Many undergraduate courses require no knowledge of a foreign language, and the department's popular survey courses present comprehensive portraits of past and present Near Eastern civilizations. Departmental Plan of Study Prerequisite. A student who has completed at least one course in the department is eligible to concentrate in Near Eastern studies. This course may be a language class or a course or seminar offered in any of the disciplines covered by the department. Students who meet the prerequisite for entrance into the department may be admitted and begin their program of concentration in the second term of sophomore year.
Advanced placement is available in all of the languages offered by the department.
Students seeking advanced placement in Arabic, Persian, or Turkish should consult the departmental representative to arrange for testing with the appropriate language instructor. A student with a Hebrew SAT II test score of 650 or a high score on the departmental Hebrew placement examination given during freshman orientation week will be considered to have satisfied the A. B. foreign language requirement and to be eligible for placement in a 300-level course. Departmental Courses and Programs. The department welcomes flexibility and encourages the idea of individual study plans with varying degrees of disciplinary specialization. Concentrators are required to take eight departmental or cognate courses, which include language courses beyond the second-year level.