Can I still apply for UCs? Do I fulfil the foreign language requirements?

I am freaking out right now. My freshman year of high school, I took Japanese 3. I planned to continue with the language all throughout high school but it conflicted with my schedule so I took another language my sophomore year, Spanish 1.

I did NOT take Japanese 1 or 2 in middle school, I simply took a placement test to be able to take Japanese 3 as a freshman.

My high school counselor told me that taking Japanese 3 counted as 3 years to UCs – does it? Do I still fulfil the language requirement for UCs (taking the same foreign language for 2 years)?

At this point, I can’t take an AP/SAT Subject test for the language because my Japanese skills have mostly been lost.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

To summarize: I have taken 1 year of Japanese 3, 1 year of Spanish 1

yes, for Berkeley, they want you to reach the third level of a language, and not necessarily 3 years of a language. For other UCs it specifies 2 years but the wording is a bit nebulous. You should be fine, I’m pretty sure with having taken a Level 3 of Japanese and nothing else.

Completion of high school foreign language (other than English) through the third year of instruction - Minimum Grade: C-

http://guide.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/colleges-schools/letters-science/foreign-language-requirement/

UCs and CSUs have a concept called validation of lower level courses with completion of higher level courses. This can be applied to math and LOTE (language other than English). For LOTE, completion of high school year 3 validates high school year 1 and 2. Essentially, this means that UCs and CSUs count the highest year completed as the number of years of LOTE.

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/csu-uc-a-g-comparison-matrix.pdf

I can’t speak for the other CSUs but I would check Cal Poly SLO’s policy. I believe they want you to have taken LOTE 1 & 2 .

For Cal Poly SLO. I agree LOTE 3 validates for a-g fulfillment. However, not sure if applicant would receive the LOTE MCA max points. In years past, SLO has not used level achieved to award MCA points as seen with applicants who don’t enter Middle School advanced math and LOTE.

Yes, there has been chatter on the forums that all high school level LOTE and math courses taken in middle school should be entered on the CPSLO application to ensure MCA point credit (for number of years of LOTE and math completed).

@ucbalumnus

What are your thoughts about students who have a mastery of language who do not actually take the lower level classes in middle school but can enter language at a higher level starting in HS. Essentially skipping classes.

UC and CSU validation policy (other than the CPSLO oddness) effectively means that the highest level of LOTE completed defines the number of years of LOTE completed for admission purposes.

However, if the student is already above the highest level that the high school offers and does not want to take a useless high school course, then s/he may need to find some other means of showing the high level of proficiency to UC and CSU admissions (e.g. AP or SAT subject test or a few other methods are accepted).