General Education Requirements are listed in the Stanford Bulletin.
The Language Requirement
Stanford undergraduate students are required to complete one year of college-level study or the equivalent in a foreign language. Students may fulfill the requirement in any one of the following ways:
- Completing three quarters of a first-year, 4-5 unit language course sequence at Stanford or the equivalent at another recognized postsecondary institution, subject to current University transfer credit policies. Language courses at Stanford may be taken with the Credit/No Credit grading basis, if so offered, to fulfill the requirement.
- Scoring 4 or 5 on a foreign language Advanced Placement (AP) exam prior to college matriculation. AP Literature scores are not accepted.
Registrar's Office AP Credit Chart - Scoring a 5 or higher on a foreign language higher level international Baccalaureate (IB) exam prior to college matriculation.
Registrar's Office IB Credit Chart - Achieving a satisfactory score on the SAT-II Subject Test in the following languages prior to college matriculation:
- Chinese: 630
- French: 640
- German: 630
- Hebrew: 540
- Italian: 630
- Japanese: 620
- Korean: 630
- Latin: 630
- Spanish: 630
- Taking a placement test in a particular language which either:
a) places them out of the requirement or
b) diagnoses them as needing one, two, or three additional quarters of college-level study. If the latter case (b), the requirement can be filled either by:
c) passing the required number of quarters of college-level language study at Stanford or the equivalent elsewhere or
d) retaking the placement test at a later date and placing out of the requirement.
Students who have fulfilled the language requirement with official test scores or transfer credit and wish to pursue further study in the language must take the placement test to determine the most appropriate course for them.
