<p>Any reputable college will teach French courses mostly/entirely in French from the second or third semester onward; foreign language instruction is much more intensive in college than in high school. Since French is such a popular language, many colleges even offer accelerated French, allowing you to learn 2-3 semesters of French in a single semester.</p>
<p>French departments usually offer things like French club and French lunch/coffee hours, so you should have opportunities to practice French outside the classroom. Some go further and offer field trips to French-speaking places during the year (e.g. Bowdoin in Quebec). Additionally, some colleges offer language dorms that enable students to live and interact with other students learning foreign languages. </p>
<p>There are many LACs on the east coast that have good to excellent French programs, but they are all different. You’ll have to be a little more specific about what you’re looking for in order to receive helpful responses.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a large French-speaking community, you may be interested in seeing how many French majors a college produces each year. Here’s the northeastern LACs in the USNWR top 50:</p>
<p>17 Dickinson
16 Wellesley
14 Bowdoin
13 Hamilton
10 Amherst
10 Middlebury (+ 33 MA students + 2 DML students)
9 Bryn Mawr (+ 3 MA students)
9 Colby
9 Mount Holyoke
9 Smith
7 Barnard (+ 11 at Columbia)
7 Bucknell
7 Colgate
6 Gettysburg
6 Skidmore
5 Bates
5 Conn College
5 Franklin & Marshall
5 Trinity
5 Vassar
3 Holy Cross
3 Lafayette
2 Wesleyan
1 Haverford
1 Swarthmore
0 Union
0 Williams</p>
<p>Since the numbers are so small, they undoubtedly fluctuate and shift order each year. Nevertheless, there may be telling differences between places like Dickinson and Bowdoin with very high numbers and Swarthmore and Williams with very low numbers. (As a guess, Dickinson’s international focus and Bowdoin’s popular Government major may play a role.) Since even the far larger Berkeley and Michigan have only 22-25 majors a year, 16-17 majors at a LAC is extremely impressive.</p>