Generally when being advised another on what to study, you are told to pick something you're passionate about and that comes pretty easily to you. For me, foreign language was the most obvious choice - I listen to German music, study German culture, read German translations of English novels, and eavesdrop on tourists to see if I can understand what language they're speaking.

When I visited Germany again the summer after my sophomore year, I fell in love with everything about it, and even more so with the language. My conversation skills improved immensely over the summer and I looked forward to continuing German at my new high school, as I moved just before my junior year. German was the only subject which had ever challenged me to a point that I enjoyed. It was the only class where I would work harder than I had to, or work to truly understand a concept, rather than just be able to do it on a test.

At the time, I was thinking about becoming a translator for businesses, or even going into politics… just about anything I could think of that would keep me speaking German! I had the same German teacher freshman and sophomore year, and switching teachers made me notice the differences between the two and what teaching methods worked and didn't work.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was formulating how I would run a classroom. Now I'm a German Education major, which will have me certified to teach K-12th grade. I'm also carrying a minor French to keep my options open, and I hope to go to graduate school and get my masters in French.

First I looked at where in the country I wanted to go to college, and decided on New England, so three of the five schools I applied to were in that area. Mostly, I looked into schools based on word of mouth. A good school will find you… I asked people where they went to school, and what they liked about it. When adults asked me what I wanted to study they would mention a nephew or a cousin who studied something similar and where they went. If it sounded like something I was interested in, I would research it. The Internet is an amazing tool for college searching. Ultimately, I narrowed down my choices on whether or not they met my major, campus, location and price range needs.

Knowing exactly what I wanted to study was a luxury. I knew to look at schools which had a foreign language education program, rather than schools which just certify you to teach your major. I ended up hearing about Miami University from my dad, as many of his co-workers had gone there, or knew someone who did, and everything I had heard about it was good news. I narrowed down my choice between my acceptances to Miami U. and Boston U. and went to the wire to visit both schools the weekend before the acceptance deadline. Eventually, I decided on Miami because Boston appeared to have a very weak education program, and because I decided I'd prefer a rural location rather than in the middle of a city.

I was right about Miami having an amazing education program. I've already taken nine hours of education classes—in psychology, leadership, and training—and have had excellent professors. The only thing to complain about is that the school is renovating the education building so we're kind of thrown all over the place for classes, but soon the education building will be open with all new technology (wireless access included). Obviously this is a minor complaint as students are well accommodated anywhere on campus.

I took my first German class for German majors this past semester and I found it to be the first challenging German class I've ever taken. I wrote four two-page papers, my first ‘real' papers in a foreign language, and while it challenged me I feel like I improved. I found myself reading a book this week, A Walk to Remember, by Nicholas Sparks, in translation and I'm breezing through it, when I could barely start it last summer.

I think it's really important that students be prepared to be challenged by their classes in their major, especially if it's a subject that has always come easily. I got really disheartened after I received my first paper back and it appeared to be bleeding red ink, but my writing — in both English and German — has benefited from having a class that I couldn't breeze through.

While I knew that Miami had a liberal arts foundation, I don't believe I knew what exactly that was when I started. While I still like the concept, I wish I had known that having a language major take ten hours of science may not be a good idea for his/her GPA. I expected my college science (and all other non-major subjects) to be generally the same as they had been in high school, where I would attend class and do what I had to do and get an A. But I found that in college, it's not only the classes in your major that increase in difficulty. One thing it would have been nice to know about is taking classes (especially those ten science hours) on pass/fail basis.

Aside from what I view as an incredible amount of science, I think the liberal arts foundation is excellent, and something I would have looked for in a school had I known exactly what it was at the time I was doing my research. I have a lot of room in my schedule to fill all my general education requirements that are completely different from my major. For instance, I took a music history class first semester, which is something I was interested in but wouldn't have taken had it not been a requirement. Furthermore, I like being able to take a few electives.

