Foreign Language in High School

<p>Will it hurt me that I have only completed three years of spanish in high school? I only took three years because the foreign language classes at my school are horrible and barely anyone passes the AP tests. It says that four years are recommended on the Penn website, but will I be hurt with only three? I think my other classes will make up for it but I am not sure. I just wanted another opinion.</p>

<p>I’ll graduate with the following:
4 years of English ( 5 on both ap tests)
4 years of history / social sciences ( 5 on us and world, taking us gov and macroeconomics this year)
3 years of spanish
5 years of sciences
7 years of math (5 on BC calculus - taking Calc 3 at comm college now)
8 years of band (weird accelerated block schedule - 4 different class periods each semester - must take band both semesters, so 8 yrs worth)</p>

<p>i envy u :(
i got no foreign languages!!!
i imigrated to Canada in 7th grade, so i am fluent in Chinese. do i still need the foreign languages?</p>

<p>newbyreborn i recommend the appropriate sat 2 for you, and it wont hurt you as much as it would someone who isnt bilingual, but it will still probably hurt you some</p>

<p>twl007, it isnt great that u only have 3 but considering that you're meeting some of their other requirements and <em>way</em> exceeding the rest i think you're only slightly disadvantaged (does that help?,) so long as you arent indicating spanish/a humanity/w.e else is applicable as a possible major or anything; i also think it will depend a lot on which school you are applying too</p>

<p>*i dont really know at all, but i wanted to tell newbyreborn to take the sat 2 and i didnt think it would be right to just answer the second post so...keep that in mind as you're reading my response</p>

<p>now that i think about it, after spanish 3 you probably have enough verb forms down to take the sat 2 yourself, maybe with a little self-studying</p>

<p>if u pull that off with a good score, it will definitely help negate the lack of a 4th year</p>

<p>so.. i should take SAT 2 chinese?</p>

<p>what about people like me who know languages for which there are no SATs. I moved to Canada 3 yrs ago and so have not picked up a SAT-foreign language.</p>

<p>newbyreborn: almost definitely, although ill say again, not having any foreign language classes will still hurt you just...only to an extent</p>

<p>a-bomb: the people in this thread are not taking any foreign language classes in school, if this applies to you too im not sure what advice i can give...you might want to emphasize your multi-linguality (lingualism?) in your essays if you feel it is a weak point?</p>

<p>disclaimer: and for both of you, i am assuming that the Canadian school system does not differ from the US school system in offering foreign language classes, and that you want to go to an US college, because i do not know what Canadian colleges expect</p>

<p>canadian schools are not as heavy on foreign languages as american schools...except FRENCH! but when i entered the system at the grade 10 level they didnt have any beginner courses in french and most of the kids had studied french already all through high school. so i couldnt take french. My school also offered spanish starting in grade 10 but i had just moved to the country and learning another language which i would never use in canada seemed pointless (it seemed useless at that point...maybe not now)...thats the story behind why i have not studied any foreign languages, grade 10 onwards. will admissions keep that in mind (i never stated it explicitly anywhere)</p>

<p>people tell me that it doesn't look good if you don't get 4 years of the same language (simultaneously doing two is ok, but dropping is bad). but does this apply to my case where i'm taking latin (technically dead language) but am thinking about dropping it next year for japanese (i'd do chinese but my school only offers spang, fren, lat, and jap). i'm not ever going to be proficient in latin (who is?) so i figure taking a spoken language and dropping a nonspoken will not hurt. right?</p>