I keep seeing different information on different sources but my high school counselor told me that I wasn’t going to get into a top college if I don’t take 3 years of foreign language in high school. I’m a sophomore and I’m in Spanish 4 honors because I took 3 years of Spanish in middle school. Does this count as 4 years to college admissions or only 2 years? I really hate Spanish class and I don’t want to take it next year if it isn’t necessary. The next level is AP Spanish and my counselor told me to take that instead of AP computer science which is something that I’m actually interested in. I’m more interested in STEM so wouldn’t it be better to have more STEM oriented APs?
Also for colleges like Harvard that say to take 4 years, will they count the 4th level as sufficient?
Huh. I’d say you should take AP Spanish. If nothing else, a lot of colleges require proficiency in a foreign language to graduate from college. AP Spanish might get you out of college foreign language, and that is generally a good thing. College foreign language is faster paced and more challenging. Colleges don’t expect you to come in fully proficient in your possible major area (heck, then what would they have to do?). If you have some EC activities in your area of interest, or even are taking the class senior year, that is usually enough. Being super “pointy” in CS isn’t always a benefit in admissions, either. People whose ECs are all CS related can come across as not very strong socially, which isn’t helpful in your admissions. So if you were my kid, I’d tell them to take the language, and either put off the CS AP, or take another CS course at HS or outside if you could, or just do CS related ECs if you are interested.