<p>How important is it to take 4 years of the same language in high school? My daughter wants to drop Spanish senior year (she would be in in AP Spanish if she took it senior year) and take AP Economics instead. She's also taking Latin, which she loves, but it would only be her third year of Latin. </p>
<p>She's a strong student and I think her record might look bad if she didn't continue with 4 years of Spanish, but she really wants to take the AP Economics course, and she really prefers Latin over Spanish. With the exception of Latin, all her other courses would be AP:|
AP English
AP History
AP Calculus AB
AP CHEM
AP Economics
Latin</p>
<p>Doesn't it look bad if she drops Spanish after 3 years (actually she has taken it since 6th grade and never liked it)?</p>
<p>Never do something you hate just to impress someone else, especially its taking a class for adcoms. </p>
<p>And no, it will not look bad. I dropped French and didn't take a language my senior year and still got into college.</p>
<p>Well it depends, what does she want to do in college and in life? </p>
<p>If she wants to do something math/science related then not taking a language isn't a big deal. But if she's going into something like IR or humanities, then taking a 4th year would be in her interests. </p>
<p>But really, it's up to her. Most colleges don't care as long as you're in your 3rd or 4th year.</p>
<p>Some colleges require four years of high school language. I kept my language (I also love it, so it's not a big deal) because I didn't want to 'close any doors.' That way I'd be sure that I was meeting the requirements- I didn't want one year of a language to hold me back.</p>
<p>I've never heard of any college that requires four years, I wouldn't be worried about that.</p>
<p>First one I found was Princeton- four years of the same foreign language required. </p>
<p>There has to be more out there than Princeton. Most are probably in the upper tier of selectivity, but we have no clue where the OP's daughter is applying. </p>
<p>University of Michigan applicants are "strongly encouraged" to take four years of a foreign language.</p>
<p>It's "recommended" at William and Mary and a ton of other schools.</p>
<p>Princeton doesn't require it, just what they'd like to see.</p>
<p>^Oops, yup, true. My bad.</p>
<p>I have never seen a school foolish enough to require four years of a language- they'd have to be retarded to do so, simply because of the logistics of high school. What about that poor student at a school, where the school's student body has a minimal interest in a language the student has been studying for two years, and then the class is dropped for a year by the school due to lack of people who sign up, but then the kid takes it again next year? if they were to go strictly on '4 years of a language' I'm sure they would recieve a good amount of justified complaints that such a requirment is stupid. This sortof scheduling stuff rarely happens significantly in the core subjects since there are always more classes for them. </p>
<p>Besides, what if a person realized after 3 years that perhaps the language they had been studying doesnt actually appeal to them? (Such as in the case described by the OP). Changing languages is not a decision made without thought - and when it is done with thought, it should be allowed.</p>
<p>That's why these schools recommend 4 years, just as they recommend other things as well - but in the true holistic fashion, sometimes certain factors are made meaningless by others. If it was a great applicant with great everything and prowness, no sane adcom would give a bat about 3 yrs of a language instead of 4.</p>
<p>I think it's fine if she drops it, especially since all of her other classes would be AP and she's also taking a third language.</p>
<p>Adcoms understand scheduling difficulties and individual preferences just as well as the rest of us do.</p>
<p>would 4 years mean a year of that language every year you're in high school, or just up to the 4th level? because in middle school, we could officially start taking the 1st year of any language, so 4 years would mean AP language as a senior</p>
<p>They probably won't see your middle school record, so it would mean 4 years in high school.</p>
<p>They won't see your middle school records, but if they see you take "Spanish 2" or something in your freshman year, then they'll assume you took Spanish 1 in middle school.</p>
<p>If you got credit it for it as an 8th grader though it could count towards your credits to graduation and therefore be on your transcript (one of the schools in my county is like that, the middle school and high school are practically intertwined and so it easily works). This is more often than not probably not the case</p>
<p>I think that if its substituted with an equally rigorous class, it should be fine.</p>
<p>Don't take it if you hate it. My friend didn't take a fourth year and goes to Princeton.</p>