In addition to University Core Curriculum requirements, any student who was admitted with a foreign language deficiency must successfully complete two semesters of sequential instruction in one foreign language prior to graduation.
Please note there are additional requirements for foreign language as a student in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
Yes, there are two (2) Foreign Language Requirements:
FLENT/FLEX Foreign Language Requirement
All undergraduate students at the University must fulfill the University FLENT/FLEX foreign language requirement. You probably took two years of a modern language in high school. If these courses were on your high school transcript, it would/should have been entered on in the FIU system and the Flent/Flex foreign language portion of your Panther Degree Audit (PDA) will say "OK."
If your PDA still says "NO" and you have completed two years of a foreign language in high school, you need to check with an academic advisor to see what is missing.
SIPA Foreign Language Requirement
Some academic units do not require anything in addition to the University's foreign language requirement. However, if your major belongs under SIPA then you are required to provide foreign language competency in addition to high school credits. Academic Units sometimes have requirements in addition to those set by the University. The main difference between the two language requirements is that two years of ordinary high school foreign language satisfies the University Foreign Language Requirement (FLENT/FLEX), but ordinary high school language courses DO NOT satisfy SIPA's Foreign Language Requirement.
The School's requirement is a competency requirement, not a credits requirement. That is to say the student must demonstrate competency at or exceeding that of a second semester college level foreign language course. This proficiency can be met by receiving credit for the second semester of a foreign language or higher (e.g., SPN 1131 or higher) with a C minimum grade. Check with your advisor as to the best way for you to meet this requirement.
The good news is that any course work which satisfies the SIPA's Foreign Language Requirement will also satisfy the University's Foreign Language Requirement.
Please note:There are other options to fulfilling SIPA's language requirements. Some students opt for taking alternative exams and receiving acceptable scores in:
- The AP minimum score is 3 if the student took AP Spanish Modern Language and Culture (SPNL) or the AP Spanish Language (SPL) a score of 3 would give them SPN2200 (3 credits).
- The CLEP exam in Spanish (with a minimum score of 63). The minimum scores are different for French and German.
- The SAT Subject Test for Spanish, French and German (with a minimum score of 650).
For more information on the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) designed to measure knowledge in certain subject areas of general education, including language, please contact the University Testing Center at (305) 348-2441 or go to http://testing.fiu.edu.
Please direct any questions to assigned advisor as this is not a Modern Languages requirement; it is a SIPA requirement.