[pballler2269]

How important is it to have at least 3 years of language on your app? I havn't started looking at colleges yet but the word on the curb is that some will throw your app out if you don't have 3. Any insight on this?

[XxTexasfuryxX]

At the university I go to, you only need 2 years of a foreign language. 3 years would be great on an application.

[mnp8nt]

What field do you want to study? If you are interested in science, engineering or technology you won't need nor will it matter if you have learned a second language.

[F1VENOM]

Originally Posted by mnp8nt

What field do you want to study? If you are interested in science, engineering or technology you won't need nor will it matter if you have learned a second language.

Have to have three years of foreign language to graduate from the School of Arts and Sciences at FSU.

[_WARRIOR_ (Banned)]

Here you need two years for most majors, but some **** you over and make you take a third. And if you don't place high enough, you might take even more classes than you should.

[cww516]

all depends on the school. i needed to have 3 total between high school and college to graduate, same requirement for every major in every department at the university.

[mnp8nt]

Originally Posted by F1VENOM

Have to have three years of foreign language to graduate from the School of Arts and Sciences at FSU.

Sure. And the other 450 colleges in the United States? I would stress the fact that some schools will automatically give a student credit for taking foriegn langauge classes in high school, some simply require it for graduation and some don't require it all. I know that it wasn't required for admission in any of the state schools here and it isn't a graduation requirement in any of the science related fields. The caveat for me was that a two course language sequence was a requirement for my second bachelor's degree and I had already taken three years in high school (what a waste that was).

[F1VENOM]

Originally Posted by mnp8nt

Sure. And the other 450 colleges in the United States? I would stress the fact that some schools will automatically give a student credit for taking foriegn langauge classes in high school, some simply require it for graduation and some don't require it all. I know that it wasn't required for admission in any of the state schools here and it isn't a graduation requirement in any of the science related fields. The caveat for me was that a two course language sequence was a requirement for my second bachelor's degree and I had already taken three years in high school (what a waste that was).

Just pointing out that it might be different where he's planning to attend. I almost got burned because I switched from EE to Physics and the SAS requires 3 years where as the E school only requires 2.

[SUR3]

It's better to take it in High School than college, I can tell you that much. Even then though, some schools at my university require 2 years of it. Only one that I know of and that's the liberal arts school.

[MVPaintballer]

Originally Posted by mnp8nt

What field do you want to study? If you are interested in science, engineering or technology you won't need nor will it matter if you have learned a second language.

Uhh... wow.

Learning a second language for science/engineering would be extremely useful.

[black_angus]

Check the admission requirements. At Iowa, I need four semesters of a foreign language to graduate, but four years in high school would have met that requirement. I did 2.5 years in high school, so I'll have to do two semesters most likely.

Just do as much as you can while in high school. Unless it's holding you back in some other area, just do it.

[diablodow]

Up here it depends on the major. I'm chemistry and was required to take a year but ended up doing a second just because i really liked the program.

[mnp8nt]

Originally Posted by MVPaintballer

Uhh... wow.

Learning a second language for science/engineering would be extremely useful.

Sure IF one wanted to consult/work in another country.

A graduate admissions committee in a scientific field doesn't give two ****s if you can speak another language - they and anyone else in the field would be interested in your ability within your field of study (ie in this case not world languages). Other then that a second language isn't particularly valuable unless you're in a cognate field that studies communication like international relations, communication studies, speech language pathology, audiology etc. Add to that the fact that English is the lingua franca with over 1.8 billion speakers in the world. Besides that quite a bit of scientific work boils down to mathematics - you know "the international language". Of course Latin might be useful in ecology/biology but who really wants to learn a dead language.

[F1VENOM]

Considering the international scope of a lot engineering firms and the world we live in you're almost always going to be working for or with someone from a different country. I often wish I spoke Chinese considering how many Chinese nationals I deal with on a daily basis and their often poor English. Maybe it's different where you are but there are certainly a few languages worth learning to speak, if for no other reason than to understand the culture better. You tout speaking English as the "lingua franca" but do you feel insulted when someone else can't speak English or doesn't understand our customs?

[mnp8nt]

Originally Posted by F1VENOM

You tout speaking English as the "lingua franca" but do you feel insulted when someone else can't speak English or doesn't understand our customs?

Your asserting some things I haven't said. I'm not suggesting that we have common customs - albeit that is something up for debate. And no I don't feel insulted if someone doesn't speak English. Wasn't there at one point a thread on why all majors except science are useless? (Not directed at you).

Getting back to my original point - the meaning of lingua franca is a language in which business is performed by a multitude of differing peoples. It's literal meaning is trade language - ergo 'world language'. The average student is not likely to become an international business person but even so there is a reason why translation services exist. It's not as if one has to formally 'study' a culture or language to learn it.

[Phant0m Chief]

i took 3 years in high school and 3 semesters in college