@CavsFan2003 Again, it depends upon the college you are targeting. If the college has a 5% acceptance rate and makes HS curriculum suggestions, it does so with the expectation that students will follow it barring extenuating circumstances.
Extenuating circumstances include :
• Applicant is an international student following a curriculum that does not align with the American standard. (e.g. UK)
• Schedule conflicts preclude the student from achieving the recommendations (in which case, the GC should say so in the GC rec)
• HS graduation requirements supersede a college’s recommended preparation ( a common issue with boarding school students applying to colleges that ask for 4 years of everything.
• For pedagogical reasons, the HS does not start study in a core subject until sophomore year.
• The HS discontinued the FL for budgetary reasons/staff retirement. Again, the GC should indicate this on the Secondary School Report.
Extenuating circumstances do not include:
• The applicant chooses to double up on one core subject at the expense of another core subject
• The applicant does not like a certain subject
• The teacher of a certain subject sucks.
Also keep in mind that many top colleges require foreign language to graduate. Harvard, as an example, requires 4 semesters unless you place out or place into a higher level. So the more you take in HS, the less (hopefully) you have to take in college.
That said, your college application will be viewed holistically. There is not a checklist of things one needs. And a compelling application can still be accepted with some small holes. As an example, and I know that the plural of anecdote is not data, many top schools asks for a year of bio/chem/physics. I never took bio. Not regular bio. Not AP-level bio. Not bio is middle school to count for HS. Nothing. I did however, take 4 years of very rigorous science classes. And I did well in the admissions process. However, be aware that the student that want to drop a foreign language to “focus more on STEM classes” are a dime a dozen. No college expects (or wants) HS students to be specialists; that’s what grad school is for.
But we are really getting ahead of ourselves here since you have not even started BS yet.