I took Spanish 2 in 9th grade, do you think I am able to take Spanish 3 in my senior year or the summer into my senior year? Is it way harder compared to Spanish 2?
I donât know what to tell you. Iâm not sure why you were advised that dropping Spanish after Spanish 2 in 9th grade was a good idea.
Perhaps someone here has a suggestion on how to brush up on Spanish before you take Spanish 3. Or maybe someone has a better suggestion.
I am not sure if I could do it tbh, it seems like a dead end for me tbh. I have a good fine arts background so hopefully that would mean something, but at the time being, I will probably just continue with what I have.
You may want to ask a Spanish teacher to help determine how ready you are for Spanish 3.
When it comes to taking a language, is it possible to start a new one? Like if I did Spanish I & II, will it hurt if I did something like French I?
Colleges that want 3 years of FL typically want 3 years of the same language.
For example, here is a summary of Stanfordâs recommendations (from the link posted by @ucbalumnus above):
Throughout your high school years, we recommend that you:
- take a course load of reasonable and appropriate challenge in light of the academic opportunities available at your school
- work hard and achieve at a high level across the five core liberal arts and science areas: English, math, social studies, science and foreign language
Recommended High School Curriculum
- English: four years, with significant emphasis on writing and literature.
- Mathematics: four years of rigorous mathematics incorporating a solid grounding in fundamental skills (algebra, geometry, trigonometry). We also welcome additional mathematical preparation, including calculus and statistics.
- History/Social Studies: three or more years, with courses that include the writing of essays.
- Science: three or more years of laboratory science (e.g., biology, chemistry, physics).
- Foreign Language: three or more years of the same foreign language.
Also, do you have at least three years of History / Social studies? You listed three courses in this category, but itâs not clear if these are all year-long courses, or semester courses.
The most competitive applicants to highly selective schools typically exceed these recommendations and have 4 years of each core area, including FL and History / Social studies.
I would agree with the other posters that foreign language appears to be the weakest point. I am also not sure if all colleges will count Spanish 2 taken in 9th grade as âtwo years of high school Spanishâ?
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I think Iâd not bother with taking a language senior year and just not apply to schools that require 3 years. Any holistic review of an application will make it clear that OP is just trying to pad out their transcript vs any real interest in foreign language at this point⊠and the music classes I think do a nice job of demonstrating well rounded-ness.
There are still plenty of very good engineering schools that they could get into with only 2 years of a foreign language.
- Caveat - Iâm not an Admissions Officer and Iâve only gone through this with one kid⊠I donât have any real expertise in this.
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Highest level completed basically always matters. Spanish 2 + French 1 is only level 2, which colleges generally count as â2 yearsâ.
That is something to discuss with the Spanish teacher at your HS. It could be tough with such a gap.
And agree that one year of a new language wonât help you.
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Yes, I agree that it could be a valid strategy to just trim the list this way.
Before spending a lot of effort on any given application, I would also try to double check that they would count Spanish 2 in 9th grade as â2 years.â
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It is NOT a dead end. It opens more doors for you that may be closed if you donât do it.
This is also a very good point. You might currently only have ONE year of high school foreign language. Better check on this.
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Iâll echo the majority in urging you to take another year of Spanish. Not only will many colleges recommend 3 or 4 years, there is another issue you may face:
While some schools might count taking Spanish 2 as meeting the language expectation, some colleges want to see 2-4 years in high school. Middle school wonât count. This wonât be the case for all, but by not taking another year you could be at a disadvantage at even more schools.
As others have said, these are recommendations, not requirements most places, but recommendations matter. Colleges, including STEM ones, want students who are intellectually strong and curious across all disciplines. Engineering students will need to take non-STEM courses everywhere. They want students who will meaningfully contribute to all of the classes they are in.
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Ah! I was slow in posting, but I second (or third) the sentiment that in the eyes of some colleges, you have only taken one year of foreign language in high school.
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on my tanscript it shows I took Spanish I & II
Colleges want to see that you challenged yourself with breadth and depth. They donât care that you are more interested in math or music. Theyâre not looking for specialists in HS. Nor will they care what your HS requires, as many will expect applicants to complete more than the bare minimum.
For many universities, the bare minimum FL preparation is 2 years in HS through level 2. Some, like the UCs, will count MS courses, but level 2 will still not be competitive for some campuses. Others will want 2 years (or more) in HS.
Of course, it would still be uncompetitive for any university asking for 3+ years. But you still have many options
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I mean, I canât really do much about it since I am going to be a senior next year and havenât taken Spanish for 2 years. My school only requires 2 years of the same foreign language for graduation.
My daughter and son were busy arts kids and 4.0 UW students with lots of APs. Only could fit in two credits of Spanish because they wanted to take band all year and had a block schedule with 4 classes a semester. They had to take more foreign language in college, but they didnât have any issue getting admitted to some great colleges. Unless the school says you can only apply if you have 3 or more language credits, donât stress about it too much. The guidance counselors solution was to say, âYou can just drop band.â
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My ds got into UT Austin McCombs (holistic, not auto) with partial tuition scholarship with only 2 years of Spanish. Of course, more foreign language might have been better, but OP has no reason to panic.
Most important thing is figuring out his budget and finding a few safeties to go along with his reach schools.
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Also, did OP ever share his extracurricular activities?
@jazzymomof7 @lkbtnc No one has said that the poster definitively wonât get into a school on his current path.
We are saying that he would be a more competitive candidate, especially at highly selective schools, having taken more than one year of a foreign language in 9th through 12th grade.
Anecdotal stories may be reassuring to him, but he is interested in rejective colleges that make their decisions on razor thin margins. His choice to hyper-focus in high school is not what schools usually value in admissions.
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