Course Selection

cdb3

5-Year Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
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30
So freshman and sophomore year i took Italian II and III.
As a junior I have decided to drop the class, which brings me to the decision of what to fill the slot with and wondering Navy's stance on taking language course.

1. If Im not mistaken, Navy requires Mids to minor in a language yet do not offer Italian. So I am wondering if taking Mandarin Junior Senior years would be beneficial?

2. Or i could opt to not take a language and fill NJ's requirement of an art in the form of a public speaking class, which would then allow me to take an extra class senior year such as AP Gov/Pol or AP Stat

Basically, Im wondering if I should take a language or fill my arts requirement?

Thanks you for your time
 
A couple of things. If memory serves . . .

USNA does not require a language minor. Mids majoring in the humanities must take (or validate) 4 semesters of language. STEM majors can opt to take advanced language to fulfill their humanities distribution requirement.

In terms of admissions, USNA likes advanced language b/c it shows continuity with a course. Thus, it would be better to stick with Italian than start something new. However, if you don't like Italian, that's another matter.

USNA doesn't care too much what language you take, although if you have fluency in Chinese or Arabic, that could help. Taking a language USNA offers will help you validate some or all of a language there.

USNA likes to see "core" courses, such as English, science, langauge, history, math vs. what it considers to be more "soft" courses, such as psychology, sociology, art, music, etc. One soft course each semester isn't an issue provided you're doing well in the core courses. Loading up on softer courses won't help you from a USNA admissions standpoint.
 
This was the exact question I had two years ago at the end of my sophmore year as I was deciding course selection going forwards. The admissions person I talked to at Navy said the same thing you did, usna1985. His words were, "We don't care what language you know, unless it happens to be Arabic or Chinese."

After that interview and a few other interactions in which the importance of strategic languages was stressed, I started taking Arabic dual credit in the evenings at community college and this year (my senior year) I'm studying in Jordan to develop proficiency. I can communicate fairly fluidly after the equivalent of Arabic IV and I just got my BFE in the mail last week. I don't know how much my Arabic effected my admissions, but it can't have hurt. I would highly recommend it.
 
Really? Only Arabic or Chinese? What about Russian? Does the U.S. Navy not think that the Russians could be capable of something the Arabians or Chinese are? I know the Cold War is over, but....
 
The only language majors currently offered at USNA are Chinese and Arabic.

Honestly at this point I'm surprised they don't promote Spanish more, except that there are more native-speakers of Spanish in the US than Chinese or Arabic, particularly in the military community.

In terms of national security though, Russian is nowhere near as critical as it once was. As you already stated,
the Cold War is over
 
I would not get to concerned about a second language as part of the admissions process. Whatever you highschool offers is fine as it shows you have the ablity to learn a second language.

The STEM courses provide the preferred path to future admissions. I met the director of admissions outreach a couple of years ago. His message to future applicants was to focus on doing well in the STEM courses. He explained that even the Group III majors (Humanites) at the Academy are still "stealth engineers". What he meant by that comment was that he could take the average Groupd III student and drop them into a top tier engineering school and they would survive. Group III students at the academy have the talent and academic background to be engineers, it just that their interests lie elsewhere.
 
The one thing you can count on as an officer in any of the US armed services is that you are going to be dealing with advanced technological equipment on a daily basis in any of the line/combat/warrior branches, hence the emphasis on STEM related courses. You might note that most of your first two years at the SA's will be mostly STEM courses; you don't get into your major to a significant degree until the last two years of your four.
 
The only language majors currently offered at USNA are Chinese and Arabic.

Honestly at this point I'm surprised they don't promote Spanish more, except that there are more native-speakers of Spanish in the US than Chinese or Arabic, particularly in the military community.

In terms of national security though, Russian is nowhere near as critical as it once was. As you already stated,


I wish I was alive 30 years ago. Anyone else or just me? I didn't plan on foreign language being as important as everything else, so the same rules still apply, to do well in that class and carry on.
 
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