# Should a Large General U.S. University Offer Study in Foreign Languages, Linguistics? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 15, 2023, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-large-general-u-s-university-offer-study-in-foreign-languages-linguistics/988582 "2023-08-15T00:50:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-large-general-u-s-university-offer-study-in-foreign-languages-linguistics/988582/121 "2025-06-27T02:27:38Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > A bit over 50 years ago my four years of Spanish were enough for MIT. I needed no other languages to graduate. I suppose you and Mr. Iverson think no scientists come out of MIT. > Didn’t need any more for my PhD, and neither did my daughter. I was class of 1971 (a bit over 50 years ago) and there was absolutely no foreign language requirement for an S.B. at MIT in any of the sciences or engineering, Perhaps you needed it in Humanities (course 21) or Linguistics (course 23), They used to have foreign language requirement for a PhD, but they phased it out while I was there. First they counted FORTRAN (So I’m told but that may have been a joke.) By the time I got mine, no foreign language was required. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-large-general-u-s-university-offer-study-in-foreign-languages-linguistics/988582/122 "2025-06-27T19:10:32Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > I was class of 1971 (a bit over 50 years ago) and there was absolutely no foreign language requirement for an S.B. at MIT in any of the sciences or engineering, Perhaps you needed it in Humanities (course 21) or Linguistics (course 23), > > They used to have foreign language requirement for a PhD, but they phased it out while I was there. First they counted FORTRAN (So I’m told but that may have been a joke.) By the time I got mine, no foreign language was required. I graduated in 1973 (VI-3) and IIRC it was an entrance requirement. If you had that, not hard to get, you didn’t need any more work on languages. When I taught in grad school one of my students in my CS101 for Honors students class was in the English PhD program. They had just started accepting a computer language for one of the language requirements. This was 1979. PL1 in this case. My school had a Multics system. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-large-general-u-s-university-offer-study-in-foreign-languages-linguistics/988582/123 "2025-06-27T19:34:02Z")
Ah could be. I had three years of Spanish and two of Latin when I entered, though I don’t recall anyone every talking about such a requirement. I did get awarded Phi Beta Kappa (first year MIT awarded it) based in part on my high school languages. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-large-general-u-s-university-offer-study-in-foreign-languages-linguistics/988582/124 "2025-06-27T22:43:26Z")
It was probably buried somewhere, and, since you had it, no wonder it never came up. I was sensitive to it since I hated natural languages and read all about how it was often required. I was relieved that I didn’t have to. Remember, John Campbell flunked out of MIT because of the German requirement. Or that’s what I had read. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-large-general-u-s-university-offer-study-in-foreign-languages-linguistics/988582/125 "2025-06-27T23:41:13Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > John Campbell flunked out of MIT because of the German requirement I can’t find any consistent explanation of why he was thrown out of MIT. One source says he was thrown out after one semester. One source says he was thrown out in his junior (for the non-Americans here, that means the third of four years). One source says it was because he failed German. Since when does a university throw out a student based on him flunking one course (even if it was a required course)? If his grades on other courses were good, they would just insist that he retake the course he failed. One source says his grades at Duke University, which he went to after leaving MIT, weren’t very good but were good enough that he graduated. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-large-general-u-s-university-offer-study-in-foreign-languages-linguistics/988582/126 "2025-06-28T00:18:43Z")
That is what I read in 1969. I think since then I read that he might have spent too much time writing stories, which were selling. In any case, he was not resentful of MIT. He donated his reading copies of Astounding, all bound, the the MIT Science Fiction Society Library. I was Librarian for 2 1/2 years and I read the Golden Age volumes. When I was at MIT it was hard to get kicked out, but I don’t know what it was like back when he was there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-large-general-u-s-university-offer-study-in-foreign-languages-linguistics/988582.md?page=6)