While my German Education program is highly structured to allow students to graduate in four years, I had a lot of transfer credit, mostly from Advanced Placement exams, which allowed me to free to take electives including marching band. It's important to look for a school from which you can graduate in four years, but I would say it's also important to look into how much room you will have to take other classes of interest as well.

I am a member of the marching band and the Equestrian Team. These two activities made my first year at Miami amazing, and I have no idea what it would have been like without them. The vast majority of my friends (and social life) are from one of these two organizations.

The best thing about marching band was that I got to move onto campus a week early freshman year, so by the time my roommate moved in, I was accustomed to everything from the showers, to recognizing buildings on campus, to how to get home from a party… not to mention I had already met three of the four people who would become my best friends.

The equestrian team experience was a little different. While marching band allows everyone to join, the equestrian team is a tryout sport. I was accepted as an alternate for the first month and a half of the school year before I became a full-fledge team member. The support I got from my friends on the team helped me to improve in my riding more than I thought possible, and I learned more about horses and how a stable runs by being part of the team than I could have any other way.

Even on a campus where I feel like everyone else is in a sorority or fraternity, I am not, and I don't feel like I need to be. However, I do believe it's very important to be a member of something, on both small and large campuses, to develop friendships.

If you are part of an organization that you enjoy, which is also offered at the college you end up attending, I would not hesitate to advise you to continue it. Because band was a class as well as an organization, I saw the same 300 people daily, as well as at social functions, and of course at football games. I'd have to say the best memory I have from band was the bowl game in Shreveport, La. over the winter break.

Because I went away to school, I wasn't home much over the year… and winter break is a long time to be home if you haven't been in a while. About a week into break I was dying to see all my friends from school and to go back, and thanks to the bowl game I was able to spend time with most of my best friends. I don't say this to downplay the importance of family or to imply that everyone would feel the same way, but rather to point out how much of a separate life your education can become and how your friends can become your family.

As far as what to expect from membership, band required me to practice for an hour and a half daily during the fall semester, as well as attending full days of practice and being part of the performance on game days. The riding team requires three hours of practice for the week, plus dues, entry fees for shows, and weekend travel/work for shows, which are held both at home and away.

I would have to say the best assessment for language skill is how you view your own skills. If you feel like you're good at it, you enjoy it, and you're willing to work at it, you'll probably be fine. Your confidence level is going to play right into how well you do in a language class; if you are embarrassed by talking in the language or by expressing yourself, it will reflect in your work and to the professor.

On my first day of college classes, my German professor went around the class and asked everyone about their background in German. I told him I had been an exchange student for six weeks, had studied the language for five years, and was placed in his class by both the proficiency test and the German Advanced Placement test. He asked me if I would jump off a bridge if the Advanced Placement test had told me to. It certainly shook my confidence to hear that, but I was confident enough that I stayed in the class. And it was the class I belonged in.

My first suggestion for assessing aptitude would be to find out how confident you are, and I would also suggest talking to your language teachers. Have your teacher be honest about how you are doing, and ask if the teacher thinks you are capable of keeping up in a college level language class. Finally, if you aren't confident or your teacher doesn't think you're quite up to speed, but you still want to study the language, then do, especially if you're passionate in it! Just start at a lower level then perhaps your previous class work indicates should, and use it as a review. So much about languages is caught up in the grammar and syntax you learn within the first year, and sometimes all you need is to learn it again when you can understand and relate it to what you learned in later levels, without having to focus on learning the vocabulary.

I think the most important thing to consider is the school as a whole. If you don't like where you are, how well you're being taught and what you're learning won't make a difference. Keeping this in mind, it's important to consider how your major will relate to what you want to do.

For instance, at Miami University they offer a German language education program, whereas many schools just offer certification to teach the subject you major in. I believe it was easy for me to pick my school because I knew what I wanted to study and what I wanted to do with it; there are definitely different considerations for different fields.

