Schools & Languages

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hob_goblin
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Schools & Languages

Post by hob_goblin »

Well, I know its quite far off but starting my freshmen year I have to be thinking about the diploma I will be getting.

I'm currently signed up for three years of American Sign Language; and my mom is hassling me about how they want me to take spanish or something.

I've been taking honors and gt English ever since I was in first grade, so I'm not worried about that aspect.. it's just the second languages that have been irking me.

So, culminating the post: Do technology colleges look deeply into how much extra language I've taken?
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nielsene
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Post by nielsene »

I'll fall back on the stock answer, "It depends."

In the US, it seems that most engineering colleges/universities like to have seen that you took a languange in HS, but if you didn't and did other cool stuff thats good too. Stuff like science fairs or math/science based clubs will help. The do want to see a "well-rounded", but are more forgiving than a liberal arts school (even if going for a technical degree at a liberal arts school).

It seems that most technical schools want to see Interest/Aptitute in Technology + at least one non-tech interest (a sport team, speech/debate, volunteer work, music, etc). Three years of a language my itself probably isn't enough to qualify as at least one non-tech as almost all college bound people have it. Whether your languange is ASL or Spanish or whatever probably won't matter over much, but some places may not be used to seeing formalised study in ASL as a HS course.

Most liberal arts school, want to see at least 3-4 varied interests, with less emphasis on demonstrated a paticular aptitude for any one. This includes many top "engineering schools" that are part of a liberal arts university, for instance the CS/EE fields at most Ivy League schools still admit people based on liberal arts criteria.

Personally I would suggest that if you take 3 years of ASL, it should definately be mentioned in some part of your adminssions essays if you can. highlight why you did it (if you have a good reason) so that they realize that you're not "missing" a foreign languange.


Very far down the line... However many Ph.D programs require a proficiency test in a second spoken language often from a small list, so getting a head start if you plan to go that far may be good....
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