<p>Hi Vandyeyes…as you can see, there are a variety of opinions here. Best bet is to contact one school that is of interest…to see what they say.</p>
<p>I will say…we DID do this with a couple of schools about lab sciences. When we went on college tours the summer after 10th grade, SEVERAL schools said they required THREE lab sciences…lucky we were there after 10th grade or we would not have known this. Our kid was planning on doing this…but at one point had the option of taking a science that was NOT a lab science…glad we knew.</p>
<p>thumper–again, I also said IF he was looking at HYP, etc. it could be an issue. Also, depending on the language spoken at home, it IS possible for students to test into levels 3 and 4 of a language. I also suggested talking to the Ad Comms. Our son was going to not take Spanish V next year and opt for AP Stats instead. We had him contact the Ad Comms at his top 5 schools and they all said the same thing, take Spanish V vs Stats, and he is planning on majoring in Math, which he said in the emails.</p>
<p>The elite colleges are looking for competence in a foreign language - not when you took it. I think their attitude is pretty well summed up by Harvard. (Note they do caution you about taking breaks in a language before you are relatively fluent.) </p>
<p>High school courses taken in middle school appear on OUR high school transcript and are factored into the GPA as well. That said, because our system counts two years of middle school language as one, it appears as Pass/No Credit instead of with a grade which they do for Algebra and Biology also taught in middle school. You have to check what YOUR school system does, they are all different - one thing you learn quickly if you spend any time at all on CC!</p>
<p>mathmom–if you read your quote-it is saying exactly what I said, they want to see the languages taken junior/senior year and not to “take a year off”.</p>
<p>No that’s not what they say. They say that until you achieve competency that you shouldn’t take time off.</p>
<p>I learned to speak French fluently in France - I didn’t get around to taking another French course till I was a junior, but it wasn’t a problem because I was fluent. If I’d taken two years off after only two years of French THAT would have been a problem.</p>
<p>And if you want an outside measure of what Harvard considers competent consider that you can fulfill the language requirement with a 700+ score on the SAT subject test, or a 5 on an AP. :)</p>
<p>If you go on from the admissions requirements to their graduation requirements, yes, they mean they don’t want kids taking a break from language learning in high school…</p>
<p>^Where are you getting that from? You can pass your language requirement at Harvard by the end of junior year, by taking ONE year of a language at Harvard. You don’t have to take a language all four years of high school - it doesn’t say that anywhere.</p>
<p>I didn’t say you have to take 4 years in high school, the argument was if you are only taking 2 years in high school, colleges prefer that you take them junior and senior year. Harvard says specifically they don’t like to see kids taking a year off from language learning, again, reinforcing that they want to see those classes as juniors and seniors. This was also confirmed by every school we have visited and by the emails DS sent off just a couple months ago. Feel free to call and ask these schools personally what they prefer. Obviously if it isn’t an option in your school it isn’t an option but if you have the option, it is what they prefer.</p>
<p>Look, I’m not recommending that kids only take two years of a language. I think you are better off taking 3 or 4 or even to the AP level. That said, I don’t believe for a second that colleges would prefer that you start a language as a junior in high school than take a language the first two years of high school and then stop - especially if those two years of high school language were preceded by two years in middle school so that that the last course they take is designated Level 4. I think in every case the kid with Level 4 on the transcript (instead of Level 2 as a senior) is going to have better admissions results - even if they stop as sophomores.</p>
<p>My younger son thankfully dropped Latin after he completed Level 4 and got accepted by Vassar, U of Chicago and Tufts. Generally considered pretty good schools.</p>
<p>I think the rationale here is that a student who takes only 2 years of foreign language will need to take more of that language in college, and it’s easiest to do that if you haven’t interrupted your study of the language. It’s amazing how much students forget if they drop their language for even one year.</p>
<p>But the idea of waiting to start a foreign language until 11th grade would be bizarre at most high schools, and I think that most guidance counselors would advise against it. Moreover, a student who does not start a foreign language until 11th grade would not be able to qualify for colleges that require three years of foreign language for admission.</p>
