If you are majoring in any B.A. program or in International Business, you have a foreign language requirement that you must satisfy. You must complete the intermediate level of either French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, or Spanish or demonstrate equivalent proficiency by transfer credit or exam.

If you are not ready to start at this level, you must start at a lower level.

If you have no background in your chosen language: Begin at the beginning level of that language.

If you have some background study of a language, we need to determine the appropriate level of course for you to begin at FUS. This is done in the following ways:

1. If you already have college credit:

If you have previously earned college credit, we transfer it. If your level is equivalent to or higher than FRN 202, GRM 202, GRK 202, HEB 202, SPN 202/206, or LAT 204, then your language requirement is considered to be satisfied (and you are welcome to take advanced courses with us!) If your credits transfer at a lower level, we start you at the course subsequent to the equivalent course you have earned credit for and you keep going until you’ve completed the second intermediate course. Again, you are always invited to take our advanced courses if and when you qualify.

2. If you have AP, IB, or CLEP credit:

Submit the appropriate level AP Exam, IB Exam, or CLEP Exam scores for credit. Consult the FUS equivalence sheets to see how your score translates to your number of credits earned.

3. If you have background (such as high school classes) but no college or AP/IB/CLEP credit:

Take our non-credit-granting, online, unproctored exam for placement into our courses. This test for French, German, and Spanish is called the TrueNorth exam. Contact the Classics professors for information about Latin and Greek placement exams. The TrueNorth exam is used for placement purposes only. It is never used for waiver (“testing out”) purposes. For waiver purposes, a student must first score above a certain level on the TrueNorth exam, and then must take our proctored waiver exam, the Tailwind exam. If a student chooses not to take the waiver exam, then he or she must fulfill his or her language requirement by taking courses at the appropriate level and/or taking the CLEP exam.

Waiver Exam (for those who qualify only):

If your score on the TrueNorth placement-only exam indicates that your proficiency level might fulfill or exceed our requirement, then you will be invited to take the Tailwind exam (our waiver exam) in French, German, or Spanish.

To access the TrueNorth placement exam:

1. Log on to The Port
2. Click on “Academics & Registration”
3. Click on “Placement Exams”
4. When you are ready, click on the exam of your choice.
5. Scroll down to “Foreign Language Placement Exams;
6. When you are ready, click on the exam of your choice.
7. Your results will be given to you immediately via email. Be sure to check the email address you used to take the TrueNorth exam.
8. If you are told to “Take the Waiver Exam or CLEP,” decide which is your next course of action and do it as quickly as possible.

Tailwind is a non-credit-granting, live online-proctored WAIVER exam administered through Scantron, Inc. It is free to FUS students. Those who qualify will be sent an email notice from [email protected] ; the subject line will read “Notice to Schedule Tailwind Placement Examination for Franciscan University.”

This email will be sent to the same address that you used to take the TrueNorth placement-only exam. Please be on the lookout for it and follow the directions given.

Remember: Neither the TrueNorth placement-only exam nor the Tailwind waiver exam give you college credits. They only tell you whether you are at, below, or above the required proficiency level.

YOU CANNOT “TEST OUT” OF THE LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT VIA THE TRUENORTH EXAM. YOU MUST EITHER SCORE SUFFICIENTLY ON THE TAILWIND EXAM, THE CLEP EXAM, OR TAKE AN ACTUAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSE.