I’m a junior currently, and I have a small problem. During freshman year, I took Journalism in lieu of a language, and last year, I dropped Journalism to take Italian 1. This year, I skipped Italian 2 and am now in Italian 3. I’m also writing for the school magazine (though I’m not in the class).
So here’s my quandry. Next year, I was planning to take six APs — including AP Italian, which was supposedly going to be offered. Only, this year, my Italian teacher said that she would not be offering an AP, but just an Italian 4. Should I take Italian 4, and forgo that last AP, or is there another alternative?
As with many things - it depends. If you like Italian, certainly continue. If you are targeting colleges that request/require 4 years of foreign language, continue. If neither applies, it’s your call.
Is Italian 4 going to cover the same things as AP Italian would? You could still take the AP class to get the credits, or some colleges give credits if you take a placement test in a language and score high enough.
@skieurope I’m not Italian and I intend to apply to top-tier schools that require 3 years. While 4 would’ve been nice, that’s not quite possible anymore. @twoinanddone AP Italian has yet to be offered at my school, so I really don’t know.
Thank you both for your responses! Do either of you (or anyone else) know of alternatives or online for-credit Italian classes? I can’t seem to find any.
You said the school offering Italian 4. If you want to continue Italian, then just take Italian 4 at your school and not worry about online courses. Not all your classes have to be AP’s, and even top-tier colleges don’t expect you to take a class that is not offered.
If you were going to take it if it was an AP, you should still take it. You don’t want to get into a situation where your degree requires 4 units of FL and you only have 3 from HS. Don’t get caught up in the AP rat race.
Take Italian 4. Pick up an Italian AP prep book, and look through it with your teacher. Chances are that it won’t be much extra work for you to prep for the AP exam independently, so if you end up applying to places where a good AP score will get you placed into higher level Italian classes, you can go ahead and take the Italian AP exam.
Whether you plan to take the AP exam or not, colleges quite often require a placement exam for both placement and credit—so you will likely end up taking an exam when you show up fall of freshman year. You may as well prep for the AP exam and take a flyer on it, just in case it helps you and also to make sure you study enough to then do well if you take a placement exam later.
I also believe that globalism is here to stay regardless of current political headwinds, so learning a foreign language is far more important—in the big picture—than picking up a random AP course instead, regardless of your eventual college major and career path.