Second Language? Forum

[TripTrip]

If you want to learn Mandarin (or any other language) - be it for travel, potential career benefits, or any other reason - go for it.

There is a caveat to this though. Taking a college course which will more than likely bring down your GPA (as I know taking Mandarin definitely would to my GPA) is a bad idea. Learning new things is great on your own time, but don't waste your GPA.

[20141023]

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[TripTrip]

If you want to learn Mandarin (or any other language) - be it for travel, potential career benefits, or any other reason - go for it.

There is a caveat to this though. Taking a college course which will more than likely bring down your GPA (as I know taking Mandarin definitely would to my GPA) is a bad idea. Learning new things is great on your own time, but don't waste your GPA.

There is an exception to this caveat, though. For example, I already knew Japanese going into college, so taking Japanese coursework actually padded my GPA. Accordingly, if you are already fluent in a language, majoring in that language could be one of the smartest things you can do if you 100% plan on going to law school.

Ha! I don't think that's an exception. My caveat is just "if taking course X will bring your GPA down, try not to take course X."

But yes, if you're crazy like Regulus, take the crazy classes.

[jbagelboy]

If you want to learn Mandarin (or any other language) - be it for travel, potential career benefits, or any other reason - go for it.

There is a caveat to this though. Taking a college course which will more than likely bring down your GPA (as I know taking Mandarin definitely would to my GPA) is a bad idea. Learning new things is great on your own time, but don't waste your GPA.

There is an exception to this caveat, though. For example, I already knew Japanese going into college, so taking Japanese coursework actually padded my GPA. Accordingly, if you are already fluent in a language, majoring in that language could be one of the smartest things you can do if you 100% plan on going to law school.

a caveat to the exception of the caveat: I actually know two cases where someone who was native to a language and majored in that language got pwned in LSAT admissions despite a near 4.0. even with the heavy emphasis on numbers, TOP law schools still look for challenging coursework when deciding between applicants. If you want HYS you need to stand out amongst many applicants with high GPA's and one way to do that is with demonstrate you've challenged yourself with your coursework

for example, philip chung born in Seoul majoring in korean at UCSD with a 3.95 will not impress hys admissions

clarification: native english speaking english majors obviously excluded from this

[izha]

If you want to learn Mandarin (or any other language) - be it for travel, potential career benefits, or any other reason - go for it.

There is a caveat to this though. Taking a college course which will more than likely bring down your GPA (as I know taking Mandarin definitely would to my GPA) is a bad idea. Learning new things is great on your own time, but don't waste your GPA.

There is an exception to this caveat, though. For example, I already knew Japanese going into college, so taking Japanese coursework actually padded my GPA. Accordingly, if you are already fluent in a language, majoring in that language could be one of the smartest things you can do if you 100% plan on going to law school.

a caveat to the exception of the caveat: I actually know two cases where someone who was native to a language and majored in that language got pwned in LSAT admissions despite a near 4.0. even with the heavy emphasis on numbers, TOP law schools still look for challenging coursework when deciding between applicants. If you want HYS you need to stand out amongst many applicants with high GPA's and one way to do that is with demonstrate you've challenged yourself with your coursework

for example, philip chung born in Seoul majoring in korean at UCSD with a 3.95 will not impress hys admissions

clarification: native english speaking english majors obviously excluded from this

That's so unfair. Poor Philip Chung, who is obviously Chinese, gets discriminated.

[mephistopheles]

If you want to learn Mandarin (or any other language) - be it for travel, potential career benefits, or any other reason - go for it.

There is a caveat to this though. Taking a college course which will more than likely bring down your GPA (as I know taking Mandarin definitely would to my GPA) is a bad idea. Learning new things is great on your own time, but don't waste your GPA.

this is such a fucking stupid thing to worry about. not to knock you, but more the system.

[TripTrip]

If you want to learn Mandarin (or any other language) - be it for travel, potential career benefits, or any other reason - go for it.

There is a caveat to this though. Taking a college course which will more than likely bring down your GPA (as I know taking Mandarin definitely would to my GPA) is a bad idea. Learning new things is great on your own time, but don't waste your GPA.

this is such a fucking stupid thing to worry about. not to knock you, but more the system.

I agree. I wish there was a better way of assessing academic achievement that could be as widespread and useful as GPA.

[jbagelboy]

If you want to learn Mandarin (or any other language) - be it for travel, potential career benefits, or any other reason - go for it.

There is a caveat to this though. Taking a college course which will more than likely bring down your GPA (as I know taking Mandarin definitely would to my GPA) is a bad idea. Learning new things is great on your own time, but don't waste your GPA.

this is such a fucking stupid thing to worry about. not to knock you, but more the system.

I agree. I wish there was a better way of assessing academic achievement that could be as widespread and useful as GPA.

Says the 4.0.... Pshhh