<p>I have taken 3 years of French and 2 years of Chinese. Would this be enough to satisfy the "recommended" 4 years of a foreign language by some colleges, or should I take one more year of french?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help in advance.</p>
<p>I would take the fourth year of French; it's a consistency thing, in my opinion.</p>
<p>3 + 2 = 5</p>
<p>And, please note the the colleges say "recommended". If you like the non-French options more, take one of them instead.</p>
<p>In my opinion the colleges recommending four years are hoping that you have become somewhat fluent in the language. Most high schools seem to require two years of a language and it is difficult to achieve much fluency in that short amount of time. So I would say it depends more on how skilled you have become in the languages you've taken. You can always demonstrate your fluency by taking the SAT subject test or through some other award or information.</p>
<p>Recommendations or requirements for foreign language are for the same foreign language, thus 3 in French and 2 in Chinese does not equal 4. Also, when they say "four" years, they mean fourth level of one language, which many complete in less than four years of high school if they start taking the language before high school.</p>
<p>^^^Agree with the last two posters.</p>
<p>3 + 2 does not always equal 5 as many colleges want a student to be proficient in a language, ie. 4 years of a single language. </p>
<p>And, not all schools say "recommend". For instance, Princeton say that they "expect":</p>
<p>You're fine...I know people with 2/3 years of foreign language into schools like Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, UC's (2 years is fairly rare but he took a test and placed into AP level by sophomore year and skipped the basic levels and demonstrated proficiency). </p>
<p>If you don't want to take another year of french, don't. I only suggest you take it if you want to.</p>
<p>it depends. What would you be replacing your 4th year of French with? It's probably fine if it's something math/sci related, if your interests are skewed that way, but if it's just a random humanities elective then they would probs rather see that 4th year of French.</p>
<p>Let me pose the question differently: Did you take French because you enjoy it? Do you think you might have the opportunity to use French in France, Viet Nam, or another country on business or pleasure?</p>
<p>Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that becoming proficient in a subject has more utility than simply meeting a college application requirement.</p>
<p>I would contact the Admissions Offices of the colleges you are interested in. Some will be okay with 3 and 2, but some may not. </p>
<p>My college asks for 2 years of Foreign Language to satisfy the Core Curriculum. However, they MUST be the same language. 1 year of Spanish and 1 year of German DO NOT satisfy the requirement for us. Again, I would do some research on the colleges you are interested in.</p>
<p>Let's say that I took either the French or Chinese Subject Test. Would a score >700 be sufficient to replace my 4th year of that language? Thanks again. (I don't have room for my 4th year of French in my schedule, so I am trying to find out how I can solve my problem)</p>
<p>Not if it is your native language.</p>
<p>Actually, neither would be. My native language is Cantonese, while the SAT Subject Test would be spoken in Mandarin.</p>
<p>@ above that doesnt make much of a difference to adcoms</p>
<p>But in reality, there is a huge difference. Almost totally different in pronunciation.</p>
<p>Yeah, Cantonese is vastly different from Mandarin, but it would probably be better to take the French SAT II, if not both. I can't say if a score of >700 would help though. Maybe if you got a 5 on an AP exam?</p>
<p>im not saying its not different, but how would they know you didn't speak mandarin, as far as they're concerned you're just another chinese kid who took the SAT II for an easy 800</p>
<p>Was the last french class you took french III or french IV?</p>
<p>I'm from Canada, but I assume it was French III</p>
<p>The Chinese I took was Chinese II and Chinese III. Would taking Chinese IV work as my 4th year or not. Thank you!!</p>