Hi everyone,
I am so beyond terrified that my current decisions may kill off any chances I have at getting into the colleges I love and would do anything to get accepted into them.
My absolute dream school is Duke at the moment since I want to potentially major in Environmental Science and English. I also really love Dartmouth, UMich, Notre Dame, UCSB, UVA, Swarthmore, and Middlebury.
I have a 34 on my ACT, with a 33 ELA and 31 Stem.
I ended my junior year with all A+'s, a 5 on my APES exam, and a 4 on AP Lit. I just finished an internship at UMich this summer in cancer research as well. I also will be interning in my school’s communication department, running a nonprofit’s social media, and will be on two municipal boards as well as running a plethora of clubs.
What I’m scared about is my choices for classes this year and how that will impact my college decision. I finished Spanish 4 last year with an A+, but with the difficulty and rigor that Spanish 5 brings at my school, I dropped the class this year for my mental wellbeing. I have also decided to drop Volleyball, a sport I’ve been a part of since freshman year, mainly because I feel like I won’t have the time to attend the far away games and long practices.
Otherwise, my senior year is filled with AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Psychology, Honors Brit. Literature, Physics, and a few required trimester courses.
I understand that some schools that I really love want to see 3-4 years of a language. Should I be concerned if I no longer have that on my classes list for senior year? And should I be concerned that I’m dropping a sport too? HOW WILL THIS AFFECT ME!!!
I’m not a professional, just a parent, and relatively new to this whole admissions thing. The one thing I can be pretty sure about is Middlebury would expect you to continue with the foreign language. They are a huge language school and “recommend” taking language all through high school. It is on my daughter’s short list and when we went for a visit, they really did a lot of talking about languages and their program. The few students we know who have gotten in all took language through 12th grade and it didn’t matter if it was level 4 or 5.
Also, we have learned that “recommended” or “suggested” both mean “mandatory” at any more selective school.
I can’t speak about sports or any other schools on your list but they are all very highly selective. They would be more interested in seeing you stick with things you have been doing.
As the first commenter stated, i’m not a well suited person to give you advice on your issue since I am relatively new to the college admissions thing. What I can tell you is that dropping a course like Spanish 5 might hurt your transcript, since you excelled in Spanish 4 the year before. Dropping Volleyball may also seem detrimental to your transcript since you did commit to it for 3 years. Overall, although dropping Spanish and Volleyball may not help your transcript, it certainly isn’t a dealbreaker for Duke, since you do have great stats and all around and your taking a bunch of rigorous courses your senior year.
If you are worried about dropping Spanish, why don’t you drop AP Psychology and take Spanish instead? Psychology is an elective, while Spanish is a core academic subject. Is Spanish 5 AP Spanish Language? You should be able to handle it. You got an A in Spanish 4 and you are dropping time consuming volleyball. I don’t think dropping volleyball will be a problem since you are still heavily involved in other extracurricular activities.
You are taking Bio + Physics (and your social science is pysch?) but dropping a language b/c of time (and ‘mental well-being’ b/c of the ‘difficulty and rigor’?!). You are also dropping a long-term commitment (& only sport?) b/c of time, yet you are ‘running a plethora of clubs’, and several other miscellaneous ECs.
Borrowing from @lookingforward, I suggest that you take a closer look at what the colleges you are looking at are looking for. The fancy schools that you are “in love with” give pretty clear info as to what they value in applicants. You might find that there are other schools that better align with what you want.
The thing with Spanish 5 is that it is an honors level course, not AP. I also have been extremely interested in AP Pysch, and have already put so much time and effort into my summer assignments, whereas I would be so far behind if I started my Spanish work now. My spanish teacher even stated that with the amount of in-class essays and oral tests, I would have a lot more catching up to do than some of my peers.
@collegemom3717 why are you telling me to take the drama down when this is my education at stake? you have no idea what stress i’m under and to belittle my genuine fears and concerns as being melodramatic??? hello???
