept of defense’s it doesn’t even make level 1 
… which is why they created a civilian scale). If we use the CEF scale mentioned in #18, AP is B1 (independent user), and most majors reach B2, very few (elite) reach C1 and most students never get past A1-A2.
There’s no language proficiency without cultural proficiency, which requires pretty high level analytical skills only taught in college (and not all) - which is why it’s important to look at curriculum offerings. If one intends to work with the language, one needs one intro to lit class, but lots of contemporary culture/civ/history classes, and the best curricula are content-based from the intermediate level on, interweaving cultural and analytical skills with linguistic skills right away.
Many contracts are lost, and many problems are created, due to people who forget that knowing a language IS knowing its culture. For someone who wants to go into business, it’s in fact absolutely essential to understand how the culture works (“civ” classes) and why (history classes), otherwise American businessmen just go from blunder to blunder, making fools of themselves and having no clue what’s going on. One may have the impression of “knowing” and “understanding” because one picked up words without their “deep meaning” (no context, no subtext, no implicit) so in fact it was something else entirely because of missed cues, missed references, invisible symbols, wrong interpretations, etc.
For example, American culture is a very explicit one but many European and Asian cultures are implicit cultures - meaning that they work based on implicit knowledge of history and literature, as if the entire culture was an inside joke to which you can get tools - which is why literature may not seem to be directly useful to a business major, when in fact, well, it is. In some countries, business lunches may well matter-of-factly start with a 10mn discussion of the literary season, and anyone left out due to being clueless will not be considered seriously by the business partners - and that “clueless” business person, impatiently waiting for the actual discussion to begin, has lost without even realizing it.
However there’s no need for someone in international business to have a lot of literature classes, which is why studying how the university structures its language curriculum is important. A class about the press&media will be more useful than medieval literature - take medieval literature because it’s interesting and it adds something unique to your education but if the choice is between the two a class on contemporary press and media is better. Literature is great for a major but if your goal is to build proficiency, one class a semester works, literature or not, as long as you’ve taken at least one.</p>
<p>OP: look at a variety of schools. It’s good you have a game plan, but it’s also good to keep your options open. As Wis75 said, do not limit yourself to the options you currently know about. As a sophomore, you have plenty of time to identify 4-5 schools you’d enjoy attending.
As your progress in your research, check out syllabi online, get in touch with professors to have an idea of the school’s orientation: see whether the international business curriculum involves study abroad, internship abroad or with multinational companies/TNC’s in the States, whether students can study two languages with that major, whether proficiency is certified in some way, whether the curriculum includes intercultural communication and intercultural business, whether they offer language/culture-specific classes (ie. Intermediate Business Spanish, Advanced Business Spanish, Business Negotiation in Spanish - all of which would have a different focus and different highlights than the equivalent in French, or Chinese, simply because you don’t do business in the same way in these different cultures, and check to see if cultural variation is taken into account ie Qu</p>
<p>It’s a little different, but my oldest D is studying to be a bilingual Ed. major. She took years of Spanish in HS and tested out of several classes in college. In addition, she visited both Spain and Peru while in HS.</p>
<p>While in college, she will:</p>
<p>Take several Spanish classes, including at least two that are taught in Spanish;
Have to overload at least one semester to fit the required classes in;
Spend a semester abroad in Ecuador, living with an Ecuadorian family; and
Student teach (at an English-speaking school) while in Ecuador.</p>
<p>This is probably more than a “minor”, as she’ll be certified to teach in both English and Spanish. But it sounds like the level of proficiency that you’re looking at. I don’t see how you could do this for two different languages and still graduate in 4 years–even similar languages. Also, if you had a lot of AP classes, overloading might be less necessary–my D only had 2, and not AP Spanish. Her testing out was equivalent, though.</p>
<p>Personally, I would think Spanish alone would be the way to go. I don’t see as much use for fluency in French. If you have time, you could maybe take a class or two in French, just for fun, but if I were adding a third language, I’d probably go for something more varied–Chinese, German, something like that.</p>
<p>Something you could do totally on your own is watch TV and movies in a foreign language.</p>