Chinese or GPA?

stop taking chinese.

You'd be stupid to continue Chinese if it dragged your GPA from 3.8 to 3.5

take it from me, you can't learn chinese at a proficient level in college courses anyway. drop the class. instead, enroll in a summer program (Princeton in Beijing, Columbia in Beijing, Tsinghua IUP). You will get credits without the classes counting in your GPA.

well, if you feel you're getting a better grasp of the language, and will eventually be proficient, i'd suggest taking it. The language skills you acquire follow you for life. But then again, I'm biased cos I speak the language...

I am getting a better grasp of the language. I would attempt to learn Chinese independently of college, but I feel that I wouldn't get enough exposure if I didn't take it as a course to really become anywhere near proficient. It may be easier next year because I'm going to China this summer, but as of now it brought a 3.85 to a 3.59.

I want to get the best job I can, and I originally thought that taking Chinese would not conflict with this desire and perhaps help me, but, as I said, the impact on my GPA has forced me to give further scrutiny to the value of my studying Chinese.

The questions are, as I see them: 1) Is it worth it to study Chinese if it continues to keep my GPA in the 3.5-3.6 range? Would I be taken seriously if I put a non-Chinese GPA on my resume, given the fact that most people know it's one of the most difficult languages to learn? 2) Since my GPA has already been impacted, is it better to try to continue to study Chinese till I graduate rather than absorbing the hit I already took for no real purpose?

Can't you take that shit pass/fail instead of for letter grades?

1) Your GPA is still respectable. Since you're from a target school, i'll suggest you take it and try your best to raise your grades or at least maintain it around a 3.6. I would also suggest speaking to the Chinese professor, tell him/her your concerns... usually, when u wanna drop the class, they do everything they can to help you stay. At least, when they grade you next time, they keep in mind you career aspirations.

Put in your major GPA. That'll help clear things up.

2) Like you said, since you've already been impacted, calculate how many 4.0 semesters that is left will help to raise your grade. If the difference is minimal, then I suggest keep going.

you're clearly fishing for people to say "great job! continue learning chinese! we know it's hard but you're a real trooper and should keep up the good work!"

everyone has told you to stop taking it if you want to be well-positioned for recruiting. if that's not a priority for you, then keep taking chinese.

I was clarifying the situation so people knew I wasn't doing fuck-all in the class, since some people seemed to think that. I'm going to make my decision in the next couple of days.

I appreciate all the advice so far, especially the bluntness.

pass fail that shit

This is coming from someone who took Chinese through college and lived in the country for two years.

The first thing that you should know is that if you want to work in a China centric role in finance (or most other industries) these days your Mandarin needs to be at least highly proficient . This means being able to go through annual reports in Chinese, listen and read financial press in Chinese, etc.

With that in mind, it is up to you how much you want to commit to China related pursuits. If you want to really commit, you should note, as you have no doubt heard, that four years of college courses in Chinese will not get you anywhere near the level you need. Spending a summer at an intensive language program (as it seems you plan to do) is a good start. However, if you to get to a level of Chinese that will be useful in business, you should spend more time in country (e.g. year abroad). Moreover, once you get to a decent level, you should study independently to build up your financial and economics vocabulary in Chinese (you will not get this in any language program).

In terms of your GPA question, if you decide to stick with Chinese and don’t think you can bring your grades into the A/A- range, you should ask about the option of taking your courses pass/fail. Employers will not care about seeing the grades from specific Chinese language courses, as they will simply test your language abilities themselves.

drop the course. BBs tend to hire native speakers for China related business. but if you really like the culture, just keep it as a hobby

Don't give up something you've spent this amount of time/energy on. Plus I doubt if a 3.6~ in Chinese would look that much inferior to a 3.8~ in German: it's a different language system thus is harder to learn. If you get to the business level, it opens doors for you in HK/Mainland.

Kinda unfortunate this is how things are in the world. You seem to have a passion for learning Chinese and it indeed is a very useful skill. Too bad you instead will most likely pad your GPA with other classes. I wish things were different....such is life.