My son who is a B+/A- all honors student will have his EMT license this Spring though his high school (special program run through the high school in conjunction with the town ambulance service), he is also a varsity basketball and lacrosse player. He does not want to take more than two years of a foreign language and would rather spend the time on either science or business curricula. He is looking either at a medical or business type area to study in at college. Would he be putting himself in tough position if he did that? The EMT license and experience will be great add on to his application so he would have a “leg up” there.
Many colleges have foreign language graduation requirements that are higher than their foreign language admission requirements.
If he takes up to level 2 in high school, he may have to take more foreign language courses in college to fulfill the requirement than if he takes up to level 3 or 4 in high school, placing into a higher level course to start with.
Some schools want 4 years of a foreign language in HS. You should have him look at some of the requirements or recommendations at some the schools he’s interested in. www.collegedata.com is a good starting place. And I agree with @ucbalumnus, doing 4 years in HS may mean he tests out of it in college.
Very few places specifically require even two years of FL for admission. Check the wording carefully on the admissions requirements. If it says “recommended” well then they’d really, really like that number, but they do admit at least some students with less. If it says “required”, then it it is required indeed.
What matters most now, is what is required to graduate from his high school with a full diploma in his state. If two years is enough for that, and he has other goals for the rest of high school, then he’s fine. There will be plenty of places that will be happy to admit him, and he can take more FL when he’s truly ready and interested in that.
While he is looking at colleges and making his application list, he should pay attention to the FL requirements for graduation from college in the major(s) he is thinking of. Happykid’s university required two years of FL for a BA degree, but no FL at all for a BS degree. She skipped FL and took classes she found more interesting, and so has a BS (rather than BA) in Theatre.
Check the admissions requirements for your state flagship. Some states do require 2 or 3 years of foreign language. Read carefully about whether there is a foreign language general education requirement as well.
Washington’s foreign language general education requirement is “2 to get in, 3 to get out” – You are admissible to state universities with two years of high school foreign language. You are only excused from foreign language general education requirements if you have three years.
Many top schools recommend 4 years of FL. Some require more than 2 years. Having just two years may limit your choice of school. In addition, it may make it more difficult to fulfill the FL requirement in college, if required, later on. I have hone through that with my D2 two years ago when wanted to quit after Spanish 3. Finally I convinced her to take Spanish 4 in junior year.
It could limit his choices or make him a less competitive candidate for a college he discovers he loves in the future. Is he open to maybe self-study or summer community college or some other approach to get the foreign language equivalent of sitting in a classroom for four years?
Unless he’s targeting top schools it likely doesn’t matter for admission. One of mine only had two years of FL. No problems with admission to 8 LACs and two state universities. She did end up having to take two years foreign language at her LAC. She had to start back at the beginning via a placement test. A year taking 1 and 2 plus a summer study abroad that covered 3 and 4 took care of it.
I did a lot of looking at the time she was deciding to quit the high school language classes. Not very many schools require more than two years of a language.
My youngest will only have two years of foreign language as well—-it was crowded out by music classes.
But the downside is that fewer foreign language classes in high school typically result in more foreign language classes in college. Many have a placement test during orientation, like for math. His other option will be to take another language and take all required semesters (goes from college level 2 ie HS level 3 at lower level colleges … to college level 5 at Tufts or Yale).
@MYOS1634 (and others…). Thank you. Top schools like Bowdoin want 4 years but others - I called Clemson for example, and was told at least 2 with 3 being better. So while he would love love to just take the two my DH and I may lean on him to try to take that 3rd year - it can’t hurt! Although if he did pursue Business I don’t think he would be required to take any language at all from what I have viewed on the UMass curriculum.
@Parentof2014grad - good to know your D ha such success getting into those schools -
I think we need to sit down and review schools he may be interested in and do some research via their admissions office -
I suggest you contact the colleges.
My kid did not want to take foreign language for her junior year, at the time she finished Spanish 3. The GC pushed her to take Spanish 4. I contacted the colleges that she may be interested in, I let them know what she planned to do, i.e. take double AP Science courses and there was no room for foreign language (if needed, she would take Spanish in senior year). Some came back to direct me to their official page on admission requirements, but some told me it happened to their other applicants as well i.e. they took demanding courses instead of the 3 (or 4 ) years of Foreign languages. I took it as okay and my DD only took 2 years of foreign languages.
I knew some people said that Spanish 3 is considered as three years of foreign language, but none of the AO told me it was considered as three years of foreign language.
(^ Nobody told you that 3 years= level 3 because most adcoms may think it’s obvious for sequential subjects like math and foreign language. However realizing some parents get confused, more colleges have begun to specify things like ‘continuous study in the same language’ and ‘through common core 4 or precalculus’, etc.)
hi there! i would advise him to take at least three years. not only will this help him in the long run, but what if he looks back and wishes he would have taken an extra year? it’s always better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. i, honestly, would not worry too much about having four. the only college i’ve seen that “prefers” you to have four is bard college, and i think it was for a direction decision program, but take that with a grain of salt.
my S20 is going through this. he’s sort of tongue tied and just speaking a foreign language is hard for him.
He is looking at two STEM majors at our state flagship right now. One is through the Arts & Sciences College. That college says you either take 4 yrs in HS or take some in HS and then finish in college.
He does NOT want to take any in college - where it’d be much more rigorous, and expensive to pay for those courses. SO – he’s taking 4 years in HS now so he will not ever have to take any in college.
so – keep looking at interesting colleges and majors and their requirements for graduation, and think about what is the smoothest path for your kid with FL — getting it over in HS or partially doing it in HS and some in college. Some degrees do not require as much as others.
My son took 2 miserable years of Spanish (C range, might have even finished the 2nd year with a D+). Guidance strongly recommended the 3rd year, but we figured another D wasn’t going to impress anyone. He was accepted at all the NJ state schools (except TCNJ and Rutgers where he didn’t apply), a couple of smaller LACs, and a few PASSHE schools. He’s a freshman at Rowan now with no foreign language requirement. It definitely depends on the schools you’re interested in.
@NJWrestlingmom - yes we are trying to get him a list of 20 schools he is interested in right now and hone it down from there. While he IS miserable taking the class he is in the B+ range which while good, still is not at A that would up his GPA as well - the science classes he wants to take he would be able to get that A.
@bgbg4us - yes he would NOT want to take it in college so probably doing the 3rd year (at least) is the smart way to go
I am sharing all these messages with him and I think he is slowly getting resigned to the fact that a 3rd year will probably be happening…
If he’s taking a useful foreign language it will be valuable to him as an EMT. I would say, ok to drop Latin or German or French, bad idea to drop Spanish or whatever is frequently spoken locally.
@prodesse - yes he is taking Spanish. Good point.
Nor to mention that if he’s thinking of health professions, having a minor in it will actually help…
S HATES taking FL. Otherwise a bright kid, but he really struggles here. I’m sure attitude is a part of the problem.
He has stuck with it, and had resigned himself to talking AP Spanish next year. Mostly because most of the schools he is looking at require a certain level of proficiency, and he wanted to take as little FL in college as possible. Better to struggle through now than in college.