Hello so i just finished my freshman year and am going into sophmore year. I’ve always been advanced in Spanish and took Spanish 1H in 7th grade, Spanish 2H in 8th Grade, and Spanish 3H in the 9th grade. I’ve always had above a 95 average in Spanish but I decided not to continue with language anymore. My school doesn’t offer Spanish 4 or AP Spanish, only college Spanish. However the teacher is really awful and everyone says that it’s the biggest waste of time since you learn nothing. I was wondering if I’ll ruin my chances of getting into an Ivy by not taking a 4th year of language. However I also speak Italian fluently (my first language) so could I put that as well? Thanks!!
Can you take Spanish online or at a local community college* and take the AP Italian test or the Italian subject test (I think it’s offered once or twice per year only)?
It’d look pretty bad if you stopped Spanish in the 10th grade.
Top 40 universities and LACs definitely expect applicants to reach level 4 in a foreign language. However having level 4 in a foreign language plus being a heritage speaker in another one is a definite plus.
*You’d start in college Spanish 201 or Intermediate 1. It goes much faster than in high school, which you may find fun and challenging.
The only local college that offers college Spanish is the one that goes through my school. I was thinking to take both Italians and Spanish Subject Tests instead
Do you mean college level Spanish or college prep Spanish?
Sure, take both subject tests.
Perhaps you can find an online class?
college level
I was looking but I’m not sure what a good provider is.
I suppose you mean a CC professor comes to your school for Spanish 4. But is there a CC nearby? It’d definitely offer more than one Intermediate Spanish class.
I meant for an online class. And I’d probably skip Spanish 4 and just take AP Spanish if I could. However, I go to a very expensive private school so my parents don’t particularly want to pay for a teacher. And yes there’s one almost an hour from where I live.
If you are looking towards an Ivy level schools as you indicated in the first post, I would strongly suggest that you take the Spanish 4 regardless of the teacher if you can’t find another way to take it (which doesn’t sound likely). Not all teachers are great and that is a part of life.
If you look online at the requirements/recommendations for the top schools I’d guess that most if not all have 4 years of foreign language listed. Of course taking the 4 years of foreign language is no guarantee of admission, but you need to understand that these schools generally have under 10% acceptance rates and if you don’t meet the required/recommended classes your application will be at an automatic disadvantage. This is probably particularly true when you stop taking language sophomore year.
Check with your parents: can they afford the private school AND save for your college? Because they’ll be expected to pay for your college costs after private school (unless they expect you will score super high on the SAT/ACT and win a full-tuition scholarship, but those are much rarer now than they used to.) Can you take AP Spanish online through your state’s virtual high school? (Typically it’s free for students who reside in the state, whether it’s available for free if you’re not in public school depends on the State so check).
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-subject-tests/subjects/languages/italian
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-italian-language-and-culture/exam
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-subject-tests/subjects/languages/spanish
All in all, if you score well in Italian and Spanish, you should be okay (even if stopping freshman year at level 3 will look odd, and “the teacher’s bad” doesn’t count as a legitimate reason.)
Next question: what would you take instead of Spanish if you don’t take it?
See my school doesn’t offer Spanish 4 or AP Spanish. Only a college Spanish class. And I only finished Spanish because I was so advanced that I finished it freshman year.
My parents already told me that I’d have to take out my own loans if I don’t get a scholarship because they are paying for my private school. They don’t want to get me a tutor and told me I can self study it if I’m interested but we’ll see.
I’ll start studying for Italian and Spanish and hopefully I’ll score high. But I’ll definitely look into taking a college class at an actual college. Maybe not this year but definitely the year after. I really do love languages but everyone who took college Spanish at my school told me not to take it, my guidance counselor too, since most people fail since the teacher doesn’t teach.
I’ll be taking intro to Psych (a pre req so that I can take AP Psych as a junior) and an intro class to criminal justice (another pre req to take a college law class). These classes would put me a year ahead of everyone in my grade and would allow me to take AP or college classes in nearly all my classes
You cannot " take your own loans". You’re limited to 5.5k in loans and most public universities would cost 20-30k (which the State fully expects your parents to pay, unless you live in New York or California and meet the income threshold, or in Florida/Georgia and meet the bright futures/hope criteria).
In other words, if your parents aren’t saving for your college and don’t plan to contribute, the only way you will go to college is if your parents take a loan against the house (HELOC), a Parent PLUS loan, or a private loan for you. If they’re willing to pay 12-16k for room/board/books AND you score in the top 2% or higher you MAY get a full tuition scholarship somewhere (Oklahoma, UT Dallas, UMN, UMW, Truman State… have scholarships for different score thresholds).
Considering your private school doesn’t meet your academic needs and the college situation, whereby you’re essentially depleting your college fund to go to high school, I would advocate you attend a public high school and have your parents save the hs tuition in a 529 for college.
Run the NPC on your state flagship AND a couple colleges you’re interested in, bring the results to your parents.
My both daughters dropped Spanish in 4 th year and English in last two tri mesters at Highschool, but they both took independent research in history, science and math as electives and published papers in journals
So the normal sequence at your school is
Spanish 1
Spanish 2
Spanish 3
College Spanish
It doesn’t really matter if they call the fourth year AP Spanish, or College Spanish, or Spanish 4. Your school offers 4 years of Spanish and you are choosing to take 3. I think you are placing too much importance on what it is called.
The only reason I’m attending private school is because I live in a school district that is in the top 30 most dangerous places to live/worst school districts in America. I’m very grateful that my parents gave me the option of a good high school to prepare myself for college. I have money saved for my college and I’ll attend a community college if I can’t afford anything or don’t receive a scholarship. But I doubt that will happen because there’s a college affiliated to my high school that will give scholarships to kids from my high school if they take a certain amount of classes from them.
Yes I was planning on taking pre reqs so that I can take more AP classes junior year
You may want to read the pinned thread on foreign languages on the top of this page.
Yes I know. I just wanted to know how hurtful it’d be in admissions but I think I’ll just take some Subject Tests and continue tutoring in Spanish instead of taking the 4th year