<p>I am a highschool junior this year and I am not taking a foreign language. I took french for both my freshmen and junior years. My question is, will this hurt my chances at acceptance? Why does Harvard ask for 4 years in a foreign language?</p>
<p>I'm guessing you mean freshman and sophomore years?</p>
<p>Harvard, as do many colleges, asks for four years of a foreign language because not only are foreign languages useful in today's job market, but they also help to expand a person's cultural experiences, which is one of the purposes of a liberal arts education; they help to make you a more well rounded individual.</p>
<p>Unless your school does not offer four years of a foreign language (there are some rural schools around here that offer only Spanish I and II, and nothing else), this will put you at a disadvantage - unless you can show that it was impossible for you to continue taking a foreign language, which isn't very likely. Your best bet at mitigating this disadvantage would be to score well on an SAT II language test or on an AP language test.</p>
<p>The actual quote on the admissions page is:</p>
<p>"There is no single academic path we expect all students to follow, but the strongest applicants take the most rigorous secondary school curricula available to them."
<a href="http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/faqs/admissions/high_school/%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/faqs/admissions/high_school/</a></p>
<p>So my question to you would be... is there any particular reason why you've chosen not to continue studying French?</p>
<p>"Is there any particular reason why you've chosen not to continue studying French?"</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bobfromaccounting.com/5_13/francesucks.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.bobfromaccounting.com/5_13/francesucks.html</a> </p>
<p>--- Study German or Spanish or something.... I thought the article was funny... Enjoy-</p>
<p>I couldn't take a fourth year of foreign language at my school because my schedule wouldn't allow me to.</p>
<p>But I already know a additional language.</p>
<p>opps, yes I meant sophomore.</p>
<p>I decided to take three science courses instead.</p>