<p>I am absolutely terrible in foreign languages. All of my grades are above a 97 unweighted besides spanish. I am trying very hard to get into an Ivy/Top Tier school. I received a 92 in Spanish one and a 91 in Spanish 2. I am definitely taking Spanish 3 but I don't know if I will be able to take Spanish 4. I was looking online and the admissions at all the really good schools ask for four years. Are they going to just throw away my application if I don't take a fourth year? Should I take a fourth year even if i do poorly in it or take another science class I know I'll get a good grade in?</p>
<p>I think you should try to master Spanish rather than saying “I will do badly.” Spanish is simply memorization mixed in with a little bit of logic for grammar (which you should be good at if you’re good at science). I say keep trying and only drop the language if it goes below a 90.</p>
<p>No, they won’t immediately throw away your application, but it may hurt you slightly. Someone once described learning a language to me as a pyramid. In Spanish 1 and 2, you learn a lot of new vocab and verb tenses, but then it sort of decreases as you get higher in level and you find yourself not learning as much new stuff but refining what you already know, which, if you ask me, is a little easier. Unless you have a scheduling problem or other issue that prevents you from taking Spanish 4, I would certainly take Spanish 4–you may even find that its easier than some of your previous Spanish classes.</p>
<p>Check the admissions pages of the schools you are considering–MANY expect 4 yrs of a foreign language.
Dig in. YOU CAN DO IT! ;o)</p>
<p>91/92 is not “absolutely terrible” - it’s terrific. I had Spanish 1/2 in school and I took Spanish 3 online my senior year, and I got into a lot of good schools. The general consensus is this: drop spanish if you’re replacing it with an AP/high level class, but don’t replace spanish 4 with PE or something else just to get out of taking it. They recommend 4 years and the main exception is if you’re taking another rigorous class.</p>
<p>If a school says they want four years of a foreign language and you only have three, you are basically giving them a very easy excuse to toss your application. In the absence of a very, very compelling reason (and “only” getting an A- is far from a compelling reason) you had better have four years if that’s what they say they want to see.</p>
<p>Sometimes the compelling reason is that you’ve topped-out what your school offers. For example some students take the equivalent of Language I in eighth grade and then by junior year they have already finished Language IV. Unless your school offers some advanced class, you would have only taken three years in grades 9-12.</p>
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<p>No. </p>
<p>I would recommend taking the four years of the language, simply because it is a rewarding experience, but if you truly feel that it is not worth the effort, don’t do it. There’s nothing worse than taking a class you hate.</p>
<p>I took three years of high school-level Spanish by the time I applied to many schools, Ivies included, and did not sign up for AP Spanish until a bit later. I had dropped out of the class junior year to pursue something else. So, if you have something you’d prefer to study to Spanish and are passionate about it, go ahead and drop the language class.</p>
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They’re going to compare you to their other applicants. Unless you have something else really amazing on your app, this is going to sink it.</p>
<p>That said, I suspect you are making the mistake of expecting the school to teach you Spanish. They don’t. They provide help, but learning a foreign language is more like learning to play tennis than learning History. The school can provide tennis courts and instruction, but its only by hundreds of hours hitting balls and playing games that you get better. Foreign languages are much the same. It takes practice, lots of it. Practice that isn’t always fun, that’s one reason why colleges look at it. “Can you get yourself to regularly practice something” is a question they’re very interested in answering.</p>
<p>There are plenty of websites for the self-learner of foreign languages such as [Language</a> Learning Forum](<a href=“http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/default.asp]Language”>http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/default.asp), and what they suggest is also helpful to you in a class. There are free review programs like Anki that make learning vocabulary a lot easier, there are audio programs you can get from the library like Michel Thomas that explain the logic of the language (something they never tell you in school), and so on.</p>