Entering Courses from Junior High in ASU app

Colleges and Universities A-Z Arizona State University
1

I was helping my son apply using the ASU app for admission. When we tried to enter the foreign language courses he took in junior high, we are forced to pick the grade as 9/10/11/12 as these are the only toggle options.

Not including these courses is not an option as the app warns that the foreign language requirements are not met.

Should be ok to add these courses and pick 9th grade?

2

The second language competency requirement are as follow (must meet one of the following):

  • two years of the same high school second language
  • attainment of minimum score on a national standardized second language test or placement into a third semester college second language class based on university placement exam results
  • two transferable three- or four-credit, college-level courses in the same second language

If your son has not taken two years of the same high school second language then he might need to take a standardized test or placement test.

Contact Admissions for further guidance.

Detailed admission requirements | Admission | ASU

3

Thanks. He does have 3 years of foreign language. It is just that 2 years are in junior high and only one year in high school. This is ok in his school district and is counted as 3 years of foreign language.

But the issue is with entering this data. It is not possible to select grade 7 and 8 in the asu app. Entering everything in 9th grade does not seem right.

4

Well three years of foreign language with only one of them in high school does not meet the requirement of two years of the same high school second language, does it?

Your son might need to take a standardized test or placement test. Contact Admissions.

1 Like
5

Here are the Common App instructions for high school classes taken in middle school and appear on high school transcripts:
"You should only report middle school courses that appear on a high school transcript. Otherwise, you should not report middle school courses.

To report a middle school course, use the “Other Courses” section. For “School Name,” choose the name of the high school that lists the course on the transcript. You do not need to add the middle school name."

https://appsupport.commonapp.org/applicantsupport/s/article/How-do-I-report-middle-school-courses-in-Courses-Grades

6

Thanks for all your inputs. Reached out to asu counselors and they suggested we add Spanish 2 in the high school course list, even though it was taken in jr high.

The understanding was that since Spanish 3 was done in high school, the foreign language requirements are met. But the application needed a way to know that Spanish 1/2 was done in Jr high.

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7

Seems like they really should add a “before 9th grade” option for foreign language and math courses, where high school level courses are commonly started while in junior high.

They could also adopt a policy of counting completion of high school year N of a foreign language as “N years” so that lower level courses that were taken in junior high being “missing” will not matter.

1 Like
8

You make good points here. Some schools do have it. I remember iowa state application had a pre-9th option like you mentioned above.

Seems like doing all these courses earlier can be a disadvantage as spanish 1/2 and algebra 1/2 do not count for the high school GPA calculation.