<p>Hi! I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but it's regarding my senior year schedule. Currently I'm enrolled in these classes:</p>
<ol>
<li>Calligraphy (I need a fine arts credit)</li>
<li>AP Lit</li>
<li>AP Chem</li>
<li>AP Stats</li>
<li>AP Gov</li>
<li>AP Calc BC</li>
</ol>
<p>I thought this would be a good enough schedule for senior year, as it's very vigorous and I' actually excited to take these classes! However, someone just alerted me to the fact that I should take a 4th year foreign language to look good for more selective colleges. I took Spanish 1 as a freshman, then took Advanced Spanish 2 and 3 as a sophomore and junior. As per the advanced spanish program, it was at college level spanish and we had to pass a college level test last year in order to get the 5 college credits. I'm good at spanish, and I've gotten all A's in the courses, but I've never actually liked it that much. I thought I could just be done with it this year and take more AP's. That being said, I don't know whether I'm good enough at it to take the AP test or subject test.</p>
<p>So do you think it's a good idea to switch out of one of my AP's (either Stats or Chem) into Spanish 4? If I did switch into Spanish 4, it would be the advanced class again, and I would get 10 more college credits from a local university. But I don't want to. But maybe I should?
Also I'm going into the medical field, so I wanted stats and chem to help out with college classes.</p>
<p>I'm planning on applying to most of the ivies- Cornell, Brown, Princeton, Harvard (although these are high reaches), and then probably Tulane and the UC schools, and then University of Washington (in-state) and Washington Univ @ St. Louis, and I'm going to try for some 6/7 year med programs- Penn state, ks/ms, and Brown's.</p>
<p>What do you think? 4th year language or the more desired AP class?</p>
<p>You may also want to look at Rice for med programs. </p>
<p>Also, I don’t think Spanish is all that necessary, and the AP classes do carry a bit more weight. However, if you plan to work in states like Florida, Arizona, California, or anything like that, Spanish does become very important. Also, you may need to take a foreign language in college anyway, so you might want to take it now. If you were to drop a class, I think you should drop Stats, and not Chem.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the college credit aspect has to do with the choice of a Spanish 4 or not Spanish 4. My sense is that aspect is irrelevant for the most selective colleges on your list, and indeed may be a distraction.</p>
<p>For several colleges on your list a fourth year of language is very desirable. You are already taking AP Calculus BC so there is no compelling reason for taking a second math course. In practice Statistics at the college level requires calculus. My advise is defer AP Statistics to college, and take Spanish 4 – ideally with the goal of taking the Spanish AP exam.</p>
<p>i agree with fogcity that Spanish 4 on your application will look better than APStats.
Stats is not difficult and will be offered in college- you can take it there if you need it. Four years of a language puts you in a category of fluency that will give you an edge. And for someone in medicine, Spanish is very helpful. There’s nothing like practice to keep your language skills up, too. Very selective colleges like seeing four years of a language.</p>
<p>It depends on how competitive your college choices are. Check the websites for requirements. Very competitive colleges want 3 years and recommend 4. That is why I think taking 4 years is a core requirement and should trump electives except for compelling reasons, IF you are going for those kind of schools.</p>
<p>I don’t understand this college credit stuff if it isn’t even equivalent to Spanish 4 or AP Spanish.</p>
<p>I completely agree with fogcity and moonchild.</p>
<p>Edit: Crossposted with BrownParent, who is correct; the most selective colleges will want 4 years, and won’t be impressed by “college level” Spanish 3.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t strictly require four years of language. However, for selective colleges, they want to see that you’ve studied enough of a foreign language to be able to speak and read the language proficiently. Now, since all schools teach language differently, the level you must attain varies by school. But the proficiency recommendation is a basic guideline.</p>
<p>Since the ivies recommend four years, I would take the four years and drop statistics. Your course load is still going to be difficult. Colleges will not say, “Why did this person take four years of a language instead of taking another AP?” They definitely won’t say this if they recommend four years of a language.</p>
<p>It really depends on the schools you are applying. Many schools do recommend 4 years of foreign languages. While for AP classes, it only serves as an indication of rigorous curriculum and there is no standard to it. It would not make difference if you take 1 less or 1 more if you have sufficiently challenged yourself.
You should be happy that you have the opportunity to take all these AP classes and has other options. My D only got 2 of the 4 AP classes she registered for originally due to quota or schedule conflict as a result of reduced budget for the school district. It was not easy to fight to get one back.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! The overwhelming consensus seems to be to go with Spanish, which I think I will do, and switch out of statistics. </p>
<p>But, I just found out of yet another problem with my scheduling- a lot of combined med programs require a credit of physics. Which I don’t have. So now I’m trying to decide whether I should take ap physics instead of spanish. This would have been so much easier if I had thought of all this beforehand and planned my schedule out better! UGH!
I guess it just depends on whether I’ll be focusing on the medical programs (in which case I would take physics) or the normal route of 4 yr university (I would pick spanish).</p>
<p>Am I thinking about this the right way? Any thoughts? I have exactly 2 weeks till senior year and I’m so frustrated that these thoughts are JUST occurring to me!</p>
<p>Physics vs. Spanish is a hard decision to make indeed. It would have been best if you had taken both, but ultimately, you’ll have to make that decision. If you’re definitely going into a science-related field, AP Physics may be the better choice.</p>
<p>So what else have you taken in previous year? It would hard to cram all these advanced classes into senior year. Usually I suggest to take all those electives in freshmen or sophomore to get them out of the way. Can you take the art credit online or tested out? It seems your school counselor should have given you more guidance earlier. Also, having only 6 hours is really a big constraint.</p>
<p>I’m definitely going in to the science field, and especially for those combined programs, I think I might need physics. So either I’ll switch out of stats and take AP physics, or I’ll take spanish and see if I can take a college physics class or something like once a week. Do you think that would be a good idea? </p>
<p>billcsho: Previously I’ve taken 4 AP classes: last year I had AP Bio, AP Euro, and AP Lang, and then Sophomore year I had APUSH. My school counselor is a nice lady who likes me, but is ultimately did not help enough to plan out my courses. It’s definitely a really frustrating time for me right now because I just cannot decide what to do and my counselor isn’t emailing me back, when school starts in 2 weeks! I really don’t want to switch out of calligraphy, but if that’s what it comes to, then I might end up doing that.</p>
<p>I don’t know, maybe at some schools. They don’t actually offer an AP Spanish class at my school, and we just have Advanced 4th year spanish because we do this weird college credit thing. If I wanted to do AP spanish I would have to self-study.</p>
<p>In that case, you may be better off with your schedule if are applying to be a stem major. You should try SAT II to prove you learnt enough Spanish. Many Ivies give a language a waiver based on 650 (may be higher now) score which also counts for rigor.</p>
<p>All right, thanks for the advice! I’m actually planning to keep the schedule, and either audit a college physics class or take an online physics class. Come to think of it, does anyone know a physics online class I could take that’s not insanely expensive? I think UC Berkeley has one for like $890… Absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>Oh and I may try to take the Spanish subject test in October, depending on whether I’m ready for it or not.</p>