Hi everyone! I am planning on majoring in International Relations in college thus far. I will be a senior in high school nect year and will be taking: AP Stat, AP Euro, AP Gov, and AP Micro. Given that I am interested in IR would not taking AP Spanish harm my chances of applying with an intended IR major since my school offers it? I am currently in Spanish 4H. I would not mind taking AP, it’s just I am unsure if not taking it would actually look bad or not. Should I take it? Any advice?
Why wouldn’t you take the next level of Spanish, since knowing another language better should be helpful in the context of your major?
Given your major, I would expect you to have four years of a language in HS. You’re doubling up in social studies, so I’d look there if any adjustments need to be made.
My schedule is relatively tight for next year so I would have to drop one of my other classes. I know Spanish relatively well at this point, and for me personally it’s just a matter of whether or not having the extra year on my transcript would actually make a difference.
Are you strong enough in Spanish to pass the exam without taking the class?
Honestly, if you’re looking at it from a “what looks stronger” angle, then dropping AP Micro to make room for AP Spanish makes sense to me. Though economics is something you will take in college, I’m sure, it’s an intro course that you can easily take freshman/sophomore year in college, whereas AP Spanish is the culmination of years of study that builds upon itself.
It’s easy to get rusty in FL in a year without constant practice or an immersion experience to “set” it into your long-term memory, and you might have to repeat some in college to catch up. If, on the other hand, you take AP Spanish, you’ll be in a position to take a more advanced conversation class or maybe Spanish literature from the get-go In college to achieve real proficiency as an undergraduate and get ready for study abroad. Or you’d be in a great position to switch to a second Romance language In your freshman year of college, having attained some recognizable proficiency In Spanish. I would think that the ability to read, speak and function at the highest level possible in one or more languages other than English would be most important for an IR major.