@TopTier I appreciate your insight, thank you and I’ll definitely do more research in time
@uesmomof2 AP Physics is considered the hardest course at our school along with AP Bio and we only offer chem every other year, and when it is in session, it’s highly touted as the school’s most daunted gauntlet (fun right?) but yeah the admissions counselor for my region told me that she felt the extra AP Physics class would be more competitive in her view, but I must take into consideration that I’m applying to more than just Cornell and that there is going to be far more counselors reviewing my application aside from her.
@Jcannon1023:
Perhaps you might want to consider a possibly important question.
I don’t doubt that AP Physics is the “hardest course.” However, do the most-selective schools want you to demonstrate your intellectual readiness for their competition and challenges by excelling in some – or in all – academic disciplines? My point is (and I was a truly terrible French student) they just might prefer to see that you can do quite well in a wide variety of AP/IB/Honors courses, specifically including those in areas where you are not as innately gifted. After all, we all can do outstanding work in realms where are “naturals,” but in college – and in life – excellence will often be expected in arenas where we are essentially mediocre.
I don’t have a definitive solution for your problem, but I respectfully suggest you consider the foregoing possibility. In fact, I could conceive of an admissions essay that focused on: “Why my B in AP Spanish Four should mean more to Cornell (etc.) than an A in AP Physics.”
I know there are a number of colleges and universities that recommend 3 years of a foreign language, do you know of any that REQUIRE it?
Building upon what @TopTier said, when looking at schools’ with single-digit admissions rate, one really should mentally replace “recommended” and “optional” with “required.” Will not having the recommended preparation mean automatic rejection? No. Personally, however, I was not willing to take that risk.
@Trisherella Just look at post #13.
General rule with “recommended” courses is that if the course is offered to you and you know enough to ask, treat it as required. It is the first gen applicant whose high school may not offer the course or who was never told about the need to take it by an overworked counselor who was too busy with keeping students from flunking out who may get some slack.
At least Stanford and WIlliams require 3 years of world language. I could not find the list that I had, but I believe there are several schools require 3 year or more.
The answer is pretty simple. Take the Spanish. Top schools not only have a soft requirement for maxing out foreign language, but they also generally recalculate your GPA anyway. So, both your reasons for taking physics are out the window.