My school is offering a French I Pre-AP class as an elective for seniors. It’s weighted the same as an AP course and seems easy but I took Spanish for the past three years. Would taking French I Pre-AP instead of AP Environmental Science look bad on my transcript? Like a filler class?
thanks
In terms of solely what colleges care about, I actually think taking either Pre-AP French or AP Environmental Science over Spanish IV would be questionable, unless there are no Spanish classes offered above level 3. Dropping any core class before the last course in the sequence probably doesn’t bode well with colleges.
What level of Spanish are you completing, and is it the highest level offered?
I completed Spanish III but the next level would be AP Spanish, which I definitely do not think I would do well in in my high school.
If you can’t take Spanish 4 (only AP is offered), in your additional information box on common app write “I could not take Spanish 4 at my school, Soni decided to take Pre AP French to be immersed in another culture even if I know it’s not the same as Spanish 4”.
I think it’d indicate openness to new subjects.
But it shouldn’t replace a core class.
Talk to your spanish teacher about AP Spanish.
If you can’t/won’t take that, then don’t worry about the French class.
Why are you choosing AP Environemental?
^ guessing OP has a 6th space for an elective.
Neither should replace a core class.
And I think it smacks of excuse making. If the OP wants to take French, fine, take French. If the OP is only taking French to get in a 4th year of foreign language, it’s not going to “count” in the way a 4th year of Spanish does, so just forgo entirely. Either way, it does not warrant an explanation for the colleges. Additionally, it’s only an issue if the OP’s target colleges request/require 4 years of a language; otherwise only going to Spanish 3 is fine.
The problem is that it’s not the case that the student could not take a fourth year of Spanish; they chose not to, despite the fact that it was offered to them, so it will still probably count against them at schools that recommend students reach level four or higher of a foreign language. Taking an entry-level French course would most likely do very little or nothing to mitigate this.
Honestly, if you ask me personally, ignoring what colleges want to see, if you don’t like Spanish or if you feel as if Spanish is too intense, then definitely don’t take AP Spanish. Just know that colleges that expect four years of language are aware that you refused an opportunity fulfill that expectation (read: requirement) despite being given the chance and also expect yourself to be at a disadvantage at those universities. If getting into a college of your choice is more important to you than your own tastes regarding which classes to take, then it is worth making the sacrifice and taking AP Spanish.
Also there are many colleges who won’t really care that you stopped at Spanish 3.
But note that colleges may have foreign language graduation requirements that are higher than their admission requirements. Completing a higher level in high school may allow completing the college foreign language graduation requirement in fewer courses by starting in a higher level course in college.
At some very strong high school the FL 1-4 program is compressed into 1-3 so that students can take AP in their senior year, or sometimes even take Span Lang then Span Lit. But it requires a very strong program and a very strong student. Normally, AP FL is seen as level 5 for a reason.
But the gist of it is: Pre AP French will be a fun elective. It won’t help or detract or anything wrt admissions, so, take it if you are interested, or don’t if you’re not. 
(It will NOT count as a Level 4 FL obviously).
What else would you be taking that year?
yeah I’m not taking it to replace level 4 foreign language I just need another elective and it’s either French I Pre-AP, AP Environmental Science, or Dance. APES and French are 5 point classes but APES is hard at my school so it’s between French and dance.
So it wouldn’t look like I’m just trying to boost my GPA if I took French? Cause I’m not going anywhere with that, in college I want to take Spanish.
No. It’ll be looked at the way an academic elective is looked at. Plus, you never know what you’ll be taking in college: between a poorly rated Spanish 3 class, or an 8 am Spanish 3, and a French 1* at a convenient time/or a good instructor, or Portuguese 1 or Russian1… you can’t be sure you’d take Spanish.