<p>It sounds as though you have been asking admissions officers the following question: “If a student can only take 2 years of foreign language in high school, when is it best to take them?”</p>
<p>But this is not the question the OP is asking. The OP is asking the following: “A student who completed Level 3 of a foreign language in grade 10 would like to discontinue study of that language to allow room in his schedule for computer science courses in grades 11 and 12. If he does this, would it reduce his chances of being admitted to your college?”</p>
<p>That’s a very different question.</p>
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<p>This may be too narrow an interpretation. For students who complete the usual high school curriculum in a subject early, it seems to be enough to include five rigorous academic courses in each of the remaining years of high school, but they do not necessarily have to be one course in each of the five areas.</p>
<p>For example, a student who has completed biology, chemistry, and physics by the end of grade 11 and has no interest in taking an AP science might use the period freed up by not taking science in 12th grade to take an extra AP social studies course. Colleges don’t seem to mind.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the OP’s school, but here, the public high school transcript has Algebra (taken in 8th grade) and foreign language (taken in 7th and 8th grade) listed on the high school transcript sent to colleges.</p>
<p>My younger D will have completed 2 years of French in middle school. These years will show up on her high school transcript. I am FORCING her to take another two years in high school, but I am sure she will drop it as soon as I stop applying pressure. She absolutely hates it and wants the room in her schedule to concentrate on “more interesting” things.</p>
<p>I think a lot depends on the particular student–if you have a good reason to take something else, having three or four years of language that end earlier in high school may not be harmful. My anecdote–my son was taking French V his senior year, and really wanted to drop it second semester. He had gotten into Yale SCEA, and I told him his should contact them to see if it would be a problem (I was sure they would urge him to stay in the class). They didn’t care, and he dropped it. My daughter took French IV as a junior, and didn’t take it at all senior year–it didn’t seem to harm her admissions results, either.</p>
<p>For the OP–maybe one more year of Latin, but not two?</p>
<p>My anecdote: My daughter took no foreign language and no math as a senior in high school (after taking AP BC Calculus and AP/IB Spanish Language as a junior). Her senior schedule included one English course, one science course, three social studies courses, and two music courses. Cornell didn’t mind (she didn’t ask, but we assume they didn’t mind because they accepted her ED). (But your mileage may vary; it’s possible that she got away with it because she was an IB diploma candidate.)</p>
<p>What is your child’s interests? If it’s not language but more of the math/science field than Computer Science will paint a better picture of who he is than forcing the 4th year of language. Colleges are looking for a picture of who your child is and how they have created a high school life (both in and out of school) to enhance who they are. If your child is not a language kid then that is who he is, don’t fight it. You’re not saying he will take one less class, he wants to replace a class that he is less interested in with a class that he is more interested in, that can’t be bad!</p>
<p>My kids hate foreign language, did the minimum 3 years (like yours, completed in Sophomore year) and moved on. Didn’t keep her from being admitted to Yale or Northwestern. She actually hates language so much she has opted for a BS vs a BA because that means she does not need a language class in college. It’s who she is.</p>
<p>I also think if you’re being strategic about this, an A in Computer Science or Stats is going to be better than a B in a foreign language in terms of college admissions.</p>
<p>Perhaps they didn’t mind because she already took the highest level course available in both math and Spanish? Seems perfectly reasonable, especially since those courses were more advanced than the normal fourth year high school level courses anyway.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: Even higher level courses in both subjects were available, so I don’t think that’s the reason. </p>
<p>I have known many high school students who did not take a course in each of the five major subject areas every year. As long as they took enough courses in each subject to meet college admissions requirements and maintained a rigorous curriculum every year (usually meaning five rigorous academic courses), it did not seem to matter.</p>
<p>There are a lot of students who post on CC who have taken 2 or even three AP courses in the same area (usually science or social studies). In many school systems, with only six or seven periods in the day and with nonacademic courses required for graduation, this would be impossible if they took courses in all five academic areas in all four years of high school.</p>