<p>I plan on majoring in Music Education (at either Slippery Rock University or Clarion, in case anybody would have pin-point details on this), and my guidance counselor forced me to fit in Spanish for next year (Junior). I would prefer not to take it, as both colleges only recommend to have two years of a language. I e-mailed Slippery Rock and they said it's recommended. I was just wondering if anybody knows if it would totally ruin my chances of getting in if I skipped the language or anything?</p>
<p>I found that even when universities require language, they let you in if they want you, and make you take the language at university. My daughter got into USC without a foreign language.</p>
<p>But you should check with each college, call them, and get specifics.</p>
<p>It just depends on the college. The USC that my son goes to absolutely requires two years of a foreign language in high school, and on top of that they require another two semesters of the same foreign language once enrolled.</p>
<p>There are a couple of colleges (Clemson and U of Charleston) in my state that require three years of foreign language in high school.</p>
<p>Some conservatories don’t consider academics at all.</p>
<p>It just depends, you may want to follow your guidence councelors advice, it may not help you but it definately won’t hurt you (as long as you make decent grades of course).</p>
<p>I’m worried about getting bad grades in Spanish because I’m not good at learning other languages, but I can’t choose another language because then I would have to go down to the Intermediate (we have intermediate 9-10 and senior high 11-12) to take another language. I also thought for my senior year it would look better if I took 2 choirs, but I won’t have room for that if I do Spanish. I personally think I learned enough other languages singing them so I should be good, right? 
Just kidding.</p>
<p>One thing to think about is if you are planning to major iin music ed being fluent in a foreign language, especially something like Spanish, might be a benefit when you are applying for a job after college.Being bilingual to some extent might help when applying to areas where there are a lot of spanish speaking immigrants, or might even land you a job someplace where spanish is the language, you never know…</p>
<p>My daughters found it easier to study languages outside of school, on intensively over a summer quarter.</p>
<p>The daughter who attended USC (the one in California) without meeting the “required” number of years on language dropped language during high school because she was concerned she would get a bad grade. During her 2nd year of French in middle school she drew a very bad teacher who got the class far behind. When she started 3rd year, she couldn’t keep up.</p>
<p>Just call the schools you are interested in, and ask them if you have to have the required language years now, or whether you can do them during college. You can always take language over the summers.</p>
<p>You probably don’t need foreign language for admission but check the college graduation requirements. Son’s (music ed major) college has a general ed requirement for foreign language for the BM. However, he took 4 years in high school including a college in high school course, therefore he doesn’t need it in college. If you have trouble with language now, it will move faster at the college level and be harder. Try to stick it out so you can make through the college level curriculum. Also,for vocal majors, you have to take some foreign language at the college level. Definitely talk to the schools about the college graduation requirements before dropping the course.</p>
<p>I would not be concerned about how two choirs versus one choir in your senior year looks–the number of choirs will have little bearing on how your application is viewed.</p>
<p>I agree that many colleges are flexible on stated language requirements, but it is best to contact the music ed department directly and get their opinion. I also second the observation that learning languages in high school is much easier than in college–the pace is so much faster at the college level. The academic bar for high school gpa is not that high at most schools for music ed, so I wouldn’t be overly concerned that Spanish will bring your gpa down unless you are overall an academically marginal candidate to begin with.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if you are planning to focus on instrumental or vocal music ed, but if vocal music ed, then a knowledge of other languages is invaluable–a huge amount of the decent choral repertoire even for young students is not in English.</p>
<p>Music Ed still requires a music audition, so you may want to consider applying to more than two schools. Many schools actually prefer a three year sequence of a foreign language. My daughter thought she was okay stopping after three years, but the college she ended up at requires one year past the three year sequence, so she has to fit another year in before she graduates from college. The only problem with that is she hasn’t been able to fit it in yet and she is getting farther away from the language exposure… Hope it’s like riding a bicycle and it all comes back to her.</p>
<p>As to whether it’s needed, it’s just like 4 years of social studies, or 3 years of science… Not specifically needed, but more like a well rounded curriculum.</p>
<p>If your application is otherwise strong, I don’t think the foreign language is a must in high school. But I see your intended major is Music Education, and to teach in my state (NY), you have to have at least two semesters of a foreign language at the college level. If you have 4 years of a language at the high school level, this counts. If taking Spanish next year only gets you to the third level of high school Spanish, I’d say enjoy yourself and take the second choir!</p>
<p>Can’t speak to what each school you apply to might want…but what I will say is that there are so many helpful programs out now that help you learn languages.</p>
<p>I have always been terrible with languages. Switched from being a BA to BS major in college so I wouldn’t have to take as much. (Many years ago)</p>
<p>Now I am working on learning French on my own before an upcoming trip… My DD (vocal major) directed me to a site called Memrise … Free language program…gives you a word, spelling for it, audio pronunciation, others submit helpful hints to learn the word… it will ask you questions and when you answer it you get points toward “sprouting” that word into a flower…after so many points the flower leaves the greenhouse for the garden…you have to come back every so often and water it or it will wilt…I’m picking up so many words this way. (Free…did I say Free, great program)… google it.</p>
<p>I have also purchased a Michael Thomas cd pack that is wonderful for learning to speak sentences…think your way through them…very good…I was able to pick one up on ebay.</p>
<p>My local library system also has free language software online that I can access…</p>
<p>I pull up French radio stations online and listen…try to pick out words.</p>
<p>So…what I am saying…there are MANY resources out there that can make your studies much more fun and successful…</p>
<p>You said you sang many languages…great for you…going forward though I think it would be a big benefit to really get to know one…or two…or even a dozen of them ;-)</p>
<p>My DD has entertained several couch surfers from other countries and being able to converse with them in their language has been great fun for her.</p>
<p>My DD attends SRU and she is required to have 9 credits of a foreign language. She was also required to have at least two years in order to graduate from high school. Even if your high school does not have the language requirement, most colleges do. My DD is a dance major and still has the foreign language requirement. She tested out of the first class and will only need to take 2 more courses</p>