All this needs to be considered based on how competive the target colleges are, for admissions.
Wanting 3 or 4 years of foreign lang generally means foreign to you. When you stopp short, an elite can look to see what you replaced it with. It’s one thing for a devoted, top stem kid to take post calc classes DE, find that has a legitimate sched conflict with lang. Not the same when a non stem just wants to rack up more and more AP, just for the count. And the most competitive are looking for hs level. Most hs don’t show middle school records.
Petula, she’s likely fine. It was beyond her control.
Does taking foreign language have to be consecutive? Like back to back years? Also referring back to Q1, I took French 1 in 7th Grade, F2 in 8th. F3 wasn’t offered my Fresh year as teacher left, but then took F3 as a Soph but struggled to remember everything from F2 in 8th. Was gonna take F4 as Jr but struggled first week and replaced it with AP EngLang. I’ll have 3 Foreign Lang credits right since F3 was taking in HS?
Colleges (HYPSM) say they expect students to leave HS being fluent in a foreign language but entering my Senior year I’ve lost most of my fluency in French. Should I just hit up Duolingo again?
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Fluent to me: As in good flow - no stutters or not having to think of a word, good sentence structure, knowing most basic phrases as well as can create own sentences in context, can hold a basic conversation with native French speakers, (ad)verbs/(pro)nouns/adjectives in past, present, or future tense. Yes, I had most of that leaving F2 but not so much now. What else did you think I meant by fluent?
@lookingforward Lol Are new members the only ones that @ for replies?
I was basing what I said off a website where it quoted the school’s requirements for foreign language. The site it relatively old though as its sources are redirecting to the school’s pages that are not found - so that last question can be disregarded.
My stand is work with what the individual colleges themselves say.
Consecutive? No, but it has to make sense to adcoms. And part of the expectation is in how most classes also expose one to culture and literature. Whether or not you can get by with 2 full years of language depends on the colleges you apply to and the competition for an admit. There are kids who run into a schedule conflict with a higher level math class (post AP calculus.) That’s different.
No they don’t; they expect a certain number of years/reach a certain level of a foreign language. Nowhere do they say anything about fluency. Regardless, 3-4 years of HS Frech does not make one fluent.
You’ll never gain fluency from duolingo
Holding a “basic” conversation is not even close to fluent.
For this discussion, “proficient” is probably a better term than “fluent.” Unless one is living (or has lived for several years) in the country where that language is an official language, it is unlikely that a 17 y/o is fluent. However, my definition for proficiency is: If you can do you college interviews in the foreign language without stumbling, you can probably claim proficiency.
Lol sorry. As I said, that info was given to me by some outdated website where its wording made it seem like you had to leave HS “fluent” in one language.
For what you said about proficiency, I guess I can consider myself proficient (used to be, atleast). We had a couple students from Belgium and Switzerland (French-speaking part) transfer into our French class which was extremely resourceful. It was really why I was proficient by the time F2 ended.
Hey guys! I took 2 years of Mandarin in high school and I am a senior now. Sadly, I couldn’t fit a language in my junior year. I only took two years of Mandarin because I wanted to take more rigorous, harder AP classes, but now I am afraid that I will be seriously disadvantaged to Ivy Leagues because I didn’t take 3 years+ of the same language? Should I try to get a third year of Mandarin in now? Most Ivies only recommend 4 years, but will taking 3 years put me in a (I suppose you can say) “safer zone” in terms for college admissions? If this happens, then I will only be able to take 3 AP classes (total 8 AP classes) and only 3 years of language in. By the way, if not for this problem, I was going to try to take 4 AP classes my senior year. Additionally, is there a possible way to find a way to learn Mandarin through an online course? If I decide to not take a 3rd year of Chinese Mandarin, then I should at least take an online course that certifies that I am proficient in the language.
I have taken 3 years of French including AP junior year. They school offers one class senior year for one semester but does not fit my schedule. What to do?
@Charlotte44 I would ask your guidance/college counselor to explain this in his letter to the colleges you apply to. Although some colleges recommend 4 years of language, you should be okay with 3, especially with the explanation of the schedule conflict. I assume you are taking a core class in that time period?
We had an issue with my D’s foreign language. She transferred into a private school as a junior, (having no foreign language in her public school, long story), so she is only able to do 2 years of French. French 1, now an independent study for French 3. Counselor assured us he can explain that situation in a letter.
