<p>Many colleges in their admissions requirements make statements like "students are strongly encouraged to take 4 years of language study" in high school. Do you intrepret this to mean that you literally take 4 years of a language in high school or that you get to the level 4 of the foreign language class? For example, if you start freshman year in Spanish 2 and then do Spanish 3 sophomore year and Spanish 4 junior year but then drop Spanish in senior year (since only AP Spanish is offered and student isn't interested in taking that AP), do you think colleges consider that taking 4 years of a foreign language?</p>
<p>This is a tough one. My kids go to a private school that begins in 7th grade. So one of my son’s years of German was in 8th grade. We have been told by 2 colleges that this would not count as 4 years because one of the classes occurred before high school even though he ended his junior year in honors german 4. We have also been told by one college that this is acceptable and as long as he got a B in year 4 that he could get out of the language requirement. I guess each college has its own unique way of dealing with this.</p>
<p>I believe that most colleges consider the level. But the only statement in B&W that I’ve found is for the UCs:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/subject_reqs.html[/url]”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/subject_reqs.html</a></p>
<p>“e l Language Other than English – 2 years required, 3 years recommended
Two years of the same language other than English. Courses should emphasize speaking and understanding, and include instruction in grammar, vocabulary, reading, composition and culture. Courses in languages other than English taken in the seventh and eighth grades may be used to fulfill part of this requirement if your high school accepts them as equivalent to its own courses.”</p>
<p>My D’s Jr. High did not offer the language she desperately wanted to learn, and shuttling her to the HS that did offer this particular language was not an option for us. D did not take any language in 9th grade, then during the summer before her sophomore year she took a college-level intensive language course at a local language academy. She was placed in Language 2 with the rest of 10th graders and ended up with an A-. Her official transcript listed only 3 years of HS language up to the highest level offered by the school, and she did not have any problems with college admissions language requirements (it also helped that she applied to colleges that were very familiar with her HS).</p>
<p>Two of my kids had 3 years of FL (one dropped FL senior year, the other graduated fro HS in 3 years). Both took “level 4” as their last level. Both were accepted to top universities.</p>