Modern Languages Advisement

Our department offers a major, area of concentration and minor in Spanish, in addition to a range of courses in beginning and intermediate French, Italian, Russian and Arabic. Freshmen may take language courses to satisfy their graduation requirements for the Liberal Arts Core under Global Perspectives, and Spanish courses may be applied towards a major, a minor or area of concentration in Spanish. 

Students who wish to take language courses should register according to their level of proficiency, determined by college credit earned, by having taken AP courses or the CLEP or other proficiency exams, or according to the number of years taken in High School (as listed on summary sheet) as follows:

• Only students with no prior experience in the language should take 151. 
• Students with 1-2 years of High School language should register for 152. 
• Students with 3-4 years of High School language should register for 201.

CLEP and NYU-SCPS exam credit is awarded for students’ knowledge/proficiency level prior to taking a college-level language course. A student who enters college language courses at the Elementary level is not eligible for proficiency exam credit. Credit will be awarded according to the guidelines provided by CLEP and NYU-SCPS, whereas a student who enters college language courses at the Intermediate level may earn college credit for Elementary courses (up to 6 credits); a student who enters college language courses at the Advanced level may earn credit for Elementary and Intermediate courses (up to 12 or 16 credits). 

Students do not need to take an exam before registering for language courses if they have not studied the language in High School, do not have a requirement to take a language at St. Joseph's University, or if they have already fulfilled their college language requirements through AP or college credit courses in high school.

Proficiency Exams Information

Students who have studied a number of years of a language, or use a language other than English at home, should be encouraged to take the College Level Examination Program  (CLEP) exam in Spanish, French or German or NYU foreign language testing in other languages, as these exams award them college credit for their knowledge.

For Spanish, French or German, go to the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exam page to sign up. Students may earn up to either 6 or 12 college credits, depending on their scores.

For languages other than Spanish, French or German, go to the NYU foreign language testing page. Depending on the test chosen and score, students may earn up to 12 or 16 college credits.