The Big C Word...

[Mithrandir]

Mith: Four years of language is far, far, better than two. Your counsellor did you a favor, one you probably won't see until about 10 years from now.

Perhaps, but I find it hard to believe that four years of highschool-level foreign language will be anything more than a passing memory ten years from now, much less be remembered well enough to provide a solid base for further foreign language development. That's assuming I am ever even in a situation in which I would need a foreign language, and even more specifically, that exact foreign language I studied.

The one thing I would advocate most is to get started on a foreign language early. And stick with it. It expands the mind.

I would argue that the extra time afforded to me by either taking more classes in my major than are required (because I would be able to skip "pre-req" courses and thus open more slots for other courses and graduate at the same time as my other colleagues) or graduating early (and thus gain that extra year or so of work experience) would expand my mind just as much, if not more so, as a couple years of a foreign language that appears very unlikely to ever be applied.

That said, I certainly am not disparaging foreign language studies in general. It's just that, in my experience, it took up valuable course slots and provides little to no benefit to my field of study, and I thought it would be helpful to relate my concerns to the original poster (and anyone else reading this thread in much the same situation as I was).