College Admissions and Language APs

<p>Hello CollegeBoard! This is my first post, and I hope to make many more over the coming year!</p>

<p>To make a long story short, I'm currently in a Latin 3 Honors class, which is going well enough for me. However, I'm beginning to find that my teacher dislikes me personally. While I could continue in the class, I'd prefer to not do so for another two years.</p>

<p>I'm considering dropping the class, then taking the Latin AP test next year(I'm a sophomore). I'm fairly certain that I would score a 5 on said AP, but my specific question is this:</p>

<p>Will college admissions accept an AP test score of 5 on a language as having studied a foreign language, even if I did not study said language for a full four year?</p>

<p>Depends on the college. The California public universities do consider AP (and SAT subject) language scores in place of high school foreign language courses, but other schools may differ on that.</p>

<p>Many schools consider that if you can score a 4 or 5, then you know the material, regardless of how many years of foreign language you took. Keep in mind that, for example, some students go to Concordia Language Villages and skip a year, or that some take the test without much if any formal study if it is their native or home language, and colleges still consider it “counts”.
HOWEVER if you intend on majoring in a language you should take it every year and if you intend to apply to a selective college you’ll have to take 2-4 semesters of language, therefore it is a good idea to start with it while in high school because the first semester of college language covers 2 years of high school language, i.e., it is brutal. Unless Latin is offered at the college where you’re admitted, you’d have to start from scratch. Taking French, German, Spanish… over the summer (or via Concordia Language Village, a foreign language immersion summer camp) would thus give you a leg up.</p>