Certification
The Department of French & Italian offers certification in French at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. For more information about the undergraduate certificate, see the Certificate in Advanced French page.
Graduate Language Requirement in French or Italian
You may determine the language requirement, if any, for your major field and degree by consulting your department’s website, your advisor, or your Director of Graduate Studies. When a major field requires a language, the Graduate School monitors the fulfillment of language study.
Our department certifies two levels of language proficiency; basic language proficiency and advanced language proficiency. Please consult with your department to determine which proficiency level is sufficient for your degree program.
Fulfilling the basic language proficiency requirement:
To demonstrate basic language proficiency, you must complete one of the three following requirements:
- Completing two semesters of graduate or undergraduate language courses with a grade of B or better. If you have already studied French or Italian, keep in mind that the coursework necessary to fulfill the requirement must have been taken within five years of proficiency certification.
- Passing French 100 (Reading French in the Arts and Sciences) or Italian 100 (Reading Italian in the Arts and Sciences), usually offered one semester per year and as a distance-learning course.
- Passing an aptitude test arranged with the director of graduate studies in French or the director of the Italian program.
Fulfilling the advanced language proficiency requirement:
To demonstrate advanced language proficiency, you must complete one of the two following requirements:
- Taking upper-division undergraduate (topics level) or graduate coursework within five years of applying for certification.
- Passing an aptitude test arranged with the director of graduate studies in French or the director of the Italian Program.
- For French, you will be asked to provide an article/publication relevant to your field of study in the French language. You will be expected to either write a formal summary of the article in French, have an informal conversation in French about the article with the Director of Graduate Studies, or both. Additional factors such as previous education, course credit, and documented professional experience relating to use of the French language may also be used to justify passing this certification at the Director of Graduate Studies' discretion.
- Italian aptitude tests are organized on a case-by-case basis with the director of the Italian Program
Certifying your language proficiency:
Proficiency in French or Italian at the graduate level can be certified in one of two ways; degree milestone certification and transcript certification.
- For degree milestone certification, the language is certified by your home department, typically by the Graduate Program Coordinator or Director of Graduate Studies. This option is best for you if it is not immediately beneficial to have language proficiency documented on your transcript. While we recommend students at minimum meet the basic proficiency requirements for degree milestone certification, it is ultimately up to your department, which may consider other proficiency markers (course credit, LPE exam scores, transcripts, etc.). This certification allows you to satisfy the language requirements needed to graduate, but your proficiency will not be documented on your transcripts.
- For transcript certification, you must complete the advanced language proficiency requirement. You must then complete the Language Department Certification of Foreign Language Proficiency form, and send it via email to [email protected] for certification. This certification becomes part of your official record and can be used in the future to certify your knowledge.