Foreign Language: 3 or 4 Years?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm an incoming Junior, and my current goal is to attend Stanford and pursue a medical career. I was on track to take 4 years of German at my school, but due to scheduling issues, it seems that I'll only be able to take 3 years unless I do a lot of work over the summer and throughout the year independently.</p>

<p>So my main questions to you all is: </p>

<p>How important is it to have 4 years of Foreign Language over 3 years when considering a top schools like HYPSM?</p>

<p>Can I still take the AP German Exam at the end of my senior year with 3 years under my belt (and get a 5)?</p>

<p>I'm not really inclined to the Liberal Arts, and I'm more of a Science and Math person. I'm also a state qualifying 400m runner and will have over 100 hours of volunteer work at OHSU by the end of the year. Would these be enough to balance out only three years of foreign language? I can list more credentials if they are a factor in answering this.</p>

<p>Thanks for your time.</p>

<p>-Atarah</p>

2

<p>Taking 3 as opposed to 4 years shouldn’t hurt too much, as in it won’t be a make-or-break for HYPSM. As for taking the AP exam, it really depends on how confident you are with the language.</p>

3

<p>yeah ive been wondering about that too, but im going to be applying to a public ivy school (university of washington), not as prestigious as Stanford. my parents are pressuring me to take a 4th year, but i dont want to because i want to explore more classes. besides i hate french</p>

4

<p>@Caltech27: Thanks, that’s good to hear. Do you know if most people take the exam with three or four years of language?</p>

<p>@IlikeUW: For UW, 4 years is definitely not necessary. You’d be in great shape with three years. I live in WA as well, and the majority of students who go to UW from my school have only three years.</p>

<p>I’d like a few more opinions before I make my decision. Anyone else want to give some input?</p>

5

<p>When you say “three years under your belt,” do you mean just coming out of level three?</p>

<p>If so, LOL at getting a 5 on the AP test.</p>

6

<p>Of course 4 years will look better than 3 years. Assuming, of course, that you do well in the 4th year.</p>

7

<p>Four years is better than three, but if you have a compelling schedule and other extra-curriculars, you should be fine. I opted to take AP U.S. Government instead of AP French, and I fared pretty well. It’s not going to make or break you – take what you are interested in.</p>

<p>As for self-studying the AP German exam…you may be able to enlist the help of your German teacher. It really just depends on how motivated you are and how good at German you are, too. If you are a good German student and you work in conjunction with your teacher to study for the exam, you could do very well.</p>

8

<p>I took 2, and any college that requires 3 years was more than willing to waive their requirement(i took ap psych instead)</p>

<p>so, 3 is more than enough i’d say</p>

9

<p>For Washington 3 will be no problem, if you’re serious about Stanford take 4.</p>

10

<p>You could stop at 3 and take a year of another language. I think it still counts as 4 years of language. Though it may be tough to take the AP test if you have been away from the language for a whole year.</p>

<p>My son will graduate high school with 7 years of language (would have been 8, but he needs to drop one to fulfill an art requirement) He said it has been fun to do two languages at once.</p>

11

<p>My question is this: 4 years of a language, even if I’m probably going to get another B this fourth year? I’m taking AP Spanish (it is actually easier than normal spanish because of the teacher), but I will probably end up with a B/B+. Junior year (Honors Spanish 4), I worked my ass off only to get a B, which was sorta glaring in my otherwise pristine report guard. The main issue is that B’s really kill the GPA in our grading point system, because APs/Honors only give 1/.25 points out of a grading point scale of 18.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>3+1 does not always equal 4: </p>

<p>[Princeton</a> University | Academic Preparation](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/preparation/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/preparation/)</p>

<p>“four years of one foreign language”</p>

<p>[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Preparing for College](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/preparing/index.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/preparing/index.html)</p>

<p>“Many secondary school students take a smattering of several languages – for example, Latin for two years, French for a year, and Spanish for a year. When it is too late, they realize that they cannot read or speak any of these languages well. We urge you to try to study at least one foreign language and its literature for four years.”</p>

<p>S only asks for 3 yrs, but again, all the same FL:</p>

<p>[Academic</a> Preparation : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/basics/selection/prepare.html]Academic”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/basics/selection/prepare.html)</p>

<p>“Foreign Language: three or more years of the same foreign language.”</p>

13

<p>The AP exam is often taken after 3 years. For example, I took the Spanish AP exam this year and was more than prepared, but my devotion to studying Spanish was fairly exceptional. It depends how well you know the language.</p>

14

<p>I know a few people who’ve taken the AP exam and done well after 3 or even 2 years of a high school language, but they were in an immersion program in elementary school. So as kaekae said, it depends on how prepared you are and how much effort you’re willing to put into the language before the exam.</p>

15

<p>Can we take class in the summer?</p>