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 Language Learning Forum : Members profiles |  | |
| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5428 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 17 of 71 19 January 2010 at 2:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Jiwon, I agree with you about the generally irresponsible attitudes of college students, which is why I'm starting to look at some of the very highly-ranked schools here in North America. At least the students there will have SOME sort of intellectual interests! :D
My "safety school" for the moment is McGill University in Canada since I'm a Canadian citizen, and I'll also definitely apply to UCLA (University of California Los Angeles). Both are very highly regarded schools, and thus far it looks like I have the grades and scores to make them worth applying to. Who knows? I might also throw Harvard and Yale up on the list just for kicks - their foreign language departments are superb, and I've always liked the idea of attending college in New England. I'm also a die-hard Red Sox fan (sorry to anyone here who supports the Yankees!), though I've never watched a game in person before. Along with learning more languages, that's up on my list of things to do before I die, lol! :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5471 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 18 of 71 19 January 2010 at 3:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Considering your multilingual background and interest in languages, are you not interested in studying in a non English-speaking country?
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| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5428 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 19 of 71 19 January 2010 at 3:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Well for now, since I'm currently living in the U.S., I'm much more familiar with the American and Canadian higher education systems, particularly when it comes to undergraduate degrees. But graduate school is another story, so I'll most likely apply to a law school in Europe! :D
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| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5471 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 20 of 71 19 January 2010 at 4:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm confused with all these American educational system terms... I looked them up on Wikipedia, but mixed them up with the British and Dutch ones and now I'm just really confused... -_-
Basically, undergraduate is a Bachelor's, and graduate a Master's? It's confusing that the latter is called post-graduate in British. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5428 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 21 of 71 19 January 2010 at 4:09am | IP Logged | ||
In response to your first question, yes! People enrolled in undergraduate U.S. institutions earn Bachelor's degrees, and those enrolled in graduate U.S. institutions earn either a Master's degree or a Ph.D. (a highly specialized degree that comes after Master's). It really does get confusing when people mix it up with terms from the British educational system. I can sort of see why the British have long accused the Americans of "butchering" the English language, haha 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6438 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 22 of 71 19 January 2010 at 6:58am | IP Logged | ||
It's good to have high aspirations, and I hope you'll be able to reach them. :) I wasn't so lucky with US applications myself, as the year I applied was the year of financial crisis and they rejected many international applicants who requested financial aid. If you are serious about pursuing a foreign language major, I think you should look up Middlebury, which has the best foreign language courses in the states. But personally, I wouldn't advise anyone to go for double major in two different languages. It just seems a bit too risky, especially when the rest of the world regards languages as tools, rather than things to be studied for their own sake. But first, going to the college would be THE big step, and from there you could decide what to do. ;) And law school? I don't know whether they have law schools in Europe. For one thing, I know that law is taught in an "undergraduate" program in the UK and Germany. :S Edited by Jiwon on 19 January 2010 at 6:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5428 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 23 of 71 19 January 2010 at 7:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Aw, that's too bad about the U.S. applications. I think the way things worked out was simply badly timed, and had absolutely nothing to do with you. You could try coming here for grad school if you wanted to, though. :)
I've heard Middlebury recommended a bunch of times, but I don't think I'd be happy there since its campus is located in a rural setting. Most of my life was spent growing up in large cities (Singapore and Montreal), and if I even went anywhere remotely suburban I'd get depressed after a while. And as for foreign language majors being perceived as "tools" rather than actual fields of study, I actually agree with that, provided that the undergraduate foreign language degree is the ONLY degree held by the person in question. However, it can be rather useful for those who want to continue on after obtaining their Bachelor's degrees (such as me). There are foreign language majors who have been admitted to prestigious medical and law schools after graduation. I even have a book here written by Edward Bourgoin, entitled "Foreign Languages and Your Career", and under the chapter on law it says: "Special Note to Students: The usefulness of foreign language study to prospective lawyers is not limited to the fields mentioned above. A recent survey of law schools admissions policies showed that most are concerned more with the broad preparation of applicants than with the specific courses and majors they have had in college. They not only accept, but often prefer, students with a liberal arts education rather than a narrow, strictly "pre-law" background. As an enhancement of a student's ability to use the English language with skill, as well as a direct contribution to his or her knowledge of literature and the humanities, the study of foreign languages can be an excellent preparation for law school." (56-57) Edited by yawn on 19 January 2010 at 7:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5679 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 24 of 71 19 January 2010 at 7:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Yawn, you may be interested to know that if you complete your a CGEP certification, you
can gain admission into McGill's law program (or for that matter, any school in Quebec as well as the University of Ottawa) more easily than if you were to apply after having completed undergrad studies at other institutions. For a Canadian citizen proficient in French, this may be an attractive path (in terms of financial costs and time saved). Edited by Paskwc on 19 January 2010 at 7:47am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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