The other situation where “recommended” may not be “required” is if the applicant comes from a low opportunity situation (e.g. where the high school does not offer level 3 foreign language). But that does not apply to the OP.
Some schools expect four years of the same language so students will develop competency. You can do two years in high school and two in college. Check with the school website to learn its perspective on foreign language learning.
“Not even close. She went to Yale. Please don’t focus on val.”
I think you and others are missing the point of her post, she wants to become val as a personal goal, maybe it will or won’t lead to better admission chances, but to denigrate a laudable goal like this is very judgemental. I hope people didn’t judge you or your daughter by saying, hey don’t focus on Yale.
However aiming for Val at the expense of completing college requirements is a bad idea.
This student is aiming for highly selective colleges and should thus as much as possible take a foreign language through junior year or level 3. A way to increase rigor in that area without impacting rank is taking it at a local CC. A student who reached level 2 in high school should be able to skip Level 1 in college and start right away with College Level 2, then take COllege Level 3 in the Spring, thus satisfying in a year any college’s requirement (college level 3= HS level 4). It will however require hard work and dedication because these classes move very fast.
My D20 took Spanish 3 with a tutor and her cc recommended she take the 4th year, even if it’s online. She is looking at top UCs among other colleges and many applicants will have 4 years even though they only require 2 and recommend 3. It’s too competitive to take the chance of not having that 4th year.
Unfortunately it’s the college admission game that you have to play to get into the top 50 colleges.
You don’t get into a tippy top based on gpa. You can lose out for not continuing foreign language. The competition is that bad.
The only exception I’ve seen is kids who stop FL to fit in quite advanced math or sci- well beyond AP.
If you want a tippy top and think the tip is val or gpa, you are way behind. It suggests you don’t have an idea what matters to those colleges. That won’t help you one bit, can be an issue.
If online lang us accredited, sure. Fine. But I agree AP CS is not necessarily wise, is often low level. You can learn as much in your own. Or more.
“If you want a tippy top and think the tip is val or gpa, you are way behind. It suggests you don’t have an idea what matters to those colleges. That won’t help you one bit, can be an issue.”
ok, but you keep saying this all the time, did you read the OP? He/she has researched the language requirements for the selective colleges, even to the point of knowing the difference between some of schools at Cornell. And the OP has never said the val will help get in, it’s a personal goal but it involves some gpa protection by taking an AP class over the regular Spanish class, which turns people off, as it has on this thread.
We always say don’t do things for admissions, do the things you’re really interested in, but here we’re giving the opposite advice, take the language because that’s what selective colleges want to see, even though you’re clearly not interested in a language and would prefer taking stem classes to see what you might like as a college major.
And really, here’s the thing, unless you’re hooked the chances of getting into the Stanfords of the world are lottery-esque, so I would apply without having the 3-4 years of language and take courses I like and get the val. The worst case is taking the language class(es), not getting the val, and not getting into Stanford, which guess what is probably what will happen.
The issue is the UCs where the third year could make a difference and the chances of getting in could be improved or at least not hurt with the third year of the language. For that, MYOS suggestion of taking it at a community college would be a good option.
Taking at least 3 years of language will be better for top schools. Most of their applicants will have 4-6 years. It is way more important than a tic in weighted GPA. However, I doubt not having it will exclude you. They don’t make decisions by rules and formulas.
Lol, you aren’t “interested” in FL? Then hone a list of colleges that don’t expect to see he full course of it. OP cited an interest in, “Berkeley, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, MIT, and Cornell.” If they recommend 3 or 4 years, you either provide those basics or not, at your own risk. Shorting FL is one of the easy flags even a top performer kid can get. You do get to pick your targets But they choose you- or not.
OP did research some of this, yes. But still wants to opt out of Span 3. Many of us feel that’s not wise. Not for those colleges, where the competition is immense. It is not as if he’s dropping Span for math or science classes past AP. Yes, he can take the online course his hs approved.
OP also referenced how Span 3 will affect his gpa. Fine, he wants to be val. But he should be making wise choices if he wants an uber competitive Tippy Top, at the same time. Or, revise the list. Val is a high school honor, not a guarantee or hook. For most kids on CC, the goal is about college choices and bettering their shot.