So I took two years of HS French (8th and 9th grade) and then was out of the country (in a Spanish speaking country) first semester 10th grade and therefore I couldn’t take French 3 this year. I would have tried to take HS Spanish, but my HS’s foreign language department thought I was probably too advanced for Spanish 4, so they suggested that I wait a semester and then take Spanish at my local university, do I didn’t take a foreign language this year. The problem is, it looks like the schedule won’t work out for me to take my required HS classes and also a Spanish university class (they don’t offer them after 3 pm–super frustrating, as most other subjects do). I have a couple options in front of me:
-I could drop two of my HS electives to take a free period and study hall on some days and my Spanish class on others (I don’t want to do this, as I like all of my electives/need some of them to graduate)
-I could take a different university language–at this point my options would be Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, or maybe Czech (this is fine by me, but I worry colleges wouldn’t like to see that, even if I got to a 4th or even 5th semester level course by senior year).
-I could take advanced Spanish online via a provider like John’s Hopkins CTY (not ideal, it’s very expensive and I prefer classroom learning).
-I could try to go back into French 3 at my HS and finish French 4 senior year (would also likely cause big scheduling issues, as there’s only one section of each level of language at my school)
What should I do? I just recently took the AP Spanish Language exam, and I hope I did reasonably well, but colleges (I’m aiming for top LACs) usually like to see the 4-years HS/4-semesters at university on your transcript right? My favorite out of my options would be to take another language (if I can’t make Spanish work for my schedule) at the university for 4 semesters (all of junior and senior year unless you factor in summers) but I worry colleges wouldn’t view that as well because I wouldn’t have 4 years on my HS transcript (I’d still send in my university transcript).
If you have AP Spanish from studying abroad (not because it’s your native language) and take French 3 you’ll be covered no matter which college you’re interested in. But ap Spanish should be fine even if you can’t take French.
If you take a language at university, I recommend Portuguese, first because Brazil despite all its problems has a relatively strong economy and second because compared to Czech it’ll be much easier for you to learn based on your fluency in Spanish.
I do have it from studying abroad, yeah. I think I’ll try to find some possible way to fit either Spanish or French at the university into my schedule, and then after that probably enroll in Portuguese (the way the university Portuguese program works you actually get to Portuguese 4 after two semesters, and as a person who’s super into languages that’s attractive to me).
Really they want to see that you have gotten to the 4th LEVEL of a language…not 4 years.
You can take extra languages if that is something you are interested in and may want to major in.
If SPanish isn’t a primary language for you (that is, you didn’t grow up speaking it) and you did well enough on the AP exam then you should be good.
Harvard University: “You should leave secondary school knowing at least one foreign language well enough to read it easily and pronounce it acceptably. Knowing a foreign language enables you to enter another culture and to understand its ideas and its values. A fundamental aspect of language-learning must be a grasp of vocabulary and syntax that allows you to read novels, plays, poems, and magazines, with as much of a native speaker’s comprehension as possible. We have found that students who have mastered a foreign language before they come to Harvard take more language courses here than those who have not. Indeed, these students often embark on the study of languages not commonly taught in American secondary schools. Many secondary school students take a smattering of several languages – for example, Latin for two years, French for a year, and Spanish for a year. When it is too late, they realize that they cannot read or speak any of these languages well. We urge you to try to study at least one foreign language and its literature for four years. Continuity of study is important, too, because a “year off” from a language can be a real setback. Once you are comfortably fluent, you will possess that language – and better appreciate the culture it has shaped – for the rest of your life.” (from http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/college_prep/index.html#language)