<p>My 8th grader just completed Spanish 1. Do colleges count this as a year of foreign language, even though it will not officially be on his high school transcript?</p>
<p>In other words, should I have him repeat Spanish 1 in 9th grade? If he needs 3 years for college, going all the way to Spanish 4 might do him in (he's dyslexic, so languages are difficult for him)!</p>
<p>^If his second year of Spanish in high school says Spanish 3, it will count. That said, my son, in a similar situation, decided to play it safe(r) and take a fourth year of Latin. Not sure it was worth it since he barely scraped by with a B-! But he did better in the college acceptances than we expected. I think that languages are one area where you may well get a bit of forgiveness if the grades aren’t quite what is expected.</p>
<p>All that said, you and your son’s teachers know him best and can advise better whether getting a more solid grounding in Spanish would be good for him, or unbelievably boring for him.</p>
<p>Mathmom, I sure wish colleges would recalculate GPA without the foreign language grades 
It would be a great benefit to my kids. Both of them inherited my (and my ex-H’s) complete absence of talent for foreign languages.</p>
<p>Are you sure it won’t be on his high school transcript? My daughter did the same thing, and it sure counted…</p>
<p>In our district, HS classes taken in middle school “count” toward the HS and state requirements, but they aren’t factored into the GPA…except that they do appear on the transcript, so if a school recalulates GPA, they’d include that grade.</p>
<p>My S completed HS French 2 in 8th grade, and as far as I know it was not on his HS transcript, nor did it count toward his GPA. It seems to vary by school.</p>
<p>He was in a different situation, though, since as a language maven he took two languages through AP, and due to an independent study for one Lit AP actually had something like 9 years of foreign language on his transcript. (Intparent, we are happy that your wishes were unfulfilled! )</p>
<p>Our district does a mix of things. Spanish 1 in middle school appeared as “1 credit” on the high school transcript, but was not factored into the GPA - so it was accounted for, but couldn’t hurt you. OTOH high school biology and Algebra 1 (if you take them in middle school) appear with the high school numbering system (number grades not letters on both report cards and the transcript and count in the GPA). They give you plenty of warning that these are high school courses and will count, and really try to discourage anyone from taking them that might get less than a B.</p>
<p>In our school district, the two middle school years of foreign language counted as one high school year. Those kids took level 2 language in 9th grade. However, the middle school language grades did not count toward the high school gpa.</p>
<p>If your son moves to the next level, it will count. My oldest did Spanish in middle school and started her freshman year of high school with Spanish 2. Spanish is not a passion of hers, so she dropped it after taking Spanish 4 Honors in junior year to fit in another course of more interest to her. It worked out well, because that counts as 4 years of Spanish. Another D took Spanish in middle school but chose to repeat Spanish 1 as a freshman, so her middle school Spanish obviously will not count.</p>
<p>Speak with the GC at the high school and find out how it will show up on the final transcript AND how it will factor into the GPA. As you can see here it varies from school to school as well as subject to subject. Also when colleges recalculate grades for GPA they do it a number of different ways. Some count foreign language and some do not. If a school says they strip all but core subjects some still include foreign language. Georgia Tech of all schools includes foreign language in their recalculation. I have no problem with that, but it’s odd that they drop AP Comp Sci (considered an elective) and keep Spanish, but they do.</p>
<p>FWIW, our kids transcripts included any math and foreign language taken in middle school. It is also included in their GPA and class rank calculations.</p>
<p>It’s best to get a specific answer. Contact the guidance office at the HS your S will attend and ask their policy. (If you’re not sure which HS he’ll attend, ask at each one where he might go.) Email is even better than a phone call, because then you’ll have the answer in writing.</p>
<p>Wow. Thanks all. I emailed the guidance counselor. Now I’m wondering what my older son’s transcript includes. Off to check…</p>
<p>Lisa,</p>
<p>Our school is the same as missypie’s school – Foreign Language and advanced Math taken in 7th & 8th grades are reflected on transcript but not counted in GPA. </p>
<p>Our school also has requires kids to continue language and math to the greater of X level or X years in 9-12th. So a 9th grader may come in with Level 3 language, but is still required to take 2 years of language.</p>
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<p>Many universities look for the Nth level of language in high school, rather then N years of language in high school, and some may accept high enough SAT II and/or AP scores in the language. It is presumably common for native speakers to prove their proficiency with SAT II and/or AP scores, or heritage speakers to start directly in the third or fourth level without taking the first or second level.</p>
<p>But check each university to be sure of exactly what they want in that area.</p>
<p>High school level math, science & foreign language taken at the Middle school level are, as for many on here, noted on the transcript as pass/fail but not calculated in the gpa. Starting with D2’s graduating class, they do not count towards the HS graduation requirements, but they do allow you to accelerate. So she took Spanish 2 as a freshman, Spanish 3 as a sophomore (thereby fulfilling the 2 years of foreign language required in HS.) </p>
<p>I wouldn’t retake it for credit if he’s sticking with the same language. What I had been told with D1 was that colleges that say they want 2 years of a foreign language in HS, want to see them in HS and that it would then be beneficial to take the language started in MS through sophomore year.</p>
<p>Your best bet would be to ask the middle school GC as they would be the ones to put the grade on the transcript. if the middle school gives a numeric grade, it will be calculated into the GPA (letter grades are not calculated).</p>
<p>It is not unusual for our school to get middle school students who come in with high school credit in foreign language, algebra and science (living environment/earth science). In NYS, it is usually transcripted by the middle school. </p>
<p>We will give credit at the high level if the student has successfully passed the NYS regents exam in middle school after consulting with the middle school about the course work.</p>
<p>Our school system gave us a choice - to include the classes on the high school transcript or not. If the classes were included, the grades would factor into the GPA.</p>
<p>She had taken Spanish I and II and Algebra and Geometry in middle school. We included them in the transcript for several reasons, one - we wanted to show that she was an advanced learner and two, she took AP Spanish in the 10th grade and wanted to make sure they realized she had 4 years of the language.</p>
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<p>Ditto this reply.
In addition to knowing how your son’s language will appear on his transcript, it is important to check with each college that he is applying to, as each could have a different requirement/expectation. ie We were told that UDel requires a ‘conversational’ language, so even 4 years of Latin in HS would not satisfy their admission requirement for language. Fortunately this twist does not pertain specifically to OP.</p>
<p>^And despite what U of Delaware says, I bet that they still would have accepted my son who only had AP Latin, though they might have made him take a conversational language once he got there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up about UDel. Many in our area apply there and some have been taking Latin.</p>