@InfoQuestMom The thing with Spanish 5 is that it is an honors level course, not AP. I also have been extremely interested in AP Pysch, and have already put so much time and effort into my summer assignments, whereas I would be so far behind if I started my Spanish work now. My spanish teacher even stated that with the amount of in-class essays and oral tests, I would have a lot more catching up to do than some of my peers.
Seems like this would have been a good question to post before you made the decision and put in all the summer work. AP psych is one of the easiest APs and, as was already pointed out, an elective.
If you are looking for confirmation that you made the right decisions, I don’t think you are going to get. IMO, your schedule is lacking rigor.
Like all students, you should pick a few schools on your list to put in some reach applications and then focus the majority of your time on finding match and safety schools.
How much time do you have for summer assignments until school starts?
I told you what you could do. You have to decide what you will do. You can either take Spanish and stop worrying about it, or you don’t and? It’s your choice.
@collegemom3717 I worked my way through my class by overpreparing for everything and relying on peers of my level. I lack overall comprehension, oral, and writing skills. With a class that is very spontaneous this year, I feel like I would struggle a lot more than I have in the past
@InfoQuestMom I start school on the 4th, but I have a lot of college touring coming up and will be in California visiting my grandparents for a week as well
The person to ask is your guidance counselor, not any one of us. Rigor is relative to what is offered in your HS. The top tier colleges will want to see the guidance counselor check the box on the recommendation saying you have taken the most rigorous course-load available at your HS (which doesn’t mean taking every AP class – there is often some latitude in this). If the guidance counselor says that your prior and current HS schedules are sufficient to get that most rigorous box checked then you are fine.
You have three weeks. Since you are touring colleges, why not ask admissions officials yourself? Again, it’s your decision. You will have to live with it, one way or another.
No one can know how these decisions will affect you. However, you have a solid ACT score, ECs and list of courses. I also get the sense that some of your ECs are all over the place - communications/social media, STEM, “running a plethora of clubs”.
One thing to think about is focusing your story… a college counselor mentioned to me someone applying to the journalism school at a well known college yet had no journalism activities (in school or out) to support/demonstrate their interest in this path and hence were denied admission.
As for volleyball, I don’t think admission officers will notice - or will assume you didn’t make the team - either way, no big deal.
As for Spanish - you have completed four years of Spanish (it’s the level that counts at most schools, not how many years in HS you took it).
I would plan to expend most of your first semester senior year time and energy on making your application stellar. Also be realistic, some of the schools on your list have very low admission rates, even for high stats students like yourself.
So you have made those decisions. Yes, they COULD impact your admissions. Maybe. AP Psychology is an AP Lite by reputation. AP or advanced foreign language. 4 solid years of one, is a plus. You do the math. If you really want to redone any chance of this bring any issue, you drop the Psych and pick up the foreign language. You don’t want to do this, so you worry. The very reasons you give about how much work and how difficult Spanish 5 is, makes it a valuable course to take.
You wrote this because you know this well. Do want false reassurances and platitudes? We can’t give them.
First semester senior year is when you add that final punctuation mark to your high school resume. You take the most difficult course and excel in them. You home in on your extra curricular activities and take them to a new level with leadership. That you drop one is not going to be an issue if you are revving it up with your others.
I am going to go against what some other on here have said. You don’t plan majoring in FL at college so I don’t think not doing Spanish 5 is going to hurt you since you already have 4 years of language. As for Volleyball, do you enjoy doing it? If so I would try to keep it up and if possible in a leadership type role as a senior. I think dropping that may be more detrimental than the Spanish 5.
FWIW, we asked the language question at all the highly selective schools my kids applied to. All of them said getting through FL 4 was fine as long as the overall rigor senior year was maintained. One just graduated from a top NESCAC and the other will be a junior at an HYPS.
Were you on Varsity, and were you a starter? If it was never a major activity of yours, and you are using that time to improve the quality of participation in other EC’s, I think you will be ok.
