Before taking their Ph.D. Comprehensive exam:

• Ph.D. students must demonstrate reading knowledge of two foreign languages at Fordham.

Before completing their M.A. Capstone:

• Master's students must demonstrate reading knowledge of one foreign language at Fordham.

Students may fulfill this requirement in French, German, Italian, Latin or Spanish by receiving a least a B in zero-credit graduate reading courses. Many students choose to do this during one of the (shorter) summer sessions.

Please check my.fordham.edu for the current graduate reading language courses.

A second option to fulfill the language requirements at Fordham is to schedule an examination with the appropriate chair in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ Modern Languages or Classics Departments. Taking an exam might be a good option for those students who have studied a language at another institution. Exams at Fordham are not listed on transcripts until successfully passed. However, students who have little formal training in a foreign language are urged to take a course.

Students wishing to substitute another modern or ancient language for those mentioned above must obtain approval from the Graduate Director. The primary criteria for such requests should be scholarly—that is, the substituted language should have some intrinsic importance to one’s area of literary interest or career plans.

If students wish to take a language class at another university, they are welcome to do so, but the only criterion accepted for fulfillment of Fordham’s language requirement is an exam given by the relevant Fordham language department.

To schedule an exam, please follow the instructions below:

The Department of Modern Languages & Literature (MLL) and will offer exams to fulfill the graduate language requirement the week before the beginning of fall and spring semesters.

The exams, which will be equivalent in difficulty to the final in the graduate language for reading courses (the one-semester "French for Reading," "Italian for Reading," and "Spanish for Reading" courses and the second-semester "German for Reading II"), will test students' proficiency in reading primary and/or secondary sources in their professional fields.

Students who are interested in taking this exam should make an appointment with the MLL Department Secretary, Maria Totino (Faber 553, 718-817-2651, totino@fordham.edu), two weeks before the beginning of either the fall or spring semesters.

The exams will be corrected within two weeks and the departments will be notified of their students' grades. In order to pass the exam the student will have to receive a grade of B.