undergraduate language requirements

[William Mahota]

Dear David,
How goes it? Hope all is well. Things here are, well, Yaly.
About the language requirement here I can say that it is satisfactory.
Students must take 2 years of a language, but can test out, and
each department has its own test (or maybe French and Spanish rely
on the AP or the SAT II exams). I for one place almost no incoming
freshmen in third year; in 8 years I have placed only one or two that
high, even if they have four years at a "good" school. I get a lot
of backlash from some of them, but after a few weeks in my second
year class, they usually recant.
Hope that helps.

Oh, by the way, the requirement is automatically waived if
a student completed high school in a foreign country in a school
where everything is taught in the native language. This is a
particular problem for me with Russian kids, so I have them
take the Proficiency Exam, which is intended for grad students
in my dept. and in REES. They also must pass an oral.
Cheers,
Bill