My daughter is so complete jazzed about applying to Pitt!! I have to believe she’ll get in, but she needs a high merit scholarship for it to work.
During her senior year she plans to participate in a dual enrollment program in Ohio called College Credit Plus so that she can take some courses at Miami University during the school year.
Her Stats:
ACT 35 (best superscore would be E 36, M 34, R 36, S 35) Writing score of 10
GPA 101.02 U/4.395 on 4 pt. scale
Rank 1 of 405
SAT on 3/5/16 was 1470 (RW 740, M 730)
PSAT (not that it matters at Pitt) SI 223, Ohio, so, likely NMS if she chose to go that route
Very challenging course work
so far 3 AP tests - Bio 4, Calc AB 5, Psychology 5
Here’s the question:
As a result of a very long story I will spare you, and her desire to take many science classes, she has only taken French 1 and 2 for foreign languages in high school. She has been focusing on American Sign Language,not through any formal classes, and she intends to take ASL as her foreign language requirement at Pitt. She intends to major in Communication Sciences and Disorders to become a Speech Pathologist. She thinks she needs to take Honors French 3 in school so it looks good on her transcript. I wonder if she would be better off forgoing that course so that she can take another AP class at her high school or another CCP college course at Miami University.
Which would be better? Will it look bad to have only 2 years of a foreign language?
What does the scholarship committee prefer to see?
She could get her ASL knowledge verified independently (would a community school be able to certify her level to equivalent to level 2?)
She can take just one semester of French 2* at Miami and have the equivalent of French 3 in one semester, freeing space for another class of her choice on the spring.
*College language classes classes are much more intense than high school classes so that college level 2 is actually equivalent to high school level 3.
Yes, I agree with Myos, she could take French 2 through dual enrollment.
Of course she could also take the French 3 at HS if she wants.
Since she will take dual enrollment classes at Miami U in Ohio, you might want to find out if the credits for the courses she wants to take would transfer to Pitt. If not she might be better off taking AP classes and get credit that way.
The speech path program requires her to take a number of linguistics classes. Taking more French will be better preparation, not only for the formal ling. classes, but, the personal experience of working toward fluency in an oral language will give her insight when working with people who are struggling with language development or recovery. There will be opportunities during her slp training to improve her ASL.