<p>Hi!
I’m about to submit my Brown ED application, and all my school documents and recommendations have been sent already. I just had a minor issue with my counselor recommendation letter, as she didn’t include that although my mother is french, I’ve never lived in france or studied the language so the SAT II i took in the subject wasn’t like taking it in my native language. The Brown website states that students are discouraged from taking SAT II’s in their native language, so I think making this clear is pretty important. Should I email or call Brown now, should I wait until my application is fully submitted before contacting them, or should I just leave it be?
Thanks 
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<p>You counselor can email them later. But you never studied the language? How did you answer the question about languages spoken at home?</p>
<p>No, I’ve never studied the language, I have french relatives so I can speak and understand but the only grammar I’ve learned is through reading and teaching myself. Do you mean on the common app? I said Italian and English are the languages spoken at home, since I speak them way more often than french with my parents and siblings. And thank you, I’ll ask my counselor to email them about it!</p>
<p>Did you just take 2 SAT IIs, and one of them was French? If this is the case – well, my take on it (and I’m not in admissions so my opinion is just that, my opinion), someone whose mother speaks French, someone who has French relatives and can speak and understand the language, has a significant advantage in the French SAT II over someone who knew the word bonjour when they walked into their first French class. So frankly, I think Brown’s comment DOES refer to you. I would encourage you to take another SAT II if necessary. </p>
<p>Like Fireandrain, I would call you a native speaker if you learned it from relatives, not from school. The SAT II is meant to test students who studied French in school, which you did not do. I would suggest that you take another SAT II if at all possible.</p>
<p>@fireandrain @bruno14 yeah I have taken three, but my third one was slightly lower so it wouldn’t show up in my top 2 SAT II scores. And yes, I did learn the language from my family, but since I’ve never studied it in my life I didn’t have the great advantage of someone whose first language is french or who has been educated in a french-speaking country. I just want to make it clear to Brown that I didn’t just take it because I knew it would be an easy 800 in a language i’m completely fluent in (because I’m not; my spanish grammar and spelling is much better than my french one, and I’ve only ever studied spanish in school). But I guess I’ll email them about it and send in all my three scores, thanks! </p>
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Leave it be. Send all 3 scores and Brown can use them as they see fit. Any subsequent email from you or your counselor will really not do anything to appreciably enhance your application.</p>
<p>You’re going to have to make your own best decision.
But let’s face it, French is not a “foreign language” for you as it is for some others. If you didn’t officially study it, but got an 800, that ability didn’t come out of thin air.</p>
<p>“I learned French from family but it was never a class” kind of defeats your intention.<br>
I don’t see how an explanation is in your favor. </p>
<p>Your decision. </p>
<p>thanks for all the comments! I might just leave it, but basically what I wanted to clarify to the admissions committee was that I never formally learned french grammar and that french is not at all the main language spoken at home despite some of my relatives being from france. What I learned was largely either self-taught or gained through reading; having french origins simply gave me the ability to teach these things myself as I was already able to communicate in and understand most of the language. My 800 was neither an easy nor a guaranteed result. I realize that it wouldn’t count as much as my two other tests, but I do want Brown to take it into consideration knowing that I did not take it in a language I am fully proficient in, which I could have done with my truly native language (italian). But this doesn’t seem to be coming across correctly, and you all seem to agree that it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway, so I’ll have to take that into consideration and then decide what I want to do. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I don’t have any idea what the admissions reaction would be, but I don’t see what the big deal would be to just send an email that says something like ‘I have never formally studied French, but my mom and relatives are French and I learned spoken French from them. It is not my native language, so I am not sure how I fit into your policy discouraging ‘native speakers’ from taking SAT II’s in their native language. I did take the SAT II in French, so wanted to send you a note clarifying my situation. Thank you.’ Yours is a legitimate gray area and I can’t see the harm in clarifying your situation for admissions. They are not ogres looking for a ‘misstep’ to reject you. An email will go in your folder, not cause a major upheaval for them, I would think.</p>