Help! Ave GPA but 4 years of Japanese...

<p>I was wondering how admissions departments will view that? My D has struggled with her GPA but finally has gotten more serious about studying and will end up with about a 3.0. She has 2 AP's this year and will take 3 more next year. She will leave high school with a B average in 4 years of Japanese (she'll get a chance to test out of Japanese 4 and could go to Japanese 5 AP), 4 years of basketball, school plays, writes for the newspaper and literary magazine, tutors at an inner-city learning center, etc... She even went to Japan last summer to live and go to school, studying Japanese. For this summer, she will go back to Japan for 2 weeks with her class and has also applied to Kenyon's Young Writers program. Any input on how this will all be thought of by admissions departments?
Right now, she's looking at LAC's like: Kenyon, Willamette, Whitman, Lawrence, Scripps and Pitzer.
Thanks in advance...</p>

<p>Well if she is White, then she certainly has a hook.....studying abroad and pursuing her goal of studying a foreign Language</p>

<p>Bestmiler1: "...if she is white"? I'm not sure I understand what that means?</p>

<p>well, hoping she isn't a japanese person with 4 years of japanese is all he means. obviously if she's any race other than japanese, it would be a hook</p>

<p>ty logisticwizard, that very kind of you.........yes if she is any other race it would help her out a lot</p>

<p>LOL... I see... Well, yes. I sort of thought that was obvious but no, she is not Japanese Just a caucasian kid from California who loves the language and the culture... Now the questions is: How big of a hook is it? Enough so that a 3.0 would still work at those schools (or others if anyone would care to suggest other LAC's)?
Thanks again...</p>

<p>You should contact your d's guidance counselor..... she would be the best help for you at this situation...its all depending on her other strong academic strong points....and if she did well in these japanese classes, she will be good shape... For Example, my history teacher had a 82 gpa and still got into Columbia University.....he told them his interest about History and he took classes in high school in history in which he got A's and they took him...So one factor is, how well your daughter did in her Japanese Classes...so dont only go for LAC's schools, and go for much better schools, you have nothign to loose except 50 bucks, and your from CA, sounds like you are some top executive mom, you can make that in 5 seconds........some kid posted his stat earlier today and had a 1590 Sat out of 2400 and still got into Lehigh..................SO YOUR D SHOULD SHOOT FOR THE MOON, DONT KNOW WHERE SHE CAN LAND IN
BTW YOU ARE REALLY COOL MOM, YOU SEEM MORE INTERESTED ABOUT YOUR D"S FUTURE THAN HERSELF.............and good luck :-)</p>

<p>My S had 4 years of Japanese in hs, too. There were only 3 public high schools in the suburban county that taught Japanese, but there is alot more Chinese being taught now. He is very interested in going to grad school in Japan and moving there. He wrote his essay on the interest (last year).</p>

<p>I don't think the language study by itself would be any more important than any other language. Maybe your D could turn it into a strong EC. It sounds like her other EC's are very good. I'm not sure what you mean by an "average" gpa. At any rate, the gpa is considered in conjunction with the class rank. At some high schools, there are 40-50 valedictorians all with 4.0's. At other high schools, A's are hard to come by. They will use her rank, and if the hs doesn't rank, they will estimate her rank using the high school's profile. Also, her SAT's will matter.</p>

<p>Most of the material on CC is about the top 25 national universities as ranked on USNWR. There isn't alot on this forum about LAC's. I would say that the totally insane competition driven by brand-name consciousness drops off very quickly after you get out of the top 12 or 15 colleges.</p>

<p>dufus help me...............what is my chance in Syracuse University, because they just send me info about HEOP, they said they cant do anything untill, they get my information on HEOP.............HELP ME DUFSTER</p>

<p>Thanks for the input.
BESTMILER1: Actually I'm a dad, not a mom but appreciate your comments. I'm not sure that I care about her future more than she does but at this point, I am doing more of the leg work here in the early stages of the college hunt. However, that seems to be gradually changing. I know she wants to go to a small-ish school and that's why we've narrowed it down to those colleges I listed above (of course, that could always change).
Dufus3709: I'm not sure that I agree with you about Japanese being like any other language. Learning a whole new writing system as well as having to learn to speak it, seems to me to make it much tougher than learning a romance language, for instance. Chinese is also in the same league. And that is the kind of positive from Japanese that I'm hoping will help make a difference. That the admissions department will realize that it takes certain qualities for a student to get through 4 years of this with a B average. In the same way it takes certain qualities for a student to get through advanced math courses, etc. .. By the way, they don't rank students at her school (a well-regarded prep school in southern california) but if they did, it wouldn't work in her favor. If admissions people use the profile, that won't be a plus for her either. Lots of smart kids. Most heading to great schools.</p>

<p>sorry about that calmac...........and gl with you daughter, im a senior and i went through this and still going with this process, i understand your concern.........btw, i applied to Berkeley, and waiting for their decision.......hopefully i can get in, if i do, you should give me your d's celll phone number..........we should hook and date each other..............lol hahah just joking, just wanted to see your immediate fatherly reaction...... :-D</p>

<p>D has a boyfriend... but good luck with UC-B.:)</p>

<p>I took three years of Japanese (my highest averages), I studied abroad in Japan during the summer, I independently studied Japanese outside of school too, and my two recommendations dealt with my interest for Japan/East Asia (one from Japanese teacher, and the second one just turned out that he talked about my "passion" for Asian cultures). My major in college will be East Asian Studies.</p>

<p>The result?
Let's see what happens in April!</p>

<p>calmac: I didn't mean that Japanese is like other languages, but I have never seen anything to indicate that college admission offices give any "extra credit" for taking Japanese/Chinese/Russian instead of the "normal" foreign languages. However, I would recommend emphasizing the interest in Japan and the study abroad programs.</p>

<p>What's HEOP?</p>

<p>I would not call it a hook. I know tons of kids both at my prep and in my home town who have studied multiple languages, spent whole years in China, studied in Europe taking every class in their foreign language, acted as translators in Washington, etc. Great for the resume, but not a hook.</p>

<p>well yeah maybe not a hook perse, but an EXCELLENT piece for the application</p>

<p>
[quote]
What's HEOP?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Higher Education Opportunity Program</p>

<p>EDDIEEE: Do you mind me asking about your grade point and where you applied? Did you focus on the language aspect in your essay?</p>

<p>SUZE: That must be a high school with a lot of super-students... "tons" of kids studying multiple languages, working as translators, "whole years" in China? Wow. My daughter goes to a prep school with 20% of the kids ending up in ivys and I don't know of a single one, let alone "tons" who did any of those things. Guess I'll need to haver a word with the Headmaster.</p>

<p>DUFUS: Thanks for the insight. I suspect that I'm more impressed with her work in Japanese than admissions will be. My hope is that going outside of the Top 15 or so, into LACs like the ones I wrote about, will help.</p>

<p>
[quote]
My daughter goes to a prep school

[/quote]

I KNEW IT....my guess was RIGHT....you are some EXECUTIVE RICH DAD............. :-)</p>