<p>My son is interested in either electrical or mechanical engineering, and in Cornell. He is a sophomore and will soon select classes for junior year. He does not want to take Italian 4 next year (nor does he want to take it his senior year). He took Italian 1 in middle school, and then Italian 2 and 3 in high school. He would take AP Stats or AP Gov (or a general Engineering class if he can't fit one of the APs) in place of it. How important is it to Cornell for an applicant to get to the higher levels of a foreign language? Thank you.</p>
<p>My S is now a Cornell engineering freshman and he had exactly what your son has for HS language classes (except in a different language). </p>
<p>In his case he couldn’t fit it into his schedule either junior or senior year, so it’s possible that his guidance counselor mentioned that in her recommendation for him as an explanation for why only had 2 years of foreign language in HS, but my impression is that most engineering schools really don’t care all that much about the higher levels of foreign language as long as the student has a rigorous course load.</p>