My goal is to attend a strong engineering school, MIT, WPI, CalTech, and CMU are at the top of my list. My guidance counselor has told me that there is no chance of being accepted to any college without 3 years of the same foreign language taken at high school. However, I checked the admission requirements for the aforementioned schools, none state that they require more than 2 years.
I currently have 2 years of high school foreign language, Spanish 2H and Spanish 3H. Now as a junior, I couldn’t take the Spanish 4 class due to a heavy AP load. So I could either do an independent study, or take classes that are more interesting to me and my goals in life. What should I do?
Other info: I don’t enjoy Spanish, as it doesn’t help me reach my goals as well as other languages or classes might, so that’s why I’m concerned an independent study wouldn’t work, I simply wouldn’t have the motivation.
Thanks for your responses everyone, I just talked to a college advisor, who said it wouldn’t hurt my admission chances to drop Spanish 4 for a class/language that I considered more important.
As long as it’s a class I’m serious about, and not some easy elective, engineering schools will be happy with 2 years of high school spanish and then my choice to move on to other, more challenging/personally interesting classes.
Many engineering schools do not care about language (e.g. Michigan) simply because the heavy distribution requirements for an engineering major makes too difficult to squeeze in 16-20 credit hours on a language. Your state may have a language requirement to graduate, however.
Language proficiency is extremely useful in general, and I would encourage you to continue with it. My son took mandarin in HS, honed his speaking skills by talking to Chinese grandmas on the bus, took more in university and now works there. Another excellent strategy is to find a girlfriend/boyfriend who is a native speaker.
As an FYI, a bilingual engineer commands a significant salary premium, so that may be another motivating factor,
That is just untrue. Many schools have minimal/no foreign language requirement. It should be relatively easy for YOU to check the websites of the schools you listed for what is recommended/required.
Erin’s Dad, I did check the school websites, but I just didn’t know who to believe, my counselors, or the school websites. At this point, I’ve decided to just let Spanish go, and pursue classes that will help me reach the engineering career I’m interested in.
Side Note: I do realize the value of being a bilingual engineer. I’m considering taking Russian instead of Spanish, because I’m interested in the space program. Thanks for everyone’s help!
Yes, the college’s web site will be more correct for that college.
However, many college web sites do not explicitly state whether completion of level 3 = “3 years”, even though it is very common for colleges to treat it that way. This may be something you want to ask directly to colleges of interest.
