Foreign Language in High School

<p>Do you need to take a foreign Language in High School to get into college?</p>

<p>At my twins high school, you had to have a minimum of 2 years of a foreign language in order to graduate. At all 4- year colleges they looked into, a foreign language was required for admission.</p>

<p>Many universities require two to get in, and some require three to get out, depending on the degree. You have to check.</p>

<p>Depending on relative academic vigor of college, most colleges require a foreign language, and a more-competitive college will require an absolute minimum 3-years and encourage 4-years of foreign language study.</p>

<p>Sometimes LD students are encouraged to take Latin or Sign Language (which counts), because these don’t have a “spoken word” component to instruction. If these languages aren’t available, Spanish is considered to be the easiest language to learn.</p>

<p>My Aspie son takes Latin, because spoken foreign languages sound like gibberish to him. It was a good choice for him.</p>

<p>Some colleges (not all) require further foreign language once the student is in college. Some (but not all) will waive that requirement if the student has had 3 years in high school instead of the more standard 2 required to graduate public high schools. My son’s high school, however, requires 3 years to graduate.</p>

<p>DS’s hs does not require a foreign language for graduation although most kids take one. We decided - with GC’s blessing - for him to skip taking a language in hs and request a waiver due his disability on his applications. GCs write letters on behalf of all students so his disability will be addressed there. DS plans to major in art so some of the schools he’s interested in don’t require a language for admission.</p>

<p>If you need to take one, my daughter had good luck with German.</p>

<p>Many colleges state they require 2 years for application. However, you really question them, they do make exceptions for identified students who are language LD. This includes our state flagship, which is well regarded. For the ones that require language to graduate, they will substitute a “culture” class.</p>

<p>This does mean disclosure on the aps. I have struggled with that issue for years. D will be disclosing, because she will need an explanation of the no FL.</p>

<p>Most of them does.</p>

<p>S is a junior and is “language exempt” due to his disability; otherwise, his HS requires 2 years. Because he struggles so greatly with language we thought it was the right choice for him. But now I am concerned regarding college admissions. We have no expectations of him going to a demanding school, but we would like him to go to college. I feel he will have to disclose his disabilities anyway because of his low standardized testing, as well as grades, and course choices. He’d like to maybe major in business. Did we make a mistake regarding language? Even Spanish would be a real struggle.</p>