I wanted to just see your thoughts on this. I have emailed D22 guidance counselor as well. My D took Spanish 1 in Middle School, Sp2 Freshman year, Sp3 Sophomore year and said a big no thank you to Spanish 4.
She is taking Hispanic Culture and Civilization this year as a junior- all instruction, projects, papers and exams are in Spanish. However nowhere on her transcript is it evident that this is a World Language elective and not a social studies course.
I know some colleges may not consider her middle school experience and look at this as only 2 years of foreign language. Any thoughts on how to present this? Thanks!
No need to worry. Colleges consider the level of language as the number of years taken. So having taken Spanish 3 she gets credit for three years.
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Not always the case. Each individual college has different rules so it really depends on where the kid applies. We have seen this factor in over and over with the same issue at our school with kids who took Spanish I in middle school and then Spanish 4 in high school and how colleges look at that. Some only count it as 3 years of Spanish and others will count it as 4.
@tumagmom You really need to check out how each college considers foreign language. Some schools (ours) doesn’t put MS language on a transcript, while others do so it makes it a little easier to navigate. I would assume your daughter has 3 years of a foreign language based on what you said and the current class would be considered a Social Science unless it is in the World Language Dept at your school. The best people however to ask that question to is the College Counselor. Regardless, as far as applying to colleges, 3 years of a foreign language is more than adequate. Not one of my kids took beyond Spanish 4 and they all got into fantastic programs, including the one who only took Spanish 3.
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Nope, my daughter’s university doesn’t consider middle school language as a language. I noticed some applicants found out the hard way here on CC.
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Thank you everyone.
Most of the schools she’s looking at only require 2 years and I do know Udel specifies that language courses in middle school do not couldn’t toward the requirement.
The course in question is indeed in the World Language department. I peeked at their course selection forms and it is WL-000 prefix so I guess if we indicate that on the SRAR, it might help clarify.
@Mjkacmom and @srparent15 please let us know which colleges do not use the level of language achieved for the number of years required. That would be valuable info for student and parents.
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To clarify is that University of Dayton, Denver, Delaware…?
Sorry, university of Delaware are the post before your’s mentions, same university.
That one I know. But Delaware is the only university I have ever heard this about. So I too would like further examples from @srparent15 , particularly colleges that ask for 3 or more years, where an AO said (as opposed to interpreting a CDS or website) that completion of level 3 or 4 does not satisfy their recommended preparation.
I know depending on the major you’re in University of Illinois requires 3 or 4 to get out of taking the language in college. Do you need to have the language in high school to be accepted? That part I’m not sure. As a state we do have a 1 year foreign language requirement to graduate high school (or it can be covered in other areas). I only know that UIUC will count what you took in high school based on the level of the course because this just came up with something I was asking since it is a requirement in all of their different schools.
I have however seen this asked many times over the years in different groups I’m in and there’s always a lot of conflicting information. I can’t recall if Michigan St is one of the schools that does not count high school foreign language or if I’m mis-remembering, but there are various college facebook groups that can answer this question, but at the end of the day, you should look at the websites or contact the schools your daughter is looking at and go from there.
As far as how to present it, the best way to do so is really just that there were other opportunities for more academic coursework. When my son didn’t want to take Spanish junior year (by then he only had Spanish 1 and 2 because he didn’t take it in MS), I asked his counselor about it and he said at the time it didn’t matter because it wasn’t like he had a free period instead and he was taking a very heavy academic courseload. However, when he was applying to a highly regarded Engineering program (the UIUC one) and we knew he would either need to have that 3rd year or take it there if he got in, we pushed him to take it senior year. He had to sacrifice something else but still took it with the other heavy courses and it was fine. Not having 4 years was not an issue. Many colleges my other kids applied to recommended 4 years, even our high school did, but ultimately, there was no room in their schedules. They didn’t even have room for 4 years of social studies. It hasn’t kept any of them out of top programs. I wouldn’t worry so much about the Spanish, unless what she is going into is heavy on that or if she is taking something considered a blowoff instead. She can also write about it in one of the supplemental essays. My kids are all STEM which is why it wasn’t as relevant for them to not have those other courses.
Bucknell doesn’t count courses taken before 9th grade:
Requirements in Foreign Language
All applicants are required to have completed a minimum of two years of a foreign language (in the same language) in secondary school for all of Bucknell’s degree programs. American Sign Language counts toward this requirement.
Please note that coursework taken before the ninth grade does not count toward the two-year requirement.
That is exactly what one of our Ds did w Latin … she simply was not interested in pursuing it beyond Latin III Honors. It opened her schedule up to take advanced courses in areas of true interest to her (math & science) which worked out just fine from an admissions standpoint given she is an Engineering major 