Hi! I am a current high school student with interests in business and international relations. I already take both Spanish and French, but want to add another language. I would love to take Italian because of a love for Roman history, but career-wise, I think it’s better to learn a different one.
Which language would look best to admissions officers- Italian, Chinese, German, or Arabic?
“Which language would look best to admissions officers- Italian, Chinese, German, or Arabic?” Why are you asking this? Choose a language you like for crying out loud. This is just ridiculous.
Wouldn’t Latin be the language of choice for studying Roman history?
Ultimately it matters very little what admissions officers think. Learn a language because you love it not because it would “look better” to people who probably could not care whether you chose French over American Sign Language
Definitely Chinese
Whatever you want is fine. Very few people have 3 languages.
L’italiano é una lingua bella, e se conosci il francese e lo spagnolo, tu potrai imparare molto facile.
…my broken knowledge of Italian aside, I don’t think colleges weigh languages (unless you speak something extremely uncommon). While Arabic or Chinese might give you a boost depending on what sort of business you go into, or where you focus for international relations, you’ll probably find Italian easier to pick up, as it’s another Romance language. And if you’re genuinely interested in learning it, I would say go for it.
Why would adcom care which 4th language you take?
Chinese- and it can help a lot for getting internships in college.
Chinese if you didn’t care what language you learned next. China is growing rapidly in the modern age and it will be useful down the line to learn Chinese and be able to communicate with the people in China. It will open a lot of opportunities for you as so many people speak Chinese.
Oh yeah for business, learning Chinese can be helpful in securing deals with Chinese companies and there are so many up-and-coming Chinese companies so definitely an advantage.
If you are very proficient in several languages, it might be a positive factor for admissions, but it probably won’t compensate for other admissions criteria such as grades, test scores, essays, and recommendations. The fact that an applicant is studying a language isn’t the same thing as proficiency.
Anyway, at the undergrad level, you are applying for admission to a college or university, not necessarily for a particular department or major. So, choose a language because it interests you or will be useful to you, not because you erroneously believe it will impress someone.
So many people recommend Chinese with the vague rationale that it will open up opportunities. Well, it won’t unless you are willing to commit to it for several years, including studying in China or somewhere where it is spoken. I know lots of people who thought that studying Chinese would open up opportunities, but they couldn’t or wouldn’t put in the time and effort to attain proficiency, or there were many others who learned it in their families or who did put in the time and effort. So they can’t really use what they studied and quickly forgot what they did learn. I know other several people who conduct business in China on a fairly regular basis, and you know what? That business is conducted in English.