4th year of language (e.g. Spanish) for UC

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
1

My son has taken 3 years of Spanish in high school but refuses to now take AP Spanish. This means he will only have 3 years of a non-English language. I’d like for him to achieve a 4th year which the UCs seem to recommend but not require.
Should he take the 4th year at his high school (they only offer an online course option for regular 4th year Spanish. AP Spanish they have a classroom-based option)?
The other options are:
(1) community college Spanish 1. (I’m concerned the UCs would view this as a repeat rather than a 4th year.
(2) taking a different language (e.g. Chinese/Mandarin) for 1 year.
Could anyone provide insight on a recommended path to get the 4th year of non-English language for a student who will be applying to the UCs?

2

Maybe I’m wrong and the UCs only require 2 years of a language with a 3rd year recommmended. For some reason I thought my son was missing ‘rigor’ in this area but maybe not.

3

For the UC’s, yes they require 2 years of FL but recommend 3 years. If he has sufficient HS course rigor elsewhere, then AP Spanish is not a necessity.

If he is planning to apply to top/elite schools, then 4 years is a given.

4

I wouldn’t bother with the CC course or similar. As others note above, he should be well above the requirement. As long as he’s got a reasonably rigorousness course-load, he should be fine.

What are his stats and which UCs is he interested in?

5

For UC frosh admission purposes, completion of high school year 2 or equivalent proficiency is required, while completion of high school year 3 or equivalent proficiency is recommended. UC graduation requirements may be higher than that, depending on the campus, division, and major.

Taking high school year 1 of some other language, or college semester 1 of the same or different language, will not advance him beyond his presumed current level (high school year 3). If he wants to take a college Spanish course, he should check with the college on what the correct placement for him is based on what he knows from high school Spanish, so that he can learn more Spanish rather than uselessly repeating what he knows.