admission requires four years of foreign language?

<p>Is this an absolute for an admitted applicant? My daughter has 3 years of french, 2 of latin since there wasn't room in her schedule junior/senior year for another year of french.<br>
Does anyone know if people are accepted with less than the four years stated in their academic preparation page?</p>

<p>"If possible, we expect students will complete the following courses before beginning study at Princeton:
four years of English (including continued practice in writing)
four years of mathematics (including calculus for students interested in engineering)
four years of one foreign language
at least two years of laboratory science (including physics and chemistry for students interested in engineering)
at least two years of history"</p>

<p>When my son thought he would be unable to take a 4th year of Spanish due to a scheduling conflict, he was told by Admissions that they understood that such things occur, and not ro worry about it at all. Good luck to your daughter.</p>

<p>I currently attend Princeton, and in high school I took 3 years of foreign language. It wasn’t even due to scheduling conflict, I did not want to take French in our French department anymore. </p>

<p>I also have a friend here who has only taken 2 years.</p>

<p>^ Good to know…similar situation here…my kid has only three years of French after maxing out at AP French in junior year of HS.</p>

<p>I agree with the other posters in feeling the rule is flexible. I only took two years of a foreign language; they had no problem with it.</p>

<p>I am truly convinced that foreign language requirements at ALL schools are the big “elephant in the room”…this thread has nailed that assessment for me again…</p>

<p>I got in after only taking three years, and none of those three years were honors or AP level. However if the applicant is taking less than four years of foreign language because they just don’t like foreign language then I would recommend trudging through and getting a 5 on the AP test for that language or a good score on the subject test. Because otherwise they will just need to take a foreign language again when they get here (unless they are an engineer).</p>

<p>My son is a current freshman at Princeton, who took only two years of high school German. He took no foreign language AP or SAT subject tests. His intended major is physics and he took many more than the recommended physics and math classes.</p>

<p>Another parent with a current Princeton student with two years of a foreign language- in this case French solely with Rosetta Stone CDs.
Just generally, with an admissions rate way below 10% for unhooked applicants, I think paying attention to doing the right things is misplaced. Doing one or more things spectacularly is more important, IMO.</p>