So I’m going to be a senior for the cycle of 2019-20, and I haven’t been able to take a foreign language class at all. I’m scheduled to take two college-credit Spanish classes (101 and 102 at my local university) next year, but I’m really worried that this will keep me from applying to all the schools I want to apply for. I repeatedly had scheduling conflicts between it and my orchestra class, and every deference of taking Spanish has been because of taking music classes. I have a 35 ACT composite, 3.97 UW GPA, president of multiple clubs, multiple AP classes, etc., but should I just go ahead and avoid applying to any top 20 universities??
(Also I’m sorry if this is the wrong forum–I’m new and I didn’t know where to put this.)
Are you applying to schools as a music major? If so, perhaps your guidance counselor would be willing to write about the scheduling conflicts in their LOR.
Not sure for other majors if choosing a non core class over an academic subject is going to fly.
Was there a reason you didn’t take the DE or an online Spanish class the first year you had the conflict?
I’m planning to apply as an economics/music major if at all possible. I wasn’t actually aware of the 2+ year foreign language requirement at most top universities because my high school doesn’t require any foreign language credits, so I wasn’t entirely worried at the time. My high school also only allows juniors/seniors to do DE and I started the program in the spring semester to play in my regional university’s orchestra.
You can apply to a couple of T20’s as reaches (which they are for everyone), so long as you have a mix of affordable reaches and safeties. That said, if any of those T20 schools request/require 3+ years, your application will not be competitive in the FL area, especially without a strong hook. Your GPA, test scores,and ECs are all in the ballpark for these schools, but they are for most applicants.
Unless your HS offers one section of Spanish I, which I’ve never seen, I think you are describing a conscious choice, not a schedule conflict.
Again, I would be very surprised the course catalog/selection sheet does not have a disclaimer saying that many colleges will expect courses exceeding graduation requirements.You’re playing catch-up taking Spanish DE next year, but depending on the target college, you might be better off starting a CC class or online option this summer to try to squeeze in 3 college semesters before you graduate.
I wouldn’t. In my state, the college-ready curriculum, which exceeds the base graduation requirements, has no foreign language requirement. Our state flagships have no foreign language requirement for admissions. Even kids on the foreign language path of the college-ready curriculum rarely take more than two years, with only one section offered of the higher levels - for a school with more than 3,000 kids. My kid would have ended up with no foreign language, or at most two years, had I not clued her in when she was an 8th grader and had we not been able to afford tutoring and summer language courses to bypass two years in a row of scheduling conflicts (with Orchestra!).
OP, IMHO your situation is unfortunate but not fatal. I had a kid an admissions cycle or two ago get wait-listed by the school I’m an alumni interviewer for, who had no HS foreign language. That kid did have a background, including reading and writing, in a European heritage language, where the language was obscure enough there couldn’t have been any outside validation of proficiency. (Edit: wait listed in this case is a good thing. Of the ~25 people I’ve interviewed, I’ve had two WLs and zero acceptances.)
Do realize that College foreign language can be intense…college classes assume for every hour you are in class you are expected to study/read/do homework for 2-3 additional hours.
I agree you should try and take a class this summer and keep going. Most 4-year universities require 2 years but most selective universities require 3 and top universities/LACs would likely expect 4.
So you can apply to a couple T20s. But focus on finding two affordable safeties end 3-5, affordable matches.