<p>Hey all! I was wondering what the consensus is on dropping a foreign language. I will be a senior next year, and am currently in Spanish 4 (I took Spanish I in middle school). The Spanish department at my school is quite weak (as in not challenging and boring), so I'd rather take some history classes.</p>
<p>My question is: how bad is it to drop a foreign launguage senior year? I'll be applying to a couple LACs, Brown, Yale, and some Accelerated BA/MD programs.</p>
<p>My schedule for next year:</p>
<p>AP Biology
AP English Lit
AP World History
AP Calculus
AP Economics
Vietnam and the 60's; Middle Eastern Studies </p>
<p>You have enough APs; although it is bad to drop a foreign language, if the department is weak the period becomes wasted time, which is worse. Senator Someguy has put out the correct plan.</p>
<p>I know college counselors harp on this a lot, but dropping a foreign language isn't that devastating; most of my friends dropped their language to pursue something else. It's really a non-issue, unless you want to major in/study IR, foreign language (obviously), or medicine in someplace like Miami, where most of the population is Puerto Rican.</p>
<p>Concentrate on classes you love. I wish I could have taken some of the classes you did!</p>
<p>u have 3 AP social studies...u need to drop one...AP Spanish is way more important, especially more important than that last class u have up there. If you had to drop AP Econ or AP World I would drop AP world. In most places, thats a sophomore class anyway. Colleges wil think u r taking an easy way ou by taking a 10th grade class. Idk, maybe</p>
<p>Here APUSH is 10th grade and APWH is 11th, along with APME and AP Macro/Micro. 12th graders get everything else, such as Psychology and American Government/Politics.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor recommended i dont take any more language classes because im like number 1 or 2 in my class and he said the spanish 4/ap teacher gives no As (for the last 4 years at least) and he doesn't want me to take it and have my rank drop so he suggested an easy A elective to go with the AP classes...i thought it was funny, but I went with the suggestion.</p>
<p>yeah, so we did forecasting today (planning for senior year), and I've definitely decided to drop AP Spanish. I will have already taken it for 4 years anyway. I guess now I'm only concerned about its ramifications on elite college admissions.</p>
<p>I plan to be a CogSci/Neuroscience/Psych major (one of those), with a possible minor in history, btw. I also plan on being a doctor, and though I know that being able to speak Spanish is becoming increasingly important, I also know that taking Spanish at my school for one more year is not really going to help me.</p>
<p>Even the most selective schools normally only require 3 years of a foreign language. (Some schools only require 2 years.) You've already taken the equivalent of 4 years, so you'll be fine. </p>
<p>Adcoms don't really worry about whether or not you take a particular subject -- math, foreign language, etc. -- specifically in the senior year. They understand that some students have scheduling issues at their high school and may have to juggle classes around (like taking 2 science classes one year and none the next) in order to fit everything in. They will simply look at your entire HS record (i.e., do you have the minimum no. of units in each subject area?) and also will look at how challenging your senior year load is overall. (They don't want to see you taking just 4 classes or a lot of "fluff" subjects.)</p>
<p>I'd say go with the alternative courses. When I informed my Spanish 3 teacher that I wasn't going on to Spanish 4 she told me I was "an embarrassment" to my family because I decided not to take it, and because I have a Hispanic father. I think that it is important to be fluent in another language, but not entirely necessary to jam all of your education into select years.</p>
<p>Yes. As long as you are taking a challenging alternative course, it'll be hard to hold it aganist you. I'm not taking Spanish Sr. year, due to the fact that we rarely learn anything. I can't see it hurting you.</p>
<p>The AP slate is probably challenging enough, and the Vietnam course may provide some new and interesting viewpoints on the period.
And osh91960kosh, your teacher is an embarrassment for dissing your decision not to take her course to your face-she can't be that good if she needs to resort to insulting you for your decision-making skills.</p>
<p>i dropped AP german for next year because my teacher doesn't do anything. everyday all she says is "discuss your day yesterday." nobody every speaks in german. my german has actually gotten worse in the past year; we haven't learned a single thing. it was a waste of time and i wanted to take AP bio</p>
<p>Then you should have switched out during the trial period of 30 days to take AP Biology, so that no time would have been wasted. I did not learn that one until junior year and as such I have to take health senior year, which will stink, because it is a sophomore class.</p>
<p>To the OP, I am pondering the same question myself. It is defentinly not uncommon, many of my friends are stopping at year 4. For me, my school might not even have AP French V next year. Will French V look like a joke or should I take AP Psych or AP Econ? I want to do pre-med in college.</p>
<p>AP Psychology might be better in that pursuit of medicine, but if you want something unrelated, you could take AP Econ. Both are good course choices.</p>
<p>Well, you have 4 years under your belt (the "recommended" dose from most Ivies) so if you don't like the language, drop it. </p>
<p>Although I'm a big fan of foreign language, I must say that I'm glad you're interested more in the content your learning than how good it looks on your transcript.</p>