<p>Hello!
I was wondering if being able to speak three languages has any significant impact on my college application. You see, I am of Chinese descent, so I speak chinese at home; but I have been living in Chile my entire life, so my first language is still spanish.
Right now I'm a sophomore, and just recently I changed to an international school, where I started to learn more english.
I think I can speak chinese, spanish and english pretty fluently. Some people have told me that this is something notable, but I'm not really sure.</p>
<p>How much does it help in college application?</p>
<p>I think it will definitely set you apart; especially seeing as they are languages with different roots. I’m in the same boat you are, hahah (english, french, spanish, read/write japanese). I really want to learn Chinese though ! You have such an interesting mix of languages.</p>
<p>Try to stress them as much as possible in your application. just my opinion :)</p>
<p>In order of decreasing fluency: English, Spanish, Hebrew, and Chinese…yeah…</p>
<p>I don’t know - I mean it’s interesting, but I feel like there are a fair number of people who speak 3 languages. Maybe not totally fluently, though, so that might help?</p>
<p>It certainly isn’t a disadvantage but I wouldn’t count on it being a ‘hook’. For the OP, any positive effect will likely be balanced by her Chinese ethnicity (very overrepresented). </p>
<p>Pros (OP): Diversity, Linguistic Skills, Cool
Negative (OP): Common combination of languages, Chinese ethnicity, international (?)</p>
<p>Cool, thanks for your advice =D I was thinking the same… I guess nowadays it’s very common to speak several languages. I’ll put it in my application, but certainly not rely on it.</p>
<p>well, i am completely a Chinese student. However, i am doing a exchange now and my english is almost as fluent as a native speaker except for slangs. And i also learned french in school, and planning to push it to higer level. 2100 for SAT, what do ya guys think of my chance getting into an Ivy??</p>
<p>Erm, good linguistic skills is very helpful, but that alone WILL not get you into a top school (unless you’ve somehow proven that you’re a linguistic genius)
Also, do consider how you’ll be demonstrating your proficiency in 3 languages to the adcoms. I speak 3 languages as well (and know a couple others) but I couldn’t find a place to write these down. Maybe you can ask your teachers to include details in their letters of recommendation or mention this in your essay?</p>
<p>I think one good way of proving your linguistic skills is taking some standarized tests. There’s one for almost all common languages such as spanish, chinese, french, etc…
The scores for those could be included in the application.</p>
<p>That totally depends on what you make of it. If you just know the language and take SAT IIs to prove you have the ability, then it can help, but not very much, because tons of people can do that. But if you use your linguistic skills to accomplish something meaningful–ie tutoring, start a language/culture club, win some language related competition, then yes, it will help. </p>
<p>I speak three languages fluently–French, Chinese and English. I help teach Chinese school for kids, and for French, I won some national award–those can be counted as meaningful ECs. </p>
<p>If you do something similar with your languages, then definitely it would help bolster your college app.</p>
<p>well if it does that’s great
i speak english russian spanish and some french
but keep in mind, especially for ivy league, you’re competing the most with children of immigrants most of whom speak their native language and english
but yes i think it should help
as long as you also show intrest in your other cultures…
for example my first language is russia and i’ve been there 5 times so its easy to convince someone that i’m in tune with russian culture</p>
<p>^ yeah i think that’s a much better idea, like weaving your trilingual ability into a traveling essay. That said, I don’t think being trilingual ALONE will get you into a top sch. It’s just a nice bonus</p>
<p>Again, it’s not about how many languages you can speak, it’s about what you make of it. </p>
<p>Speaking three language is actually not all that uncommon. You really must make it meaningful in order for the colleges to care (I’m speaking mainly about the top 25 or so schools in the US)</p>
<p>Is writing short stories considered something meaningful ?
I like to write a lot in both english and spanish… but I can’t think of much more to do with the languages. I mean, teaching them to kids is not an option available to me, because Santiago is not very “globalized”. Most people here don’t bother to spend time learning extra languages.</p>
<p>I sort of live in a bubble… I want to do things but my circumstances don’t allow me =(</p>
