<p>Just asking because it seems that almost all the kids at my school take Spanish. The Spanish classes are actually fairly easy, almost everyone who tries gets an A and barely anyone fails. Even at the Spanish III level it is the same way. The German classes seem to be the same way as well, almost everyone gets an A in there. Not sure about the French class, I don't know people who take French.</p>
<p>On the other hand very few kids take Latin (there's only one class of each level and only less than 10 kids decide to take AP Latin) and it is a much more difficult class at our school. Half of the Latin III class is failing and almost no one has an A. I work hard in that class and can still only manage a B, because I suck at foreign language. I just realized this now but if I had taken Spanish instead of Latin my GPA would be quite a bit higher because my B's in soph. and junior year would be A's. And when I continue on in AP Latin next year, I will still be probably getting a B... </p>
<p>So, is foreign languages at most school like this, where Latin is usually the hardest? And let's say a lot of kids from my school apply and I'm the only one who went through the Latin curriculum will that be a plus? </p>
<p>Also, I thought I might mention, Latin actually does help with your Reading SAT score because I took the SAT in April with almost no studying and got a 730 on the Reading... below 700 in everything else, so at the very least it did help me there.</p>
<p>It won't help. Spanish with an A is much better than Latin with a B. I could give you a idealistic "take whatever you like more!" answer, but that is unrealistic. Don't worry though, Spanish is great!</p>
<p>Oh wait, you already picked latin...ahh, don't worry about it. Life's too short for it to make a difference. (And it won't hurt your college app too much)</p>
<p>At this point it's too late to change languages, so don't dwell on what you can't change. You should try to get a high score on the Latin SAT II. This may demonstrate that your class is harder than usual. </p>
<p>I think the Romance languages in general help with vocabulary skills.</p>
<p>so the fact that less kids take Latin than Spanish, French, or German doesn't help out at all? I mean I don't think a lot of kids nationwide, comparatively, take Latin so I thought maybe it would look unique. </p>
<p>well latin isn't offered everywhere and same goes with german. but yeah, getting an easy "a" in spanish compared to struggling to get a "b" in latin, i'd probably have gone with spanish. but take the sat ii's and the ap exam and if you do well it'll show that you do know the material.</p>
<p>It probably won't help to take Latin over Spanish. But it will help to take AP Latin over regular Spanish and it will help to take AP Spanish over regular Latin, make sure you're taking the toughest courses in whatever language you are pursuing.</p>
<p>Probably doesn't matter which FL you take but one thing that my D did that seemed to impress colleges was that she took 2 FL's...5 years of French & 2 years of Spanish.</p>
<p>I don't think Latin helps you on the transcript. It isn't that uncommon. But a study I read about once showed kids taking Latin did better on the SAT than those who took other languages. So you've gotten a benefit there, most likely.</p>
<p>I've heard of colleges that don't count Latin for their entrance requirements BTW. Anyone who is monitoring this thread should be sure to check with potential colleges before committing to a particular language. Sorry I can't name names -- this has just been reported by different parents in other boards I've been on who have kids interested in particular places and so had researched the entrance requirements.</p>
<p>Shazilla,
As a parent of two Latin students I'd say your language experience will give you a boost in admission. There are fewer students who take it and anyone who has studied Latin for many years knows more grammar and has a better vocabulary than your regular student (cases in point, my daughter who is allergic to books aces her vocab on standardized testing and my son scored an 800 in reading comp on his SATs). A B in AP Latin is a good grade! Stick with it.</p>
<p>counterpoint: I took Spanish and got a 800 on my verbal SAT. We all know that correlation doesn't equal causation. </p>
<p>The students at my school who take Latin are generally the ones who were definitively college bound from 9th grade. Some of them did take Latin because they thought it would look "good" on their application, but I think people should choose what language interests them.</p>
<p>If you're worried aout your latin grades, maybe you could have your latin teacher write you a rec. about how you are an outstanding student despite your B's and that the class is very hard...or something else along those lines. At least if you do this it won't look like you're whining about your grades.</p>
<p>True and I almost didn't include my son as an example because he'd probably have gotten an 800 regardless of what language he took. But my daughter is more of a cause and effect example because I have her vocabulary test results from second grade on and they were in the 50th percentile (occasionally lower) until she started taking Latin and after three years of Latin she now tests at 98th percentile. And she still hasn't picked up a book that a teacher hasn't assigned in all these years. </p>
<p>Google "why should I take Latin" or something like that for actual statistics that discuss the correlation between Latin and verbal test scores.</p>
<p>I assume you're prob a junior, but if not try to take the National Latin Exam. That would definitely look good. My Latin class probably wasn’t that rigorous but I ended up getting a damn good score my freshman / soph year.</p>
<p>ozym... i took the national latin exam in soph and junior years... i got no awards either time... i think part of the rigor of the class for me is that I suck at the language, I have a tough time translating and I can only get by with B's because I do extremely well on projects and I turn in extra credit assignments... on actual graded translation stuff I can only get like C's, but luckily the teacher let's you make corrections to it and then turn it in again, and if you get it right the second time she gives you a B... and that's basically why I get B's...</p>