hi, UPenn is my dream school. I was wondering if I should take 3 years of Spanish??? I told Spanish 1 in 8th and I just finished Spanish 2 last semester as a freshman. Also my school doesn’t offer ap macroeconomics and microeconomics which is a necessity for UPenn Wharton school so how can I take those ap classes? also I was just wondering but how is ap computer science?
No. You should take 4 years (including the year you took in MS).
No, it’s not. No college expects you to take that which is not offered.
Most Wharton students haven’t taken AP Micro and Macro, don’t worry about it. There’s no need to take 4 years of Spanish. Foreign languages have been heavily demphasized by Wharton and it’s cerybeasy to test out through the SAT II if you’ve completed 3 (maybe even 2?) years if a foreign language.
Wharton has de emphasized foreign language in its curriculum because most admitted students have reached level 4 or AP before they enroll.
Calculus BC (or dual enrollment calculus 2) is expected.
AP macro/micro isn’t expected but if you want to take it and your school doesn’t offer it, look for a dual enrollment class such as Introduction to Economics.
@MYOS1634 That is incorrect. As part of adapting a more modern business curriculum, foreign language classes were seen as an area that could de emphasized:https://www.thedp.com/article/2017/01/wharton-language-requirement-stirs-debate
The test can be passed with minimal high school experience: https://undergrad-inside.wharton.upenn.edu/language-placement/
ECON010 is a requirement for all first year students who have not received 5s on both AP Micro and Macro, and taken by well over 80% of freshmen every year.
Posting from a position of seniority while lacking actual knowledge about the school is misleading to the OP. Clearly, all posters should do their own research, but claims should be made based on actual evidence, and when a senior member of this forum does not do so, it hurts the credibility of the entire site.
I’m afraid there’s a confusion between entrance expectations and college graduation requirements. I may not have been clear - I was advising on High school course choice.
For instance, OF COURSE Econ is a college graduation requirement. However Econ is not an entrance requirement - it’s far more important to get into Wharton to have as much math as possible than to take a HS econ class. Wharton’s class will blow any HS or community college class out of the water (it compresses what cc would do in a year over one semester, with top performing classmates, so the class will ‘feel’ different - and, I’d I’m bot mistakes there’s also a two semester sequence for some majors) BUT if a HS student is interested in the subject they should feel free to dip their toes in through a dual enrollment CC class, to see what it’s about. I would hope the student would understand that class wouldn’t be the same as a Wharton class but it’d give a brief exposure to the subject.
As for foreign language:
I know it was controversial (still is). Parenthesis: the 2-semester graduation requirement is no joke if you’ve not met the requirement from testing, as the level expected at the end of these two semesters at Penn is equivalent to 3years in a good HS program. 450 may not seem very high but it does suppose the student has reached level 3 before they can take it.
No matter what, the Foreign Language graduation requirement was de emphasized, NOT the foreign language ENTRANCE requirement. To be clearer as my earlier post wasn’t: Wharton wants students to have completed that requirement BEFORE they start college if at all possible, so that they can focus on other subjects the college finds more relevant to the skillet they want Wharton graduates to have.
For a student accepted into Wharton, a 450 is very easily achievable score any amount of studying: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/sat/pdf/sat-subject-tests-percentile-ranks.pdf
@lmao2018 is incorrectly conflating admissions recommendations with graduation requirements while needlessly and rudely attacking an experienced user who has much more experience and a proven track record.
From Penn’s Common Data Set:
Specify the distribution of academic high school course units required and/or recommended of all or most degree-seeking students using Carnegie units(one unit equals one year of study or its equivalent)…
Foreign language 4
http://www.upenn.edu/ir/Common%20Data%20Set/UPenn%20Common%20Data%20Set%202017-18.pdf?pdf=CDS%202017-18
Compared to its peers, it is very easy to place out of Wharton’s graduation requirement with a fairly low Subject Test or AP score. And one generally does not need your years of HS language to achieve that. The challenge though, is that one first needs to get into Penn. There are certainly valid reasons for not following the guidelines of a college with a single digit acceptance rate. But the OP did not list one. Otherwise, I’m at a loss as to why any applicant would not want to put together the strongest application possible.
@skieurope Your assertion is that what Wharton values in its graduates is separate from what it looks for in applicants. That makes no logical sense, and is not how the school conducts itself. Nowhere did I suggest not having the strongest application possible, In fact I’m suggesting the contrary. Make your application stronger by taking classes or building skills that Wharton actually does value.
Part of the reason the change was made made was because so many students hadn’t tested out and were taking Spanish 140 (or another language) as seniors and complaining to their undergrad advisors. Foreign language likely hasn’t been valued in admissions for a while, but the graduation requirement is only catching up.
Also, the first two foreign language classes are widely seen as very easy classes. Spanish 110 has a difficulty rating of 1.9/5.0 and Spanish 120 2.1 (per Penn Course Review).
Designing your HS course selection for one reach school is a really bad idea. Especially as a HS freshman. If you want to be competitive at the selective/very selective school, you should continue with FL.
I say take at least up until Spanish 4. Yes you want to get into Wharton, but most likely you won’t (because of odds). So if you are looking at top schools, they expect 4 years of FL.