I have a question that is opposite of most comments here. My daughter is currently taking Spanish 4 and French 3. She skipped French 2 and will graduate with 6 years of foreign language. Will her foreign language passion help her in the admissions process? She plans to major in Foreign Language and would like to work internationally. Maybe teaching English to Spanish speakers, State Dept work or something in business. She’s not really sure yet.
@MomofThree95@Mom2aphysicsgeek Chances are high that colleges (or at least the FL department of that college) will take into higher consideration a potential FL major with multiple languages learned and more than the required FL credits to apply to the school/graduate your high school. My soph friend is hoping on this, as by graduation he should have 8 FL classes (4 of Spanish and 4 of French) while most graduates typically only have 3-4.
As for having consecutive classes vs having a year in between, I myself won’t be taking the highest level French class (French 4) until next year because of a scheduling conflict between French 4 and AP Literature. However, to prevent losing the ability to speak French, I am going to use Duolingo to keep myself fresh and possibly meet with my French teacher after school sometimes to practice conversational French.
@MomofThree95 I’m not an adcom, just a parent. But from all of what I’ve read, I think your D’s progress in two languages will help her application stand out. I have read that finishing Spanish 3, for example, and then doing Latin 1 as a Senior is not as impressive as continuing to Spanish 4. But getting that far in 2 languages is a very unusual accomplishment.
@Marg532 Good luck to you on your goal of 8 language credits! There is no way to accomplish that at our school. We have some state mandated classes and our students have to take 4 years of religion. My daughter had planned to take Spanish 4 and French 2 this year, but scheduling conflicts made that impossible. She was able to self study this summer and skip French 2. So far she’s doing great in French 3.
@PetulaClark I think you’re probably right on your theory on switching to Latin 1 for senior year instead of taking Spanish 4. Most kids at our school stop after 2 years of foreign language. We are in the south so most people don’t realize that additional years of language are important requirements at schools outside of our region.
@MomofThree95 You had me mistaken for my soph friend that I mentioned! Haha I will only have 3 French credits by the time I graduate! But that’s unfortunate that she can’t take as many FL classes as she wants to, especially if that is what she wants to do in college. I wish her luck!
@MomofThree95 Yes, we are in South too, in NC. Our public colleges only require 2 FLs, so that is all the GCs are concerned about. When the rare parent starts looking at LACs in other parts of US, then they (like us) see that 3 is the norm and 4 years is preferred, or even required. Our local public high school is on block schedule, so D2013 took French 1 and 2 as a Senior, which was common as students like to load up on APs Junior year to hike GPA, as NC publics use weighted GPAs. That worked for her, as she was only applying to NC publics.
Anyhow, I hope anyone with HS and pre-HS kids reading this thread will be more diligent in looking ahead regarding FLs than we were. (Had a problem with D2017’s FL at switch to private school, as I said in post 51).
my school requires three years of language. I will complete AP Spanish Language this year as a junior…I am the only junior non-native speaker I think in the entire school…I’m doing alright in the class as I like the Spanish language!
however…my school just started a AP Spanish Literature class. before, I would have no more options I would not need to take Spanish in my fourth year. now though, there IS an option.
will it look bad on apps if I don’t enroll in AP Spanish Literature for my fourth year since I already took AP Spanish Language? yes, I like Spanish, but I suck at reading Spanish pieces…and my two friends in that class both say it’s IMPOSSIBLE and they are both native speakers. all the students enrolled in that class are native speakers.
what should I do? sacrifice my grade senior year with an impossible and boring class…or risk looking like I gave up on the language to colleges? I’m so sad that they decided to even create that class…this year was the first year of the class and even though only like ten people enrolled, they still decided to make it…
in addition, I speak another language fluently and received a 5 on that AP test.
thank you in advance i’m interested in continuing with Spanish in college, but predominately speaking, not reading ancient Spanish texts…I am NOT going to be a Spanish major though.
ALSO
I do know that some colleges “recommend” four years (though most only require 3 right?), but since I’m already taking the “highest level” class, would there be a reason to take the other class for it?
i’m interested in continuing with Spanish in college, but predominately speaking, not reading ancient Spanish texts…I am NOT going to be a Spanish major though.