Hello, Im a sophmore in high school, and I’m taking chinese AP this year after i took chinese 5 in freshman year
i took chinese 2 and 3 in middle school. i don’t really want to the next level of chinese in junior year because 1) it doesn’t fit in my schedule 2) its easier than AP; its there mostly to keep people practicing chinese. 3) i can just take chinese school instead
and if you haven’t guessed yet, I, like 80% of the people who take the chinese AP test, come from an ethnically chinese household. shocker.
I know Harvard has the four year foreign language thing, and although i technically have 4 high school credits of language, i don’t have four years of it in high school. Do i have to still take the chinese after AP to meet the requirement (or fully attempt it)? Does it really matter? Is AP enough?
The Common Application has a section for Language(s) with pull-down menus and check-boxes that all students must complete:
Is Chinese your first language – meaning is that the language you spoke first and currently speak at home with your parents? If so, then colleges will tend to discount an AP Language Test or SAT Subject Test in that home-language. For example, Harvard has this tip on their website: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-requirements/application-tips#testing
My recommendation – and I know you don’t want to hear it – finish AP Chinese during your sophomore year along with the AP Chinese Exam, and then take 2 more years of another foreign language during your junior and senior years. By doing so, you will demonstrate proficiency in Chinese and will demonstrate a love of learning for another foreign language. I think this is vitally important for a student who speaks at home the same language they study in school, whether that’s Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Russian etc. While you could stop your foreign language study with the AP Chinese Exam, selective colleges often look for students who have the stamina and drive to go beyond what is required of them.
FWIW: My daughter, a recent Harvard graduate, who’s first language is English and speaks English at home, did the same thing in high school with her foreign language classes. She completed AP Spanish and the AP Spanish Exam during her junior year and then took German during her senior year.
@gibby
but Chinese is not my first language. although i do speak chinese with my mother because she does not understand english well (unless you’re talking about some super obscure satellite imaging), i don’t speak chinese with my father or my sibling. actually, the first full sentence i constructed in chinese was when i was four. perhaps thats because Im a little slow. haha.
the reason i get to take chinese ap as a sophomore is because i have been at chinese school since kindergarten. those hours of terror are the reason for my proficiency in the language.
although i was born in china, i moved to the US before i could speak. My father has spoken fluent english since my birth as he first went to the US many years before my mother and I.
although, i was considering learning french. the issue was mainly my schedule. so i decided not to add it, but would it be appropriate to take an out of school class in french instead? i haven’t found a group lesson yet. if it doesn’t work out I could get a tutor. My parents can afford it.
Thanks for that suggestion though. Thats the first time I’ve heard that.
Classes that appear on your transcript with a grade that can be compared to other student’s in your high school is preferable. Speak with your guidance counselor to see what can be arranged to free up your schedule during your junior and senior year so you can take French during school time. Sometimes accommodations can be made. For example, my daughter’s GC allowed her to take a class during what was supposed to be her lunch period. My daughter brought a bag lunch to school and ate during class because that was the only way the class would fit into her schedule. So, speak with your GC.
Gibby (and I) might prefer that things were different, but there’s lots of evidence on CC over the years that Harvard is not very strict about its preference for four years of foreign language study. Plenty of applicants get accepted without four years of courses, and without completing any language through the AP level. If the OP completes Chinese through the AP level, even in 10th grade, I think that will count as compliant with Harvard’s position. It may be admirable to do more language study, but I wouldn’t do that in the hope it would make me look a lot better to Harvard admissions than the alternative courses I would take, which of course should also be admirable.
I disagree somewhat with gibby’s recommendation on another ground, too. Unless your high school is really exceptional, taking two years of a language at the introductory level is next to useless unless you continue with the language afterward. If I were an admissions officer, I would rather see that you had continued further with Chinese – even if it was off-transcript, i.e., Chinese school – than that you had switched to introductory French. AP Chinese is not a very high level of Chinese; there’s a lot more to learn to achieve real competence. Even better would be if you could arrange to take a dual-enrollment college course in Chinese.
Personally, way back in the old days I completed one foreign language through the AP level in 10th grade, and I started another foreign language in 11th. But I started that language at the 4th-year level (with a deal that I would not be graded the first trimester), I completed that language’s AP course in 12th grade, and I also took a 300-level university course in my first foreign language in 11th grade. That, and the fact that I had at least one high-school year’s worth of study in three other languages, probably did help my case with college admissions. But I was interested in world literature; I wasn’t trying to tick off boxes on the applications.
Of course, nobody should attempt to build a HS class schedule solely with the purpose of “looking better;” that’s a strategy bound to fail.
I see both @gibby 's and @JHS 's points of view and agree at least in part, with what each says. At the end of the day, however, I really don’t think that which language, if any, you take post AP-Chinese is going to make or break your application. If you want to study French, whether in school or not, study French. If you want to study Chinese, study that. If you want to learn pottery (assuming you have plenty of other rigorous courses), study that. Personally, I would continue on the Chinese path since, as JHS correctly points out, AP Chinese is not that high of a level and 2 years of HS French will not get you too far. Sort of the jack of all trades, master of none syndrome. Follow your passion because you will get no credit just for checking the boxes.
FWIW, I am nearer in time to the application process than either JHS or gibby’s daughter, so things may have changed between their application process and mine. However, my experience on the “4 years of language” from asking AO’s, including at Harvard, is that completing 4 years and/or AP “counts.”