<p>I want to take madarin level 3 in high school. I already took one year of spanish but I don't like it. However, I know that you should take 3 years of the same language. So, if I take level 3 mandarin (highest in my school), do colleges see that as the same as taking 3 years of the same language?</p>
<p>No, I’m in a very similar position. I took Spanish I in middle school, II in 9th, and III in 10th. Hated it. I’ve got two years left and my current plan is to take Chinese II JR year and AP Chinese SR year. It’s gonna be a helluva cram fest but I really disliked spanish. It doesn’t count towards the 3 year thing (which is lame, i think as long as you reach LVL 3 you should be fine) but I had a really messed up schedule anyways,and my school was like, w/e, just take what you want.</p>
<p>EDIT: Oh, one more thing. That case was just my schoool. I know another school that only requires up to the thrid level. Just ask your counselor or something.</p>
<p>No it doesn’t work like that. Three years of AP Spanish, three years of general basic Japanese, it’s the same in the terms of fulfilling requirements. (probably not the same in course rigor though 
)</p>
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Only if you’re not a native speaker and I don’t see how you’d skip two years of a language otherwise.</p>
<p>yeah, I’m a native speaker. Its a easy A. :)</p>
<p>^
There going to look at you and say, “This person was too lazy to continue in a new foreign language so they went back to a language they already spoke.” Most people get away with this, but you can’t because non-native speakers can’t skip the first two courses in a language and so it’s really obvious.</p>
<p>Frankly, many schools won’t care. But the schools that do care are the ones you are probably looking at.</p>
<p>If that’s the way you approach school colleges will see it in many ways so what the heck, take your native language for one year and expect credit for 3!</p>
<p>Didn’t work for me. When I was in high school, my school district required three years of the same foreign language. I started in AP French as a frosh (which was considered the hard version of “French 4”). Then I took AP French Lit as a sophomore, which was the last level of French taught at my high school. I was assured that if I took a class at the local university, it would count for my third year, so I took a grad class in medieval French lit as a junior. After the fact, they told me that they would not count it toward my requirement, because it wasn’t taught by a certified high school teacher. Senior year, I ended up doing a private independent study in French, with one of the high school French teachers signing off on it.</p>