<p>Does being bilingual help in admissions? I am very fluent in Spanish, and will be using the SAT II to bolster my claim. I took it once without prep and as an impulse decision on testing day and got a 650 (I will retake it in the fall. I'm shooting for at least a 700, but preferably a 720 or higher). I also work at a restaurant where many of the staff is Mexican, and using my Spanish, I would regularly carry on conversations with them (just a real world application of my Spanish. Probably doesn't really mean much). I also am spearheading the effort (in conjunction with my HS's World Language department) at my high school to help establish a chapter of Spanish Honors Society and I am hoping to be elected president. I have also received two awards (one freshman year, one junior year) for excellence and passion for Spanish. Is any of this a significant boost to my application?</p>
<p>The EC involvement may help, but I’d say Spanish Honor Society is probably not one of the most robust EC’s. Being bilingual will not help in admissions.</p>
<p>I would consider it something to list in the awards and EC section. It depends on what colleges you are applying to. Some care a lot about ECs, some not at all, some in between. It isn’t a "superstar’ EC that will get you into a top Ivy. But it is a decent, solid EC.</p>
<p>As an extracurricular? No, it probably won’t help much. As a skill? Well, there are boxes in common data sets for “talent/ability” & “personal qualifications,” and to some colleges, they’re important, so it could help in that aspect. However, most Hispanic applicants to top colleges (not just Ivy) are fluent in Spanish; it’s become such a common language in the US that it wouldn’t stand out. If you had, for example, taught yourself Arabic or Japanese, without that being your ethnic background, then that would be another case…It wouldn’t be a magic ticket, of course, not at all. Just another ingredient in the mix.</p>
<p>Do you use your Spanish to teach courses in a South American country? It is a nice skill to have. I don’t think it gives you an advantage over the thousands of kids that are bilingual everywhere else. I’m a native speaker and it wasn’t something that was spectacular when I applied to college 30 years ago. My kids are bilingual but it was kind of expected. So, it didn’t really help them in admissions. </p>
<p>^ Yup. It’s pretty much a given if it’s your native/ethnic language.</p>
<p>My take on it is that if it’s your native language/parents’ language, it’s not impressive because you were raised bilingual. And if you learned through taking classes in high school, you’re probably not as bilingual as you think, so also not impressive. But that’s just my general opinion. </p>
<p>I don’t have any ancestors or relatives who speak Spanish; I learned it through my own efforts and schooling (I worked on my Spanish independently to supplement the classroom). Native speakers have remarked on my fluency and accent (I’ve been asked if I was from Spain before). Spanish is actually a rarity where I come from, and knowing a second language at all in my area is an aberration.</p>
<p>Congratulations on this accomplishment. </p>
<p>As for admissions purposes, you really don’t get extra points. In the southwestern states, it’s almost second nature to learn to speak Spanish for some of the part-time and summer jobs. </p>
<p>I’m sad to think that Spanish is viewed as an aberration in your geographic area. I don’t mean to belittle your accomplishment, but the sad fact is that it won’t help with points on admission and it won’t make you qualify under URM. Additionally, you do know that certain parts of the Spanish language are not derived from books and internet resources? I’ve team-taught Spanish and we’ve had to help students with the cultural issues that arise, as well as corrections for cultural gaffes that have occurred. </p>
<p>It might not be common in your area, but on average it’s common across the US…However, while the Spanish itself won’t stand out, the fact that you taught yourself (specially in the conditions you mentioned) will be well regarded by colleges. They will see at as evidence of initiative, determination, and appreciation for other cultures. Well done.</p>
<p>aunt bea, I haven’t done that, but is there anywhere that I could learn about those cultural specifics? </p>
<p>and thank you Liliana :)</p>
<p>One of my kids spoke an unusual language (Finnish), and wrote one of her college essays about it. She had a fascination with it starting at a pretty young age, and we lived in an environment where she had a chance to learn it (we are NOT Finnish). Then she got to go to Finland for a summer in high school and really use it. So she wrote her essay about her long-term growing interest in it, and about using it during that summer. It was partly an essay about long-term commitment to something unusual, some introspection about how it changed her perspective on the world, and some humor about attempts to use the language. The essay ended up getting published in a publication touting how to write a good college essay. So it is possible to use fascination with a foreign language as more than just an EC on your application.</p>