Type of Language Proficiency Required

[CageFree]

Exactly.  And mine wont even accept the language exams administered by the university's own foreign language department.

 

Yeah, mine won't either. In fact,  international students have to take those exams as well (even though they have college degrees from those countries). 

[ReallyNiceGuy]

Thanks for the replies and feedback!

[thedig13]

Language requirements for americanists depends on the program.  Many schools have eliminated them completely. 

 

The modern langauge requirements for Americanists at my program are French, German, or Spanish.  Two passages of longer than 500 words, one with and one without a dictionary, 45minutes each passage.  Test may be taken as many times as you need to pass, but must pass before your comprehensive exams.  No one can remember anyone being sent packing for failing this requirement.

 

The bitch in my program is that everyone needs to pass in either French or German, even those who have to pass in both modern and classical chinese. 

Are you at Princeton? I thought Americanists at Princeton could substitute Spanish. I believe that's what the Graduate Student Handbook said, although they may have changed it, or I may be misremembering...

[New England Nat]

I am at Princeton, and if you look at the first sentence of my second paragraph in the section you quoted you see i said that.  The last sentence refers to the fact that people who have to pass in difficult languages like Chinese, Japanese, Arabic ect also pass in either French or German.  All of the history of science people have to pass in French and German.

[fossilchick]

Wow, these requirements really vary by program quite dramatically.  My MA program required a language exam and at the time you signed up, you had to provide a written paragraph about why that language was relevant to your project.  (We were Americanists.  For some people, their language was a stretch.)  2 hours, 3-5 pages of academic text, with a dictionary.  My PhD program allowed students to take the exam in any language they wanted, but if you didn't pass the language exam you were required to take a full year of intermediate or advanced language classes, which the tuition waiver didn't cover since the courses were outside the department.  So there was a strong incentive for the program not to admit students who weren't ready to take, and pass, the exam.