Southwestern administers placement examinations in French, German, Latin and Spanish. Students with a high school background in language should place high enough to receive exemption from a beginning level course.

With few exceptions, placement in the language sequence is determined by a combination of placement exam scores and semesters of high school language study.  Therefore most students entering Southwestern take a placement examination in a foreign language. A high placement may exempt students from some or all of the language requirement, and may award them credit depending upon how high they place, and what grade they receive in the language course in which they enroll.  Placement tests may be taken in more than one foreign language, but a maximum of 12 credits total can be awarded for language placement.

Also, whether you take a placement exam or not, you are required to complete this survey of previous language study, so we can use that information to place you at the proper level. (If you have already done the survey there is no need to redo it.)

International students whose native tongue is not English may satisfy the foreign language requirement by scoring at least 570 (paper) or 230 (computer) on the TOEFL exam.

Also, students with an advanced proficiency in a language not taught at Southwestern may be able to test in that language if an exam can be found to administer.