Foreign language requirement

Applying to College
1

Hi - I have a few questions about foreign language requirement and appreciate your advice.

I am in my junior year and I took a foreign language class (level 1) in freshman year at my high school. Due to conflict with another class, I did not take a level 2 class in my sophomore year. I am now taking level 3 class but I found it too difficult for me to catch up because I did not take level 2 last year. My questions:

  1. If I change to level 2 in the coming semester, is it going to look bad on my college app?
  2. Is it better to have a better grade in a lower level class (level 2) than have a not so good grade in a higher level class (level 3)?
  3. What would be the lowest grade that colleges would expect to see in a foreign language class?
  4. Do colleges look at grades by semester or they care about overall grade in each year of high school?

Thank you.

2

You mean Years 1, 2 and 3 correct?

I’m not surprised that year 3 is challenging after skipping Year 2. I would switch to Year 2 as fast as you can…can you do that before this semester is up?

Then, if you take Year 3 senior year, you will still have 3 years of FL, which is enough for most schools. Alternatively you could take Year 3 next summer, then Year 4 senior year.

Colleges will look at all of your semester grades, as well as the courses and their levels (college prep, honors, AP, IB, etc). You should strive for 4 years of each of the 5 core subject areas.

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3

Switch to Level 2 ASAP and retake Level 3 next year (level 3 is a minimum for a college like AU).
It’s not surprising you can’t do Level 3 without level 2! It’s like trying to do handle precalculus with only Algebra 1…

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4

How bad would it look on my college app if I drop the class in the second semester and take it (level 3) again in senior year? I’m not sure but it may show “incomplete” on the transcript. Thanks.

5

My S21 really couldn’t fit FL into his schedule. He liked his electives Engineering, DECA etc

So he took all his FL online. We live in Florida and they have Florida Virtual School. Your state may have something similar
oops didn’t mean to reply to your post meant to reply to OP

6

Dropping it without taking Level 2 would make no sense and look foolish, compounded. Your GC shouldn’t have approved your going from Level 1 to Level 3 without Level 2 (even Level 2 over the summer would have been better).
You need to drop down immediately to Level2 and no college will hold it against you because it’s clearly a scheduling mistake that you were allowed into Level 3.
Complete level 2 this year, then Level 3 senior year.
It can be in person or online.
Foreign Language is a core class and if you’re hoping to get into a top college you really need Level1-2-3.

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