Dropping Japanese Junior+Senior Year

<p>I've been taking Japanese while living in Japan since sixth grade (I'm a rising junior now). I took AP Japanese my sophomore year and scored a 3 on the exam. I really dislike learning languages (my academic interests are primarily humanities, history, etc), and I want to take different, but still rigorous classes in high school; so, I decided to drop Japanese after the AP level. I have heard many top colleges desire more than 2 years of a foreign language, generally 3 or 4. My counselor, who has 20+ years of college admissions experience, said that because I was dropping it after the AP level, it would be OK, even though I've taken only 2 years of one foreign language in high school (although, I took Japanese throughout my three years of middle school). Will dropping Japanese have a significant impact on my applying to highly selective universities come next year? My current junior year schedule is:</p>

<p>AP English Language&Composition (H)
Advanced Precalculus
AP Chemistry (H)
AP United States History (H)
AP Seminar (H) (this replaces Japanese)
Wind Ensemble
Economics / AP MacroEconomics (H)</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>AP level is typically considered high school level 4 or higher.</p>

<p>However, knowing additional languages can be helpful in history and other humanities subjects, where being able to read primary documents in their original languages can be helpful.</p>

<p>How good are your Japanese language skills? As in, if you went to Japan, how well would you do talking to people in Japanese, reading Japanese newspapers, books, signs, etc., and writing things in Japanese?</p>

<p>What is “AP Seminar (H) (this replaces Japanese)”?</p>

<p>I actually live in Japan as an expat. I can speak and write well; reading and listening I find much more difficult. AP Seminar is a new course coming out this coming year: <a href=“AP Seminar – AP Students | College Board”>Get the Most Out of AP – AP Students | College Board;

<p>If your reading and listening is at least functional, you may want to just practice by reading and listening to everything in Japanese while you are in Japan. Really, at this point, your goal here should be to maintain and improve your functional skill in the Japanese language, rather than just count high school credits for university admissions.</p>

<p>Note that there is also the JLPT to assess your Japanese language skill (outside of the context of university admissions): <a href=“JLPT Japanese-Language Proficiency Test”>http://www.jlpt.jp/e/&lt;/a&gt; . The levels listed for that are shown at <a href=“N1-N5: Summary of Linguistic Competence Required for Each Level | JLPT Japanese-Language Proficiency Test”>http://www.jlpt.jp/e/about/levelsummary.html&lt;/a&gt; .</p>

<p>AP Seminar/Research/Capstone does not seem like something that universities will give useful subject credit for. You should get plenty of term projects in university courses anyway (and may have had term projects in your other high school courses). Whether these AP courses are of any help as practice for that (beyond whatever you may have had in other high school courses) is not necessarily obvious.</p>

<p>Having 4 years of foreign language is required for some colleges/universities and it does look better </p>

<p>@medicsz‌ actually that is false. They require LEVEL 4, it doesn’t matter how many years it takes to get there.</p>

<p>@guineagirl96‌ Doesn’t really change the fact that it looks good on your apps</p>

<p>@medicsz What else can he/she take after AP? If he/she got to the AP level on one language, having levels 1-2 of another one makes no difference. Actually, it’d be a disadvantage if those easy introductory classes were replacing non-language AP/honors courses.</p>

<p>

OP lives in Japan. I’m quite sure the school’s offerings extend past AP. That said, not taking Japanese after completing AP will not impact college admissions, although improving Japanese would be helpful for living in Japan.</p>

<p>@skieurope Ahh true. It depends on what advantages “AP Seminar” would offer vs. more Japanese, then.</p>

<p>@Lilliana330‌ She scored a 3. Taking an AP class doesn’t mean that you’re done with it? If she would like to show how much she has learned in that area, she should score at least a 4.</p>

<p>@medicsz “Taking an AP class doesn’t mean that you’re done with it?”</p>

<p>Well, if there’s more advanced courses offered, of course.</p>

<p>“she should score at least a 4”</p>

<p>AP scores are self-reported and have little to no effect on admissions. If he/she had a string of low AP scores, it’d raise a flag. One low score? Irrelevant. The class is what matters most.</p>

<p>Anyways, the OP should do what he/she feels most comfortable with. Taking a class just for the sake of impressing admission officers (instead of for the love of learning) is a waste, imho. Lol</p>

<p>@Lilliana330‌ Of course bad ap scores don’t hurt (considering you don’t need to report them). however good ap scores would help. And considering he went to Japan for long years to STUDY japanese… you’d think he would get a higher score, right?</p>

<p>Otherwise, that’d just be throwing the class away in a shell</p>

<p>@medicsz‌ </p>

<p>“Of course bad ap scores don’t hurt (considering you don’t need to report them)”</p>

<p>Actually, he/she should report the 3. Otherwise, schools will assume it’s a 1 or a 2.</p>

<p>“however good ap scores would help.”</p>

<p>How could he/she get a higher score? Is re-taking AP tests even allowed…if it is, isn’t if frowned upon/seen as score grubbing/very uncommon anyways?</p>

<p>“you’d think he would get a higher score, right?” </p>

<p>I was a little confused at the score too, maybe the OP attends a school where English = the course of instruction? However, what’s done is done.</p>

<p>“Otherwise, that’d just be throwing the class away in a shell”</p>

<p>Taking a more advanced Japanese course won’t change his/her AP score lol</p>

<p>@Lilliana330‌ Okay well I shall digress from this topic. So for the mix around in things~
good luck to OP</p>

<p>

Yes, you can retake an AP test. It is probably uncommon, at least I have not seen any statistics on it. OP seems to have left the thread anyway.</p>

<p>Not that it’s particularly relevant, but I was curious to see if retaking APs tests is possible - I’ve never heard of it before - but I looked it up, and evidently AP allows one to retake a test every time it is offered. </p>

<p>(Not that I am recommending it; though if OP felt that, say, a 5 were possible, I don’t see why not. I also don’t see how it would be “frowned upon”). The more you know!</p>

<p>Huh…probably shouldn’t if it’s gonna distract him from prepping well for current AP’s but if not, sure lol…this would be the last year to re-take for admissions, if he/she wants to</p>

<p>To clarify, I’m an American citizen who lives in Japan, of no Japanese ethnicity whatsoever. I did well in the class, (A) but I really do not like learning languages at all, and because my schools quota for language courses is 2 full years of the same language, and my counselor thought finishing with AP was a good idea (my school does offer Japanese extensively though), it would be a good idea for me. Thank you everyone for your input. </p>

<p>@GeneralAtiks I think you did well for someone who only has 4 years of experience with the language. It’s kind of how some Latinos immigrate to the US & have to learn English from scratch -colleges wouldn’t expect them to get a 4/5 on AP Lang. test (heck, a lot of US-born kids can’t score that well). The reason you see so many kids with 5’s on foreign language tests? It’s usually the language corresponding their ethnic background (there are exceptions though). Your score’s fine, don’t worry about it. It won’t be a plus for admissions, but it won’t hurt you either. Schools will still love that you got an “A” on the class. As for credit: you can still get some at certain colleges. </p>

<p>It’s truly up to you whether you wanna keep studying it or not. Choose what you think works best.</p>