<p>Okay so I have taken three years of regular Spanish and was wondering if it would look bad if I dropped it my senior year in order to take an AP class? I'm also currently in my second year of taking Greek and will be completing my third year next year (my school only offers three years of Greek). Would dropping spanish affect my chances with colleges even if I trade it for an AP class that I'm more passionate about?</p>
<p>It depends on what college you are applying to or planning on applying. Some colleges require two, others three, and I’ve even heard of some requiring four (none of the ones I applied to). I would always recommend and AP class also but just do what feels right to you. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Many schools do recommend 3 or 4 years of the same world language. Your decision would depend on the school you are going to apply. But you probably don’t want to make it a limit on your college search.</p>
<p>It is probably better to have more years total in one language, because it shows you stuck with it.</p>
<p>Having three years of both Spanish and Greek is not going to look bad to anyone. Ideally, the requirement is reaching Level IV in any one language, not four years of a language, but having a total of six years in two languages should be a fine substitute if you never reached Level IV in Spanish. Take the AP.</p>
<p>The question is, will you be taking additional courses in either language in college? Completion of a higher level in high school (with or without AP) may allow you to start in a higher level language course in college (note that colleges often have their own placement tests for language courses, since they have to deal with students who have some knowledge without formal course work or testing, such as heritage learners).</p>
<p>^^ With that thought in mind, two additional comments to think about:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>At some colleges, if you take an AP language course in high school and score a 5 on the AP test, you are exempt from a college’s foreign language requirements. Likewise, score a 4 on the AP test and you only have to complete 1 year of the same language in college. If you don’t take the AP test, or score 3 or below, some colleges require you to take 2 years of a foreign language in college in order to graduate. So, the question really comes down to: Do you want to be paying college tuition for a foreign language course later or would you rather get it over with now, and take an elective in college. You should definitely check the foreign language requirements for graduation at the colleges you are interested in before making a decision.</p></li>
<li><p>If you do NOT take a 4th year of Spanish, will your guidance counselor still rate the rigor of your course load as “most demanding?” The answer is going to depend on what the majority of college bound students are doing at your high school. Depending upon what class you took instead, I could imagine a scenario whereby your GC might rate your course rigor as less rigorous than your classmates – and you don’t want that to happen! Bottom line: Talk with your guidance counselor and get their feedback.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Which colleges besides the USNA and USAFA have a two year (4th semester or 6th quarter level) foreign language graduation requirement (for students in general, not those studying foreign language and literature or other subjects that require stronger foreign language knowledge)? A one year (2nd semester or 3rd quarter level) foreign language graduation requirement appears to be reasonably common.</p>
<p>^^ Much depends on the foreign language a student chooses. Yale and Harvard require 3 terms for students who haven’t taken the AP. Princeton requires 3 to 4 terms: <a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/pub/agf/planning/”>http://www.princeton.edu/pub/agf/planning/</a></p>
<p>
I’d have to go through a list of colleges to find more examples, but they do exist.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Georgetown come immediately to mind.</p>
<p>Just check the requirement of each school. When a school requires 3 or 4 years of a world language, it means the same language. If it ask for 4 years of a world language, having 3 years on 2 languages may not meet their requirement.</p>
<p>At highly/most selective colleges, typically it’s 3 terms if you choose a less-commonly taught language like Chinese or russian <em>and haven’t taken it in HS</em>, or 4 terms (1 semester above AP although AP5 tends to satisfy the requirement) if it’s a commonly taught language.</p>
<p>Not to throw a wrench in this conversation, but the absoluteness of the number of years of hs language required can depend on your major (and how competitive you are.). In OP’s case, 3 and 3 could be fine.</p>
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<p>Not sure if generalizing “highly/most selective colleges” is accurate, as there is considerable variation in foreign language graduation requirements. Examples:</p>
<p>Harvard: 2nd semester level: <a href=“http://static.fas.harvard.edu/registrar/ugrad_handbook/2009_2010/chapter2/language_requirement.html”>http://static.fas.harvard.edu/registrar/ugrad_handbook/2009_2010/chapter2/language_requirement.html</a>
Yale: 3rd semester level: <a href=“http://yalecollege.yale.edu/content/foreign-language-requirement”>http://yalecollege.yale.edu/content/foreign-language-requirement</a>
Princeton: 3rd or 4th semester level (“107/108 level”), depending on language: <a href=“http://odoc.princeton.edu/curriculum/general-education-requirements#FLR”>http://odoc.princeton.edu/curriculum/general-education-requirements#FLR</a>
Stanford: 3rd quarter level (= 2nd semester level): <a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/lc/language/requirement/”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/lc/language/requirement/</a>
MIT: none: <a href=“Welcome! < MIT”>Welcome! < MIT;
<p>Amherst: none: <a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/Amherst%2520College%2520Catalog%2520Section%2520IV.pdf”>https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/Amherst%2520College%2520Catalog%2520Section%2520IV.pdf</a>
Williams: none: <a href=“Williams College”>Williams College;
Swarthmore: 2nd semester level: <a href=“Foreign Language Requirement :: Modern Languages & Literatures :: Swarthmore College”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/academics/modern-languages-and-literatures/language-requirement.xml</a>
Pomona: 3rd semester level: <a href=“Degree Requirements - Pomona College - Acalog ACMS™”>Degree Requirements - Pomona College - Acalog ACMS™;
<p>Yes, but some of these colleges’ definition of “2nd” and “3rd” semester level is much, much higher than what it is elsewhere. Typically, 2-3 years in HS exempt from 1st semester, but it really varies on the college. Pomona’s 3rd semester level is above AP, for instance. Overall, yes, the language requirement varies depending on the college, even highly/most selective colleges, but it’s still a safe bet that taking several years of a language in HS will result in fewer semesters in a FL at college if there’s a language requirement.
Finally, I agree that 3+3 could be perfectly fine if OP is indeed passionate about that other class - colleges will prefer passion to a random class s/he added just because s/he had to. </p>
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<p>Is it? Pomona allows students to fulfill the foreign language graduation requirement with a 4 or 5 on a foreign language AP test. That implies that the 3rd semester level is higher than AP score of 3, but not AP score of 4, which is not all that different from many other schools.</p>
<p>Let’s remember that you don’t face those college language requirements or their subtleties until you are admitted and matriculate. </p>
<p>^UCB:
Yes.
(The explanation below may be too detailed and OT, so feel free to skip: essentially the skills and structures required are those required for the AP, but the material used and level of thinking required about it are above what the AP requires. It’s probably the same as taking Calc AB in high school and comparing it to an elite college Calc1 class. The students review some notions and they have a pretty good idea of what’s going on, but the depth required, the type of assignements, etc, aren’t the same at all, so that students who took Calc AB <em>could</em> skip Pomona’s Calc1 yet would not feel out of place taking Calc1 and would probably feel more confident in their mastery of the skills and analysis required by the upper-level class. Now, if they never intended on taking another class in that subject, it’d be fine, but to continue with it, it may be the better choice to take that subject at the college’s level before they take the next level.)</p>
<p>Still I think, for the purpose of college admission, that 3+3 could be a valid choice for OP especially since the 4th year of Spanish would be replaced with a field s/he’s passionate about. Passion for a subject would be more important than adding one more year of FL. However, between adding a random elective and 4th year, the 4th year should be preferred.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your responses! I think I will talk to my GC and definitely research the requirements for my top schools. I wouldn’t mind a language coarse in college, but if there’s no other alternative I’ll stick with Spanish 4 and take the class I want over summer. Thanks for all your help!</p>