Language Sequences and Placement
If you plan to continue studying a language at Stanford that you speak at home or have studied in school, you must take a placement test to determine the level in which to enroll at Stanford. Students with any background in a language (study or home background) may not self-place, even into beginning-level courses. Students who have fulfilled the language requirement through AP, SAT II, or IB testing must take the placement test if they wish to continue taking courses in that language at Stanford.
A language placement test is not required if you plan to start a brand new language. The Stanford Language Center offers over 40 different languages each year, and there may be good reasons to begin learning a new language, such as your personal, academic, or research interests, or plans to study abroad.
Most language placement tests have two parts: oral and written. The written portions of the language placement tests are offered online throughout the summer in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish. The date of your written test is determined by the first letter of your last name, as noted below. In the case of Spanish ONLY: if you scored a 4 or 5 on the AP Spanish Language Exam or a 630 or above on the Spanish SAT II and have sent your score to Stanford, you do not need to take the online portion of the Spanish placement test; simply take the oral test on campus during NSO.
The oral portions of the Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish placement tests will be administered on campus during NSO. Please note that there are no online written tests for Arabic, Classical Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Latin, Portuguese, Tagalog, or Vietnamese. Full placement tests (written and oral, if applicable) in these languages will be administered on campus during NSO. For languages not listed above, placement tests may be arranged by appointment. More information about the placement tests is available on the Language Center website. Contact the Language Center if you have further questions or difficulty meeting the schedule below. Times and locations for the on-campus placement tests will be announced in your NSO materials when you arrive on campus. You are welcome to take placement tests in multiple languages.
For course placement purposes, placement test results are valid for one year.
2015 Online Written Test Dates
Last name begins with:
A–C June 8 - 28
D–F June 29 - July 9
G–J July 10 - 20
K–M July 21 - 29
N–Q July 30 - August 6
R–U August 7 - 17
V–Z August 18 -29
