<p>Hello, I am a sophomore at a public HS. I want to major in Engineering or Computer Science. I am currently debating whether to take my 3rd year of Spanish next year or to take AP European History instead. Here are some schools I am looking at:
Cornell
MIT
Georgia Tech
Carnegie Mellon
NYU-Polytechnic
Caltech
UC-Berkeley
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
University of Michigan</p>
<p>Would taking AP European History instead of a 3rd year in Spanish drastically affect my chances of getting into a school like these? I tried looking up their foreign language requirements and most are at 2 years, with 3 recommended. Is it that much of a difference?
Here is my current (and planned) course load for more information:</p>
<p>Current unweighted GPA: 4.0
Freshman year:
Honors English 9
World History
Orchestra
Physical Education (requirement)
Honors Biology
Honors Algebra II
Spanish II (I took spanish I in middle school)</p>
<p>Sophomore year:
Honors English 10
AP US History
Orchestra
AP Biology
Honors Precalculus
Honors Chemistry
Spanish III</p>
<p>Junior year (no spanish):
AP English Language and Comp
AP European History
Orchestra
AP Chemistry
AP Calculus BC
Honors Physics
AP Economics (requirement to graduate in my state)</p>
<p>Senior year:
AP English Literature and Comp
Orchestra
AP Physics
AP Computer Science
AP Gov (also a requirement)
Calculus III
AP Statistics (could also take a study hall as technically our school requires a study hall with Calc III, though it is easily avoided)</p>
<p>Hakume, are you already bi-lingual? If you are nearly fluent in another language, as evidenced by your score on an SAT II, for example, and English is your second language, than you have already met the ‘recommended’ number of years of a language. If you are not highly competent in another language, then ‘recommended’ has been endlessly debated on CC and you can search those threads. </p>
<p>My suggestion if you aren’t fluent in another language: If you are doing well in the subject, take it. If you are doing poorly, do it on-line at your own pace or drop it entirely. If you had said you’d rather take a computer language or do something more related to your future engineering interests, I’d have said you could make a case for dropping Spanish - but AP Euro isn’t ‘better’ than another year of language study in your case, so you might as well do what’s recommended.</p>
<p>Having three years of language is expected by some colleges that “recommend” that level. You also have another issue that you should consider since your list includes UIUC (and other schools may have similar rules as to it). If you are going to major in engineering at UIUC, you will need, to graduate from UIUC, three college semesters of a single foreign language. However, you can meet that requirement by having three high school years of the same foreign language. In other words, if you complete that third year of Spanish in high school, you will not have to take any foreign language at UIUC as an engineering major; if you don’t do it, you will have to take foreign language at UIUC.</p>
<p>Thank you for the responses!
I am of Chinese ethnicity although, shamefully, I cannot read/write Chinese effectively. I can speak and listen to a moderate degree.</p>
<p>Spanish isn’t very difficult for me (so far), I just find it very boring and unchallenging. I would like to take a class such as AP Euro as I believe it’d be more challenging and interesting for me, though I see your point it doesn’t do anything in terms of going into engineering. </p>
<p>And I’d rather not continue Spanish onto the AP track - firstly because as one who wants to go into engineering, I don’t see how Spanish knowledge could be very important, and second, the foreign language program at my school is notorious for having only 1-2 people taking AP Spanish score a 4 or above on the AP test, with the majority being 2s and 3s…I believe most schools do accept a 3 on the AP Spanish test as proof of credit, but others will require placement tests etc.</p>
<p>Perhaps if I switched AP Euro out for AP Comp Sci?</p>
<p>Check the graduation requirements of the universities on your list to see if taking additional Spanish beyond level three will help you in that respect. Spanish is a common enough language that it could be useful in random life situations (visiting a Spanish speaking country, ordering tasty food, etc.).</p>
<p>Some universities do offer Chinese language courses for heritage speakers whose reading and writing skills are much worse than their speaking and listening skills.</p>
<p>I did not realize it before but your issue is different than what you are stating. In determining whether you should take Spanish again, you should assume you in fact will have three years of Spanish by end of sophomre year. Whenever colleges state years recommended or required they are talking about the level reached, not that you must have that many years in high school; thus, since you will have completed Spanish III by end of sophomore year, you will meet UIUC’s three high school year requirement for avoiding language as an engineering student in college. Likewise, for any college that requires or recommends “three years” you will have that.</p>