I am a current high school junior at a pretty prestigious private school and next year I am looking to apply to college. The thing is at my school you are required to take up to level 3 of a language. I came took spanish 2 freshman year (my middle school spanish gave me level one credit) then sophmore year I took level 3. The problem occured when I was picking my classes for my junior year: I wanted to AP chem (a 2 period course at my school) and because of my already full schedule (strings, comp…) I had to drop a class. So I chose spanish; the class was always pretty easy (I had mostly an A) but I wasn’t in honors so I thought there was really no point in keeping it. Also I thought that if I dropped it I could focus on more science and math classes which I like. I didn’t really think much of it at the time, but know I see all of these “take four years of foreign language!” posts and its got me pretty worried. Did I screw myself? Do I somehow tell the colleges I appy to this? Does this put me at a signifigant disadvatage at getting in to places like UNC, BU, NYU or Georgia tech?
I don’t see what you would tell colleges, usually you only tell them not taking a further class (like language) because it wasn’t offered, not because it was a conscience choice. That being said, I honestly would take another year of Spanish, could you take one senior year?
That’s definitely a common situation at my school, so I’m sure colleges are going to understand. At the same time, though, if you can study Spanish on occasion throughout this year and take Spanish 4 your senior year, it would probably give you an advantage!
Easy fix: take Spanish 4 senior year.
Top colleges like to see that you’re dedicated to a field you like, but not at the expense of skipping a “core” class.
This being said, since you have up to Spanish 3, it’s a weakness but it’s not fatal. I personally wouldn’t take the risk considering how competitive the schools you’re aiming for are, but it’s a gamble you can take.
What state do you live in?(you mention both UNC and GTech, which are public universities serving, respectively, the State of North Carolina and the State of Georgia, meaning OOS students are capped at UNC and are made to pay a huge pricetag at GTech.)
Have you run the NPCs on these schools, which are all crazy expensive (unless you’re a resident of either GA or NC).
Have you discussed college costs with your parents, what’s their budget? (Don’t assume - ask and request a specific number, because it’s pointless preparing for GTech if they don’t have 50K in a college fund for you and can’t pay that out of income, and it’s heartbreaking getting invested into a college only to hear it’s unaffordable. Better to have the talk now and focus on schools they can pay for.)