<p>I'm currently in eleventh grade and and worried about how only two years of Spanish will look on my application. Will only having two years of Spanish be a dealbreaker for fairly prestigious colleges, especially if I'm applying for an engineering major? Thanks!</p>
<p>Depends on what you mean by "fairly prestigious". Many (if not all?) of the Ivies require four years of a foreign language. I know Georgetown requires only two years of a foreign language, though. Use the College Board college search feature or Princeton Review to check individual schools' requirements.</p>
<p>When did Ivies start requiring 4 years of language? I'm pretty sure most only require 2 but reccomend 4... Or did that change recently?</p>
<p>Sorry, scratch that, it's my mistake. The Ivies don't require four years of a foreign language, but they do recommend it (most if not all of them). Of course, taking more classes in general is a good idea, but if you took two years of Spanish and a bunch of other classes in different subjects, you'll probably be okay.</p>
<p>If you didn't take more because you were busy at a nearby college taking advanced math and science, you may get away with 2 years. If you took easy electives, it will be held against you. In this global world it's more important than ever to be proficient in more than one language.</p>
<p>Could be wrong but I think I remember reading on princeton's site that they require 4 years. Regardless, yes, it is a disadvantage.</p>
<p>I can speak 3 other languages fluently, but took only two years of French becase my school didn't offer French 3 or 4. Is this all right?</p>
<p>^ The speaking other languages aspect is irrelevant, but your two years of French will not be held against you if your school didn't offer anything higher.</p>
<p>I have always heard people said that it won't be held against you if your school.......... . How would they know my school did not offer it though?</p>
<p>I took two years of Spanish and while i was in spanish 3 i had a falling out with the teacher in the first week of school. I then took spanish at a community college over the summer to atleast gain a little more knoweledge of the language, do you think this will look bad? I didn't take easy electives instead, but more towards classes that interested me into going into premed maybe.</p>
<p>I got into Princeton a year of college level Spanish, so it's not a 100% deal breaker.</p>
<p>Well I was going to take Spanish 3 this year but my knowledge was so far behind the required Spanish 3 understanding that I pretty much had no option but to switch to another class in order to maintain a 4.0 GPA. The elective I switched to however was Intro to Engineering, which is by no means an easy class, so I'm hoping that colleges will understand that and not simply throw my application away because I don't have 4 years.</p>
<p>Since you're a junior you still have time to get at least 3 years in. The top colleges don't want to see kids just take what's easy for them. All 4.0's are not created equally. A 4.0 is meaningful when a student has challenged himself across the board.</p>
<p>Well a foreign language is a little different, I barely had a grapple on the basic mechanics of Spanish I so taking Spanish III isn't exactly ideal.</p>
<p>re: 12:
I hope they throw away your application just for choosing grades over intellectual challenge. >.></p>
<p>It's not like i chose some stupid cooking or carpentry class, I opted out of taking a class that I would have inevitably failed due to a lack of required prior knowledge in favor of a challenging class that actually has to do with my intended major....</p>
<p>does the 2 year requirement include before applying, or after senior year?</p>
<p>If you're honest, you avoided a class most applicants to selective colleges take because it would nbring down your GPA, exactly what colleges don't like. If you're smart enough for a top college you're smart enough to do the preparation to do well in a language.</p>
<p>I think i'm in a similar situation. My teacher from middle school was a complete pushover, and kids took advantage of him to the point where we would get nothing done in class. NOTHING. He decided to pursue a position at the high school when I entered high school. Since German isn't a very popular language, I had him for my freshman year, and half of my sophomore year. He left for a position at a different school. After my sophomore year, I decided to drop German because the other teacher had requirements way above the my previous teachers standards. </p>
<p>I took two years of German in HS, completed German III (so three years?). I'm shaky about my situation as well.</p>
<p>Not to resurect this thread, but I’m looking at schools like Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and MIT and I’ve noticed that they require 3 or 4 years of foreign language. I’m an 11th grader now, and was wondering if they would be willing to let that slide. I’ve taken two years of spanish, but unfortunately I hate foreign language. Instead I will likely be taking advanced math and science courses (hopefully at the local college) next year. Should I go back and take spanish 3 and 4? Or am I fine as it is.</p>