<p>My son will be a junior in a few weeks and has taken Spanish 3 honors freshmen year and AP Spanish Language sophomore year. Got a 4 on AP test, 680 Subject test. (3 years of middle school Spanish.)</p>
<p>How do you count the number of years he's taken so far? Do competitive colleges consider this as 2 years of high school foreign language, even though he has reached AP level? He wants to take a photography elective (he does photography as a hobby)to lighten his course load (includes AP chem, AP American lit, AP comp sci, biology, us history, analytic pre-calc). He is currently registered to take Spanish 5 because he doesn't want to take AP Spanish Literature. This would give him 3 years of high school foreign language, though stepping down from what he just finished. He is thinking about computer science/engineering for college.</p>
<p>I've read the thread that colleges like to see foreign language depth into junior or senior year.</p>
<p>Take Spanish 5, or drop and add photography, or replace with other elective?</p>
<p>Looks like the high school has AP Spanish as level 4, taken after level 3. Usually, it is level completed that matters, not the number of years (plus he has an AP score of 4), when it comes to foreign language in high school.</p>
<p>If his friends in school include heritage speakers of Spanish, he may want to speak to them in Spanish in social situations just to keep up his skills.</p>
<p>Any one who has taken and passed an AP test will be considered by most colleges to have covered the language requirement. I think he should take photography if he wants to. Schools do look at the rigor of the schedule - so while I encourage arts electives - do make sure that the rest of his schedule is commensurate with what the sorts of colleges he is aiming for are looking for.</p>
<p>this may be a nonissue- but i recall some colleges required four years of a language, some three, some two. just might want to make sure what is required of some schools you would be looking at in the future.</p>
<p>If his objective is to learn the language as well as he can, for non-college reasons, stick with Spanish N+1… DD2 is in French 3 in her sophomore year, will do 4 in junior and 5/AP in senior (she has a private tutor also).</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t he take AP Spanish Lit & Culture? It’s a good syllabus, and a good way actually to enjoy the fruits of language study, vs. simply more, different drilling in grammar and vocablulary.</p>
<p>I think most schools don’t require 4 years, but recommend 4. This is a question my son has struggled with, as well: he has finished two years of high school French, but he doesn’t like his French teacher and his grade there dragged him down. He’s going to take intensive Latin (two years in one) next year, and we’re betting that it’s the same thing, as far as colleges are concerned (he went to intensive language camp this summer, for Russian, which was supposed to represent a year’s worth of high school language, but his high school won’t accept the credit, so I don’t suppose it will matter). It’s not clear to me why colleges recommend 4 years–that is, is 4 years supposed to represent rigor, or dedication, or simply mastery of language? If it’s the last, then your son’s AP score should do the trick; if it’s some sense of rigor, that a proper high school education should have four years of language, he might be left looking light. In part, it depends on the selectivity of the colleges to which your son wants to apply. In my (completely inexpert) opinion, a college that is looking holistically at a student is not likely to be concerned by a kid who has demonstrated both reasonable mastery of a language and a fully-rigorous schedule.</p>