Obviously, making sure that a school offers your language of study is important, but within that is how important that language is within the school. To determine this, look at the number of faculty for your language department and their qualifications. If you know what you want to do with the language, the strength of that program is more important than the strength of the entire language program, as you will get hired for your ability in your field, rather than the fact that you speak your language.

The best way to learn about a school is to visit it. I had no idea what a small portion of Boston University the School of Education was until I visited it, and had no idea what an outstanding education program Miami University had until I had visited Miami. Also, I didn't realize how much I would dislike going to school in the middle of a city until I walked around Boston's campus--so visiting is a necessity.

As you get further into your college search, meeting with directors or faculty of the language program could be the deciding factor in whether or not you decide to go to a school. When I met with a faculty member at Miami, she helped me map out what it would take to major in German education, minor in French, and study abroad, and convinced me I could do it in four years. Even if I couldn't have done it in four years, the fact that she sat down with me before I decided on Miami U and helped me map out my entire education showed me that the faculty would be willing to help me in my studies. They have been, and it's been a wonderful asset to my education.

The best advice I could give someone thinking about an education in language is before you begin their education, be sure you are willing to work at it, willing to not be the best student in the class, and willing to work through setbacks. Most individuals thinking about a language focused education have probably had little trouble learning the language, but they must be prepared to be challenged at the college level. I had a hard time reading German books in my first literature class, so I forced myself to reach each selection at least twice. I had never had any trouble reading in German, so I was unnerved to realize that I had to work harder than I had to before, but now I can read German novels much easier.

To increase your chances of being accepted, it's best to prove your proficiency in the language. Both the American Association of Teachers of German and the American Association of Teachers of French offer yearly exams for students to assess proficiency and rank you among other students within your year of language study. My high school paid for the exam once I convinced my teacher to offer it. Schools aren't going to want to admit students they believe will drop the program, because they will have taken the spot of someone who may not have dropped, so proving you are willing to stay with the language is also important.

Take the language for as long as you can, and if it's not offered at higher levels (such as AP) at your high school, consider taking a community college course. Your ability to succeed at higher levels of language acquisition is important to being accepted to a language program; beyond higher level classes, other helpful ways to gain language skills are to study abroad on an exchange program, or even host an exchange student. You can also ask your high school language teacher to outline your class participation levels and ability to take the language to the next level in a recommendation letter.

I am planning to go into teaching German at the secondary level, but haven't yet had any hands-on training or internships, though I have observed classrooms for some of my education classes. I spend as much time as I can in German classes, and when I couldn't be in a German class I watched French or even English.

The best advice I can give to someone considering language education as a career focus is to watch your current teachers or future professors for what works or doesn't work in class. Watch for a teacher introducing a new grammar concept and if it's confusing, think of another way to explain it. If something works, figure out why, not only what it was that worked, and apply that information to every concept and activity you consider; watch for other professors using similar methods, and whether it works for them as well. I had a French professor first semester who was amazing, and another second semester who was new and not as effective, although she obviously tried to incorporate the same methods my first semester professor used. I spent nearly the entire semester trying to understand why it worked for the first professor, but not the second… I still haven't gotten it.

For someone considering education, I would suggest taking every opportunity possible to put yourself in a situation where you are leading, mentoring, or teaching other people, both in high school and college. Next year I will be employed as a German tutor at Miami U, which is not only an amazing job for a student, it's also direct career training. If a school doesn't have a tutoring center, look for jobs as teacher's assistants, in the library, or offer to help students in your dorm.

Also, keep in contact with your professors; my German professor from first semester is the person who got me my job as a tutor; he walked me to the tutoring center and asked them to hire me. He extended an open offer to me to teach one of his introductory German classes. This is one example of the necessity of contacts! Whatever field you go in to, you need a job, and one of the best ways to get a job is if you already have an "in." If as a student you were in contact with your high school's principal, make a point of staying in contact throughout college, and don't forget your teachers, you may need to ask them to help you get classroom observation hours.