UC Berkeley no longer accepts 3 years of high school foreign language for L&S requirements | Academics

The College of Letters and Science has changed how students can fulfill foreign language requirements. For those admitted fall 2026 and beyond, L&S students now must complete two semesters of a college-level foreign language course, or meet an equivalent competency through various exam scores.

Accepted exam scores that fulfill the requirement include specific AP, IB or SAT subject tests and scores. For students admitted before fall 2026, three years of high school foreign language instruction still satisfies the requirement.

The requirement is also fulfilled “by completing at least three years of secondary school in which the primary language of instruction was a language other than English, starting from grade 6 or above as verified by transcripts,” said campus spokesperson Sarah Fullerton.

The change reflects the shift to California General Education Transfer Curriculum, created by Assembly Bill 928, which standardized transfer requirements needed to enroll in a UC or a CSU, according to UC Office of the President spokesperson Omar Rodriguez.

ASUC Transfer Representative Varsha Torpunuri raised concerns that the change could act as an additional barrier for transfer students. Transfer students who did not take an AP or IB test in high school now have to spend time taking additional courses to fulfill this requirement.

“It feels like it shows, time and time again, that transfers are treated as an afterthought,” Torpunuri said in an email. “Many Fall 2026 transfers are here under the impression that their coursework and requirements were complete, and now they are being told they have to figure out how to complete a language requirement within two years.”

Fullerton said the change reflected findings of the L&S Executive Committee, which determined that other institutions, including other UCs, do not accept high school-level coursework to satisfy language requirements.

The L&S Executive Committee also determined that high school language instruction is not consistent or standardized, so students could come in with the same amount of language instruction time, but varying degrees of ability.

“It is incredibly unfair and unrealistic. It is already difficult for transfers to graduate on time when classes and credits do not transfer over, especially for students coming from a quarter system school,” Torpunuri said. “Adding another requirement after students have already transferred only makes that timeline more difficult.”