Admission Requirements
Following La Salle’s general admissions standards for graduate programs in liberal arts, candidates for the Certification in Interpretation, Spanish-English/English-Spanish, must meet the following minimum requirements:
To be considered for admission into the CII program applicants must meet the following standards:
- Applicants must provide an official transcript that evidences their completion of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university or college.
- An overall undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher is desirable.
- Two letters of recommendation from professors (undergraduate or graduate) are required. If the applicant has been out of school for over 3 years, current or past employers may issue the letters of recommendation.
- Evidence of an “Advanced Level in Spanish and English”
This may be determined in a variety of ways, and it is ultimately left to the discretion of the Program Director. Some typical indicators are:
- When the applicant possesses an undergraduate Major, Minor or Double Major in Spanish with a GPA at 3.0 or higher
- When the applicant has secured working experience as a translator (Spanish-English)
- When the applicant is able to demonstrate bilingual competency (Spanish-English) despite a lack of academic credits in language courses
- When a student has studied languages at a foreign university program (sanctioned by an accredited U.S. university) and he/she has received a grade of B or better.
- All applicants will be required to have a face-to-face interview with the Director or the Graduate Academic Advisor for the purpose of assessing the applicant’s linguistic skills in both Spanish and English.
- The Director’s judgment is final.
It is preferable (but not required) that candidates for admission to the CII have done some kind of work, voluntary or compensated, in a setting involving intercultural interaction. Typical kinds of experience are community-oriented outreach, hospital volunteering, undergraduate internship at a place where Spanish is spoken or written as part of the normal routine, part time work in a school, business, law firm or clinic where Spanish is used routinely.
The program is also intended to serve working professionals who may have already had formal experience in one of the areas of specialization (legal, healthcare and business Spanish). For these individuals the letters of recommendation required could come from employers, past and present.