Dartmouth University

What you'll study

The programme integrates advanced language instruction, literary and cultural analysis, and foundational and specialised topics in linguistics. Students typically progress through language sequences to achieve high oral and written proficiency in at least one Romance language while taking courses in literature spanning historical periods and genres—poetry, theatre, narrative and contemporary cultural studies. Core linguistics work includes modules in phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and field methods, with applied options such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and computational approaches to language.

Programme structure emphasises flexibility and undergraduate research: students combine language courses, literature seminars, and linguistics classes, and often undertake a research practicum or senior thesis. Typical course types include intensive language workshops, close-reading seminars, comparative grammar, translation and interpretation, corpus-based projects, and seminars on colonial and post‑colonial literatures, film and digital media. Opportunities to pair coursework with study abroad, community language teaching, internships and laboratory-based projects are central features.

Entry requirements

Admission is through Dartmouth's undergraduate admissions process, which evaluates academic record, recommendations, personal statement and extracurricular achievements in a holistic way. Successful applicants usually demonstrate strong preparation in humanities and languages; prior study of a Romance language is an advantage but not always required. International applicants whose first language is not English will need to provide evidence of English proficiency according to Dartmouth's published requirements. Students already enrolled at Dartmouth wishing to declare the major must meet department-specific standards in language placement and prerequisite courses and should consult departmental advisers for guidance on progression and honours tracks.

Career prospects

Graduates leave with advanced language skills, critical reading and writing abilities, and training in linguistic analysis—skills valued across many sectors. Common career paths include:

• Education and academia: language teaching, secondary education and progression to graduate study in linguistics, literary studies or applied linguistics.
• International affairs and diplomacy: work in embassies, international organisations and NGOs where multilingual communication and cultural literacy are essential.
• Publishing, journalism and cultural institutions: editing, translator and curator roles that draw on literary and cultural expertise.
• Language technology and research: roles in natural language processing, localisation, user experience research and corpus linguistics, often in collaboration with computer science or data science teams.
• Public service and private sector roles: policy analysis, communications, consulting and international business positions where cross-cultural communication and analytical skills are required.

Why study at Dartmouth University

Dartmouth offers an undergraduate-centred environment with small seminars and close faculty mentoring, which supports intensive language practice and supervised research. The college's departments of Romance languages and of linguistics provide an interdisciplinary curriculum and access to language labs, digital resources and study-abroad partnerships that deepen classroom learning. Students benefit from project opportunities—such as community language programmes, translation projects, and joint research with faculty—while campus resources for undergraduate research and advising help students tailor the programme to professional or graduate pathways. The emphasis on close faculty-student interaction, experiential learning and flexible curricular design makes the programme well suited to students who want both linguistic rigor and cultural breadth.