Minor Requirements

To obtain a Minor in French & Italian, students must fulfill the following requirements:

  1. A minimum of five departmental courses in the relevant language, linguistics, literature, or culture, excluding courses that do not have a language prerequisite and any 100-level language course. At least three of these courses must be at the 300 level (or higher). Up to two of these courses may be taken at the 200 level, but FRE 207 and 208, or ITA 207 and 208, cannot both be counted. A 200-level course is a prerequisite for taking 300-level courses in French or Italian. 
  2. Exit interview - At the end of senior year, all students minoring in French or Italian must successfully pass a ten-minute exit interview in the target language, reassessing the highlights of their experience with FIT. This exam will take the form of a conversation with a panel of three faculty members.

Please Note

  • Students pursuing a Minor in French and/or Italian may not count PDF or Audit courses toward the Minor. Those courses must be taken for a letter grade.
  • Up to one departmental class taught with an English lecture, and up to one class cross-listed with other departments, may count towards the minor in French or Italian, provided that course work for the class (all readings and assignments) is completed in the target language.
  • Princeton summer abroad courses offered through the department may also count.
  • Residence in Italy or in a Francophone country is strongly encouraged. Minors will be eligible to apply for funding specific projects to be conducted abroad. However, no more than one study-abroad class may count towards the Princeton Minor in French and/or Italian.
  • In exceptional cases, such as demonstrable scheduling conflicts due to requirements towards their major, students may request to substitute one of the five required classes with a reading course taken under the supervision of a faculty member from FIT. The course should result in an independent paper of about 8000 words. This request has to be articulated in the formal application to the Minor and is subject to the approval of the DUS and the relevant faculty member. Work done for this reading class has to be conducted in the target language and cannot be counted for other departments.