The College expects all students to complete the language requirement. Students may meet the language requirement in one of four different ways:

1. by testing out with an appropriate score in the CEEB Advanced Placement examination, International Baccalaureate examination, or in another standardized examination selected by the faculty of a particular language in consultation with the Associate Provost; or
2. by satisfactory completion (grade of S, C-, or better) on the fourth-level courses (fifth-level in the case of Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese); or
3. by passing a proficiency examination designed or selected by the faculty of the particular language in consultation with the Associate Provost; or
4. by passing a special examination with speaking and reading components (if a written language), prepared by an expert for those languages not taught at Carleton. Arrangements are made by the Associate Provost.

Language Progress

Students who receive advanced placement in a language and wish to use that language to satisfy the language requirement should begin with that level of placement when it becomes available in the first year, unless otherwise counseled by their academic adviser.

A student must begin to fulfill the language requirement before the fifth term at Carleton. In sequential language courses, a student must earn a C- or better to progress to the next course.

Petitions for Exemption from the Requirement

Students experiencing inordinate difficulty in satisfying the language requirement may petition the Language Requirement Exemption Committee (LREC), a subcommittee of the Academic Standing Committee (ASC), to request an exemption from, or substitution for, the language requirement. (Information on the petition procedure is available here.) The LREC evaluates these petitions using the following criteria, granting petitions only if all three are met:

1. The student has demonstrated inordinate difficulty in language learning. The student must have evidence of experiencing inordinate difficulty in language learning attempted prior to the time of petition, not just hypothetical or anticipated difficulty. Normally the student’s language learning experience must include language sequence courses taken at Carleton.
2. The student’s difficulty arose despite making appropriate use of all available relevant forms of support. The student has pursued language learning in good faith. For language classes at Carleton, for example, the student reliably attended class, was engaged in the classroom, and reliably completed assignments outside of it. The student sought help from the various resources available (e.g., instructors, office hours, the Language Center, Language Associates, tutors, the Academic Support Center, etc.). If the student believes that a disability is relevant to their difficulty in language learning, then they have worked with the Office of Accessibility Resources and have meaningfully engaged in an interactive process to explore potential reasonable accommodations (other than an exemption) for language learning.
3. The student’s descriptions of their effort and difficulty are consistent with their instructors’ observations. The student’s instructors in current or prior language courses attest to the student’s inordinate difficulty with language learning. The instructors also substantiate the student’s description of their good-faith effort and use of all available relevant forms of support in language learning.

For any student granted an exemption, the Language Requirement Exemption Committee has the authority to waive additional courses or require from one to four pre-approved alternate courses. Though they are taught in English, these alternate courses ask students to study literature and/or culture within the framework of a language other than English. The number of replacement courses assigned by the LREC is normally calculated as follows: the number starts at four, and it is reduced by one for each level of the language sequence that the student has substantially completed at the time of their successful petition.