I’m taking Spanish 2 as a Freshman right now and looking at my courseload next year (4 APs), I’m not sure I should still take Spanish; it seems like a waste of my time. I’ve looked at various colleges and how AP credit transfers, and Chinese is often worth double the credits as Spanish. I’m Chinese so I’m fluent and I can understand it.
Would it be wise to quit Spanish and just self-study for the Chinese AP exam (brush up on stuff), or would colleges hate to see that especially as a native Chinese speaker I decided to not challenge myself?
Certainly with the courseload I’m going to have the next few years it would be reasonable, right…
As for the number of years I’m required to take a language, I’ve taken two for Spanish; does that mean I would have to take some online Chinese class just to fulfill that requirement?
Thanks.
Colleges like to see 3-4 years of a single language. Stay with Spanish, since that’s what you started with.
@damon30 Does that benefit really outweigh the potential cost of doing worse in my other more important classes?
Why not take Spanish to level 4 (or AP level) and use your native speaker proficiency in Chinese to earn a 5 on the AP Chinese exam?
If you want to stop Spanish at level 2, then you need to look at all of the colleges you may be interested in to see what they want to see, and whether showing proficiency by exam with a native or heritage language would be accepted by them (some colleges do, but some of the most selective colleges prefer to see foreign language course work in school).
If you are that concerned about the course work, then you can stop with just two years of Spanish. But this might make you less competitive for schools that expect three or more years of the same language. It really depends on where you plan to apply. Taking Chinese now probably won’t help you, unless maybe you could get placed in Chinese IV or AP Chinese.
@damon30 I plan to take the AP Chinese exam next year. MIT is my high reach—other schools are the top CS state schools like UIUC…
IMO, you will be unnecessarily handicapping your application by not continuing on with Spanish. Taking the AP test as a native speaker is not going to replace taking 3-4 years of foreign language at high school.
@momofsenior1 but, if most of the colleges I’m applying to require only two years, why does that matter?
Because many of the ones that require 2, including UIUC, recommend more. So go back to your original question:
And I would posit that it will be viewed like you are not challenging yourself, particularly since only 1 year comes from your HS years. I’d suggest that you at least get to Spanish 3 before calling it quits.
This may be true for some colleges, UIUC, being one, but I would say that most colleges that give AP credit for foreign language give the same credit for Chinese or Spanish. There are some top colleges, e.g. UMich and Columbia, that give credit for Spanish but not for Chinese. Regardless, as a freshman, I would not suggest making course selections based upon AP credit policy. As noted above, you can always just take the AP Chinese test on your own.
No, not self-study for the AP exam. As others have now said above, this does nothing for you. You would need to get placed by your HS in a Chinese III, Chinese IV or AP Chinese class. Your competition are those that are taking advanced FL classes in addition to the rest of their heavy course load. You are trying to find the easy way out and that will show. To paraphrase @skieurope’s Mommie Dearest quote, no one said getting into MIT was easy (or fair).