Berkeley Mathematics Graduate School

[JasonJo]

I was looking on Berkeley's Mathematics Grad School requirements for Ph.D students, and they require you learn 2 of 3 languages: French, German and Russian. anyone go to Berkeley and can confirm this??

 

[Manchot]

If it's posted, it's probably posted for a reason...

 

[mattmns]

From what I have seen, many Math Ph.D programs in the US seem to require at least 1 of: French, German, Russian.

I believe Berkeley actually requires you to take language exams. However, some schools just require you to have taken 3 or 4 semesters of the foreign language, and others want you to translate a few pages of some math journal from whatever language to English.

 

[JasonJo]

do you take the language exams/courses in grad school or in undergrad?

 

[mattmns]

http://math.berkeley.edu/index.php?...Document&JAS_Document_id=4&MMN_position=42:41

Download the Grad_Student_Handbook.pdf, it has the info in there, and even more detail

 

[cogito²]

I was looking on Berkeley's Mathematics Grad School requirements for Ph.D students, and they require you learn 2 of 3 languages: French, German and Russian. anyone go to Berkeley and can confirm this??

It is true...sort of. You don't have to be fluent in the languages. You essentially only have to be able to translate a foreign paper into English while using a dictionary. That's the "test". It's not anywhere near as bad as it sounds.

Of course that doesn't mean you should avoid actually learning a language well. When I saw that requirement a couple years back, I started learning German. Now I'm studying here in Berlin. Funny where math takes you.