My son is planning on taking spanish 3/4 (both in a 6 week course) at a community college which counts for 2 years of spanish at his high school. At the community college it is called spanish 2 but his counselor said that if he passes the class, he can skip spanish 3/4 at his high school. Prestigious colleges recommend 4 years of a foreign language so will that count as his fourth year or should he continue to take ap4 or ap 5 after he passes this course? Of course we are worried that this course won’t be enough verbal and writing practice for him to do good on the SAT 2 Spanish.
My son had only one semester of Italian at the local community college and was admitted to Penn. He was not admitted to Dartmouth, the only other Ivy to which he applied.
My oldest son had only two semesters of community college Arabic and was admitted to Princeton and Penn, the only two Ivies to which he applied.
They recommend 4 years, but they obviously don’t “require” it.
That should count. But it won’t make for a fluency level good enough for Spanish SAT 2. That test is taken by a lot of Spanish heritage speakers and I understand it is very difficult to score well if he is not. Consider another SAT unless he is quite fluent.
please no caplock on the title again
Colleges courses in foreign languages will take the student to a higher level of proficiency in a given amount of time than high school courses. Depending on the college and high school, second semester of college Spanish may be equivalent to the second, third, or fourth year of high school Spanish.
While the Spanish AP and SAT subject tests do get heritage speakers, Spanish is such a common high school foreign language for non-heritage speakers in US high schools that many non-heritage speakers take those tests.
The counselor for my son said that it counts as only 5 units at the community college, but when they transfer over the grade it will be 10 units at his high school. Meaning he can skip Spanish 3/4. Looking at the college admissions, this seems confusing as to whether it will or will not count as 2 years. (He completed span 1/2 fully in high school already). And what level does he need to get his bilingual seal? Thanks.