<p>I went to University of Delaware's (one of the colleges I might apply to) website and it said that 4 years of the same foreign lang. is recommended. So, do all colleges care that you take 4 years of the same foreign language?</p>
<p>Usually they'd rather you take 4 years of Spanish than you take 2 of Spanish, 1 of Latin, and 1 of French, but really it depends on the college.</p>
<p>This refers to what level you reach more than to how many years you took to get to that level. It is a good idea to attempt to gain a reading knowledge of another language before starting college.</p>
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This refers to what level you reach more than to how many years you took to get to that level
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<p>I am not sure I really agree, token, although I almost always agree with what you say! Here, not so much. Sorry... :) When a student enters high school, he or she may or may not have had foreign language in junior high/middle school. So, if s/he begins in level 1 in 9th grade, and takes it all four years, and gets through level 4, in my opinion, it looks better than the student who begins 9th grade in level 2 and stops the language after reaching level 4 in junior year. That is, of course, if the HS offers higher than level 4. I think colleges like to see students going as far as they can, for their particular ability.</p>
<p>I'll agree with the situation you proposed. I'm more thinking of my son's case, in which the language wasn't even offered to ninth grade students (in a start-up high school) but where he may be able to spurt ahead next year and reach a four-years-of-high-school level by the end of high school. I agree with the general proposition that students look better to colleges if they look like they are challenging themselves and not playing it safe.</p>
<p>I was accepted to UD with only 2 years of Spanish, and at the general level, not honors Spanish.</p>
<p>I dont think schools take it too seriously, even when they say 3 yrs are required (like syracuse) I still got in with only 2.</p>
<p>it really depends on the school and your proposed major. some majors,IR for example, would like to see a working use of 1 or more languages.</p>
<p>Unless you're restricted by your high school (as in tokenadult's post) it's not particularly difficult to advance four years into a single language, and in fact, I see it as a given.</p>
<p>Languages are one of the things you can self-study. Foreign language instruction (not counting those languages that parents already speak) preferably starts in elementary school. What would merit a distinction is that one followed through with the opportunities in elementary/middle school (and if they didn't exist, self-study was pursued) such by the time one enters high school, the course series is finished, so college courses can then be pursued in that language during high school.</p>
<p>I'm rather appalled by the standard of language instruction in the US as well -- I've seen fourth-year and fifth-year students making the most fundamental of grammar mistakes (e.g. forgetting to decline adjectives for the Indo-European languages) and resorting to English when pronouncing difficult words (rather than attempting to "sound out" the words) -- it's utterly cacophonic. If you self-study, it shouldn't be difficult to leap two American-HS levels per year. There are plenty of resources on the net too. You can even pick up fluency while playing violent video games by seeking out gaming groups that use a foreign language and using Voice-over-IP team applications to improve your conversational fluency.</p>
<p>Colleges vary on what they require or recommend in language. A number recommend four (or three) years of the same language; many public universities only require 2. Whenever they say four years (or any other number) they mean to reach that level, e.g., if you take Spanish 1 and 2 in junior high and 3 and 4 in high school, you have met the requirement or recommendation (and no, contrary to what was mentioned above, they don't consider it better for your app that you actually have four years in high school).</p>
<p>When considering what to complete, and if you have any particular colleges you may be considering, you should start checking those colleges not just for what they want on your high school record but what the requirements are at the college level. Many colleges require language at the college level but then many of those have ways that you can meet that college level requirement without having to actually take it in college. Some require two years to be admitted but then require two years at the the college level but if you have four years in high school they waive that college requirement. Others may allow you to avoid college language if you score a certain score on a language SAT II test; others have placement exams you can take and pass out of taking language. Thus, important to look at what the college requires on the college level when looking into colleges.</p>
<p>"I'm rather appalled by the standard of language instruction in the US as well I totally agree with you. I am a language tutor in COLLEGE and the students are terrible. Those who are in 103/intermediate level would come to me and say" I can't make a sentence in Spanish" "I don't know how to read a sentence". I have to ask myself how the hell they end up in an intermediate class if they can do anything in the given language. I guess that the school standard is so low that it lets people move one regardless of their incompetency . Thus, we will have some Spanish major who wont even be able to say hola. I feel sorry for them and if I had time I would take some off to reshape their linguistic skills. However, I do not blame them. It was maybe their teachers in high school who did a bad job by not giving them the appropriate basic skills that they need for the language like my math teachers did (LOL). I still find some who do not really care about the language or the course, which drastically affect their grade and their knowledge of Spanish. By the way, I am not a native Spanish speaker but it was my passion and a special talent if you can say that helped me learn Spanish.</p>