Foreign Language requirements

<p>My son has taken 5 years of foreign language in HS. Latin 2 and Spanish 1 in freshman year. Honors Latin 3 and Spanish 2 in sophomore year and Honors Spanish 3 in junior year. Can he skip taking Honors Spanish 4 in senior year and just take some of the business electives he's been waiting to take? Will this look bad on his transcript? Will an admissions officer even take the time to see that he doubled up his 1st two years, or should his guidance counselor point it out?</p>

<p>My daughter did the same thing, doubled up on two different languages, Latin & Spanish, completing Spanish 4 by her junior year. Just to ensure there was not a question of four years of the same foreign language she took AP Spanish as a senior. Once she applied to colleges I was surprised that some of the schools she applied to sent her merit scholarships where one of the criteria was 4 years same foreign language. I think whether your son should take a foreign language as a senior probably depends on the college he wants to go to.</p>

<p>well, if he wants to apply to very selective colleges, then having 4 full years of one language , plus having reached the honors level in 2 languages, will look very very good on his transcript. Be sure he takes the NON Listening Spanish SAT subject test in Spanish,[the listening test is best taken by native Spanish speakers only ,and is known to have a mean curve!]] and the Latin test as well this June[ Latin is only offered twice a year, in Dec and June]</p>

<p>In our experience…completing level 4 of a foreign language was preferred. Our kids both took honor Spanish 4 as 10th graders and then stopped Spanish. The colleges were looking at completion of the fourth level of high school Spanish. You might want to contact the specific colleges to get clarification.</p>

<p>For the OP…it sounds like your kiddo has taking up to level 3 in one language and level 2 in another. Seems to me that if a college required 4 years of a language, he would need to take level 4 in one of those languages. BUT that he also took up to level 3 in another language puts a diifferent twist.</p>

<p>Many colleges RECOMMEND 4 years of fl…but REQUIRE only 3. Check the schools.</p>

<p>My son is a senior. He was taking Spanish 4 in his junior year when he had to drop the class in the second semester in order to be able to get on the tennis team. Which he wanted to do. At his school you have to be in PE to be on a sports team. He could not fit the Spanish class into his schedule and still be on the team. Everyone in his school, the vice-principals, the deans, all advised him against this saying it would look bad on his college applications, although they all admitted he needed EC’s to get into colleges. We fought for him and in the end they allowed him to do what he wanted. On his college applications, he explained the drop of the class and the reason for it. He was always going to be an engineering major, so we did not see the importance of taking another semester of Spanish and missing the fun of being on a team. He was just admitted to UCLA! I can’t wait to tell those people who advised against it… He is taking Italian 1 this year though as he attends a foreign language magnet and taking a language every year is required.</p>