Will I be automatically rejected if I don't have 2 years of foreign language?

Answered

It depends on which colleges you are applying to.

If you are applying to Babson College

California Institute of Technology

Colorado College

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Pepperdine University

Stevens Institute of Technology

University of Rochester

then you don't need to worry.

However, almost every good, very good, to top schools want you to have a minimum of two years. Ivy's and elites prefer 4 years of foreign language and preferably one that is not spoken at home. So if you are Chinese, taking Chinese is not as useful to them compared to taking French or Italian, or Latin.

I would highly recommend that you take a language course this summer at your local community college if you are interested in applying to any of these schools:

School Number of Years Required Number of Years Recommended

American University 2 3

Amherst College 3-4

Barnard College 3

Bates College 2 4

Boston College 4

Bowdoin College 4

Brandeis University 4

Brigham Young University 2

Brown University 3 4

Bryn Mawr College 3

Bucknell University 2 4

Carleton College 3

Carnegie Mellon University 2

Case Western Reserve University 2 3

Claremont McKenna College 3 3

Clemson University 2 3

Colby College 3

Colgate University 3 4

College of William and Mary 4

Colorado School of Mines 1

Columbia University 4

Cornell University 4

Dartmouth College 4

Davidson College 2 4

Duke University 3

Emory University 4

Fordham University 2 4

George Washington University 2 4

Georgia Institute of Technology 2

Grinnell College 3

Hamilton College 3

Harvard University 4

Harvey Mudd College 2

Haverford College 3

Johns Hopkins University 4

Kenyon College 3 4

Lafayette College 2

Lehigh University 2

Macalester College 3

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2

Middlebury College 3

Mount Holyoke College 3-4

New York University 3 4

Northeastern University 2 3-4

Northwestern University 2

Oberlin College 3

Occidental College 3

Ohio State University 2 3

Penn State University 2 3

Pomona College 3 4

Princeton University 4

Purdue University 2

Rice University 2

Rutgers University 2

Santa Clara University 2 3-4

Scripps College 3

Sewanee: University of the South 2 4

Smith College 3

Southern Methodist University 2 3

Stanford University 3

Swarthmore College 3

Syracuse University 3

Texas A&M University 2 2

Tufts University 3 4

Tulane University 2 3

United States Air Force Academy 2 2

United States Naval Academy 2

University of California (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara) 2 3

University of Chicago 3

University of Connecticut 2 3

University of Delaware 2 4

University of Florida 2

University of Georgia 2 3

University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign 2 4

University of Maryland 2 2

University of Miami 2

University of Michigan 2 4

University of Minnesota 2 2

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 2

University of Notre Dame 4

University of Pennsylvania 4

University of Pittsburgh 2 3

University of Richmond 2 4

University of Southern California 2 3

University of Texas - Austin 2

University of Virginia 2 5

University of Washington 2 3

University of Wisconsin 3 4

Vanderbilt University 4

Vassar College 4

Villanova University 2 4

Virginia Tech 3

Wake Forest University 2 4

Washington and Lee University 3 4

Washington University in St. Louis 2

Wellesley College 4

Wesleyan University 4

Williams College 4

Worcester Polytechnic Institute 2

Yale University 4

Good luck

It will probably only hurt you if you are applying to the most competitive and selective schools. You should still be able to get into large, public institutions (especially in-state ones) even if you don't have foreign language (assuming the rest of your resume is competitive)