2 years of foreign language?

[danieltheboi]

<p>Hi everyone, I'm currently a sophomore in high school. I take hard classes and I am number 3 in my school rankings. I have a 3.9 unweighted GPA. I have received an A in all my classes... Except for French. I aboslutely despise French and I wish to drop it so I can take AP Statistics instead. However... Will this harm me a lot?
And just for a better answer... Colleges I'm looking into are the following. I'm looking to go into a double major in Music Education and Mathematics.
Columbia U
U Mich
Johns Hopkins
Oberlin
Rochester
Carnegie Mellon
Bard
Northwestern
Rice</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>Try looking for admission requirements and recommendations at each college’s web site.</p>

<p>And then see if they have foreign language graduation requirements that exceed the admission requirements.</p>

[halcyonheather]

<p>I have this problem too. I can’t take a third year of foreign language because it won’t fit into my schedule. (My high school doesn’t require foreign language to graduate, so I didn’t take it freshman year.) Most colleges only “require” 2 years but they recommend more than that, so it sounds like having only 2 years could hurt you.</p>

[Sikorsky]

<p>I have been copying and pasting this a lot on College Confidential lately. It’s Harvard’s recommendation for foreign-language preparation in high school. Harvard is not saying, “This is what you need to do to go to Harvard.” Harvard is saying, “This is what you ought to do to prepare yourself for an elite college.” Here’s what they say:</p>

<p>

**Foreign Language
**
You should leave secondary school knowing at least one foreign language well enough to read it easily and pronounce it acceptably. Knowing a foreign language enables you to enter another culture and to understand its ideas and its values. A fundamental aspect of language-learning must be a grasp of vocabulary and syntax that allows you to read novels, plays, poems, and magazines, with as much of a native speaker’s comprehension as possible. We have found that students who have mastered a foreign language before they come to Harvard take more language courses here than those who have not. Indeed, these students often embark on the study of languages not commonly taught in American secondary schools.</p>

<p>Many secondary school students take a smattering of several languages – for example, Latin for two years, French for a year, and Spanish for a year. When it is too late, they realize that they cannot read or speak any of these languages well. We urge you to try to study at least one foreign language and its literature for four years. Continuity of study is important, too, because a “year off” from a language can be a real setback. Once you are comfortably fluent, you will possess that language – and better appreciate the culture it has shaped – for the rest of your life.

[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Preparing for College](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/preparing/index.html#language]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/preparing/index.html#language)</p>

<p>I think dropping French to take AP Statistics is not a good idea.</p>