Students who only wish to take a MA degree may satisfy their language requirement with four semesters of coursework in one language at the college level or the equivalent. Those who plan to apply to the PhD program and whose areas demand longer study of a difficult language should meet the more rigorous requirements of the PhD program in that language.

Ancient: Greek, Latin, and German
Medieval: German, Latin and French or Italian
Renaissance: Italian, German, and Latin
Northern: German, Dutch, and Latin
Modern: French and another language
American: Two languages or one language and statistics
African: French and one or more African languages
Chinese: Modern Chinese, Classical Chinese, and Japanese
Japanese: Modern Japanese, Classical Japanese, and kanbun or French

Fulfilling Language Requirements by Examination. Language examinations - administered variously by the language departments, the UW-Extension, or the Educational Testing Service Graduate Reading Proficiency Examination - must be arranged by the student. Students taking the Educational Testing Service Graduate Reading Proficiency Examination must attain the score of 550, which represents a minimum level of reading competency. You are encouraged to take the ETS examination at the earliest possible date in the languages in which tests are currently available (French, Spanish, German, and Russian) and to have transcripts forwarded to the Art History Department. The Art History office will record completion of the language requirement on receipt of these transcripts.

Fulfilling Language Requirements by Coursework. Students with an undergraduate major or an MA in a language automatically qualify in that language as do its native speakers. Otherwise students must have completed the following course requirements no earlier than four years before entering the program at UW-Madison.

African languages: 4 semesters
Chinese (Mod): 6 semesters*
Chinese (Class): 2 semesters
French: 4 semesters
German: 5 semesters
Greek: 4 semesters
Japanese (Mod): 6 semesters*
Japanese (Class): 2 semesters
Latin: 4 semesters

*All Modern East Asian language courses are intensive and require eight hours of class contact a week (Lectures M,W,F, discussions M-F). To speed your progress you might take the first two semesters the first year, then the intensive ten-week course during the summer (includes third and fourth semesters, twenty-hours a week).

Fulfilling Language Requirements through "Graduate Reading Knowledge" Courses. Some language departments offer special, one-semester courses that teach only reading knowledge for graduate students. Discuss with your major professor whether this training is sufficient to your research needs.