Language Placement

When determining the right course level for you, department advisors rely on:

  • The results of the placement exams administered by the department
  • Advanced Placement (AP) examination scores or International Baccalaureate (IB) rankings that you have submitted
  • Information on how you learned the language(s) that you know (e.g., at home, in school, how long you have been speaking or learning the language, etc.)

Helpful Guidelines

A placement test is not needed if you want to take a language you've never studied and do not speak. Simply enroll in any 101 section of that language.

If you wish to continue with a language, please take an online placement test. To find placement tests for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, or Spanish, go to your Blackboard home page and click on the "Services" tab, then click on "Academics." You will find a link to the online exam under "Language Placement."

If you are an incoming first-year or transfer student, please navigate to the New Student Academic Guide website for placement information for all languages that we offer.

French course placements are regularly posted on Blackboard. Click on "Language Course Placement" under "My Organizations" on your Blackboard home page.

German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish course placements are regularly emailed to your registered University of Rochester email account.

For Polish and Portuguese placements, please contact the instructors.

For Chinese placements and for those who have questions about their placements, please contact the placement advisor in that language program.

For Japanese placements, please scroll down this page to "Program-Specific Placement Information" and go to "Japanese".

For Korean placements, please take the Korean Placement Test. (Click the “Enroll” button after opening the link.) Students who take the Korean language placement test should fill in the Korean language placement form and submit it to the Korean language teacher (Myounghee Cho, myounghee.cho@rochester.edu) by email to get the test result.

Program-Specific Placement Information

For program-specific placement information including links to online placement exams, see the individual program pages:

MLC Language Placement Advisors