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Foreign Language Entrance and Degree Requirements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

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Extract

This is a fourth revision of statistics first published in the Supplement to the September 1953 number of PMLA. The original listing was based on institutions offering the B.A. degree and listed as accredited in the American Council on Education's American Universities and Colleges, 1952. At that time, questionnaires were sent to the registrars of 767 colleges and universities granting the B.A., and replies were received from all.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 71 , Issue 4-Part2 , September 1956 , pp. 49 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1956

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References

1 American International C, Mt. St. Mary's C, Pacific Union C, Princeton U, State C of Washington, St. Martin's C, U of Washington, Washington and Jefferson C, Stanford U, La Verne C, Queens C (N.C.), and Whittier C.

2 All freshmen in the following institutions, which have no FL entrance requirement, offered 2 or more units for admission in 1953 : Boston U, Goucher C, Johns Hopkins U, Pennsylvania C for Women, Skidmore C, Sweet Briar C, Wheaton C. (Mass.), William Smith C. Other outstanding examples of the deceptiveness of categories: Bryn Mawr recommends 6 units of foreign language for admission, in view of its degree requirement of proficiency in 2 foreign languages. Percentages of entering freshmen who offered 6 or more entrance units: 1949, 68.6%; 1950, 67.5%; 1951, 56.1%; 1952, 54.2%. In 1952 only 5 freshmen presented as few as 2 units; the average was 5.67 units. Columbia admits only 2 or 3 freshmen out of 600 without at least 2 years of foreign language study. At Cornell's College of Arts and Sdences only 1 or 2 accepted applicants fail to present at least 2 units, and many present 5 units. Wellesley recommends 5 units, 3 in Latin or Greek, 2 in modern languages; 95% of accepted candidates for admission meet this recommendation.

3 “Bowdoin College is on the semester course, not the semester hour, basis. [Required for the B.A. degree is] completion of seven units of foreign languages (ancient or modern). A language unit is defined as an admission unit (usually one year of study of a language in secondary school), or a semester course taken in college. The requirement may be fulfilled by taking appropriate courses, or by passing a reading examination set by the College, or by attaining a satisfactory rating from the College Entrance Examination Board” (Registrar).

4 Physical Education majors excepted from the requirement.

5 Degree requirement abandoned 1947, restored 1956 (May). Note also that a student with 2 or more years of an FL in high school may start a new FL in college, but must take a minimum of 10 q.

6 Students in the Division of Education excepted from the requirement.

7 Entrance and degree requirements become effective May 1958.

8 Offers only the upper 2 years of college program.

9 Education and Physical Education majors excepted from the requirement.

10 Since April 1951 the California State Board of Education has decreed that “no foreign language shall be required by a state college as a condition to graduation.”

11 An affiliate of the YMCA of San Francisco, offering education chiefly in law and business administration, with the B.A. awarded only to majors in Economics.