Foreign Language Requirements for College
One would think that high school graduation requirements in the area of foreign language would match those of the nation’s premier colleges and universities. Sadly, that would be giving the public educational system far too much credit. Presently, 23 U.S. states do not require the two years of foreign language study that is required for admittance into many colleges. Therefore, an unfortunate number of high school students may mistakenly think that they do not need to take a language to get into their dream university—after all, their high school must know what it's doing, right? Before a teenager decides whether or not to say "bonjour," "hola," or "hallo" to the language of their choosing, they should be fully aware of the standards for admission at their prospective schools. Below, College Transitions has put together a list of foreign language requirements at many of the top institutions in the United States.
| Institution | Foreign Language (Required) | Foreign Language (Recommended) |
|---|---|---|
| Yale University | 4 | |
| Worcester Polytechnic Institute | 2 | |
| Williams College | 4 | |
| Wesleyan University | 4 | |
| Wellesley College | 4 | |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 2 | |
| Washington and Lee University | 3 | 4 |
| Wake Forest University | 2 | 4 |
| Virginia Tech | 3 | |
| Villanova University | 2 | 4 |
| Vassar College | 4 | |
| Vanderbilt University | 4 | |
| University of Wisconsin | 3 | 4 |
| University of Washington | 2 | 3 |
| University of Virginia | 2 | 5 |
| University of Texas at Austin | 2 | |
| University of Southern California | 2 | 3 |
| University of Rochester | ||
| University of Richmond | 2 | 4 |
| University of Pittsburgh | 2 | 3 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 4 | |
| University of Notre Dame | 4 | |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | 2 | |
| University of Minnesota | 2 | 2 |
| University of Michigan | 2 | 4 |
| University of Miami | 2 | |
| University of Maryland | 2 | 2 |
| University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign | 2 | 4 |
| University of Georgia | 2 | 3 |
| University of Florida | 2 | |
| University of Delaware | 2 | 4 |
| University of Connecticut, Storrs | 2 | 3 |
| University of Chicago | 3 | |
| University of California, Santa Barbara | 2 | |
| University of California, San Diego | 2 | |
| University of California, Los Angeles | 2 | |
| University of California, Irvine | 2 | |
| University of California, Davis | 2 | |
| University of California, Berkeley | 2 | |
| United States Naval Academy | 2 | |
| United States Military Academy | ||
| United States Air Force Academy | 2 | 2 |
| Tulane University | 2 | 3 |
| Tufts University | 3 | 4 |
| Texas A&M University | 2 | 2 |
| Syracuse University | 3 | |
| Swarthmore College | 3 | |
| Stevens Institute of Technology | ||
| Stanford University | 3 | |
| Southern Methodist University | 2 | 3 |
| Smith College | 3 | |
| Sewanee: University of the South | 2 | 4 |
| Scripps College | 3 | |
| Santa Clara University | 2 | 3-4 |
| Rutgers University | 2 | |
| Rice University | 2 | |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | ||
| Purdue University | 2 | |
| Princeton University | 4 | |
| Pomona College | 3 | 4 |
| Pepperdine University | ||
| Penn State University | 2 | 3 |
| Ohio State University | 2 | 3 |
| Occidental College | 3 | |
| Oberlin College | 3 | |
| Northwestern University | 2 | |
| Northeastern University | 2 | 3-4 |
| New York University | 3 | 4 |
| Mount Holyoke College | 3-4 | |
| Middlebury College | 3 | |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2 | |
| Macalester College | 3 | |
| Lehigh University | 2 | |
| Lafayette College | 2 | |
| Kenyon College | 3 | 4 |
| Johns Hopkins University | 4 | |
| Haverford College | 3 | |
| Harvey Mudd College | 2 | |
| Harvard University | 4 | |
| Hamilton College | 3 | |
| Grinnell College | 3 | |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | 2 | |
| Georgetown University | 2 | 4 |
| George Washington University | 2 | 4 |
| Fordham University | 2 | 4 |
| Emory University | 4 | |
| Duke University | 3 | |
| Davidson College | 2 | 4 |
| Dartmouth College | 4 | |
| Cornell University | 4 | |
| Columbia University | 4 | |
| Colorado School of Mines | 1 | |
| Colorado College | ||
| College of William and Mary | 4 | |
| Colgate University | 3 | 4 |
| Colby College | 3 | |
| Clemson University | 2 | 3 |
| Claremont McKenna College | 3 | 3 |
| Case Western Reserve University | 2 | 3 |
| Carnegie Mellon University | 2 | |
| Carleton College | 3 | |
| California Institute of Technology | ||
| Bucknell University | 2 | 4 |
| Bryn Mawr College | 3 | |
| Brown University | 3 | 4 |
| Brigham Young University | 2 | |
| Brandeis University | 4 | |
| Bowdoin College | 4 | |
| Boston University | 2 | 4 |
| Boston College | 4 | |
| Bates College | 2 | 4 |
| Barnard College | 3 | |
| Babson College | ||
| Amherst College | 3-4 | |
| American University | 2 | 3 |
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