<p>My dd completed French 3 in her sophomore year (French 1 completed in 8th grade). Her school requires 3 years of language in high school to graduate so she switched to Spanish 1 in her junior year because she had a particularly tough science schedule and she had little time to donate to French which is not easy for her. Will colleges that require/recommend 3 years of the same language recognize her completing French 3 as three years of the same language even though she didn't complete all 3 years in high school.</p>
<p>Email your d’s gc and ask her how the French I taken in middle school will be on her transcript so colleges will see she had 3 years of French.</p>
<p>Usually, it is the level completed that matters (so completing French 3 = 3 years, even if French 1 and 2 are not present on the record), but if you are concerned, ask the admissions offices of the relevant colleges directly if it is not clear on their web sites.</p>
<p>Still, taking French 4 instead of Spanish 1 would have looked better, since French 4 reaches level 4, which some colleges prefer to see.</p>
<p>@beerme @ucbalumnae-Thank you for the advice. French 1 will not show up on her record so depending on where she applies next year I will have her contact admissions to clarify if it seems necessary.
@ucbalumnas-Agreed, French 4 would have looked better. On the bright side she is really enjoying Spanish 1, doing very well and is thinking about taking Spanish 2 next year.</p>
<p>Will she be taking SAT Subjects in French and/or Spanish to show how well she knows the language? Additionally, a 650 usually suffices to skip the first two semesters of college language so that she would only have one (or perhaps none) to take in college, a good investment.</p>
<p>For most schools completing French 3 counts as three years of the same language. This is my son’s exact situation. French 1 in 8th grade, French 2 honors in 9th, french 3 honors in 10th. I called every college he was applying too and most said that is great he meets the requirement. 1 or 2 said, it’s fine but certainly taking french 4 would make him more competitive for our school. It won’t be why he doesn’t get in, but the French 4 would look better.</p>
<p>@myos1634-no we hadn’t thought about the SAT II tests but will certainly look into it. Great idea! I will pick up a review book so she can see where she stands.@momentscaught-reassuring to hear about the responses you received from the schools you contacted. I will make sure dd double checks with admission officers of the colleges she is interested in - it all sounds very promising.</p>
<p>I think this may depend on what college you are applying to – my daughter is applying to a range of VHS and HS schools and we contacted a handful of them with regards to the language situation. Many of the colleges’ websites stated four years of foreign language; my daughter took Spanish 1 and 2 in middle school, Span 3 in 9th, 4 in 10th and AP Spanish her junior year and got a 780 on the SAT subject test in Spanish end of junior year. She really did not want to take AP Span Lit senior year due to the rigor of her other classes. However, the majority of her potential schools emailed us back stating that they prefer she take a “4th year” of foreign language…so she is taking AP Spanish Lit her senior year.</p>