<p>I am facing this same question. My son has middle school foreign language on his transcript and 2 years in high school but next year is AP. He wants to take it but he has a language disability and I think he will have a hard time in AP. It has been very, very hard to get him through this far-- basically with Bs but this year started to slip into Cs. I'm not sure it's worth doing AP if he is going to get Cs.</p>
<p>Since she is only a soph., she prob should continue so as not to limit her options.
The requirements differ from college to college and at this age she prob. doesn't know where she wants to go and even if she did, may change her mind so it's best to be prepared.
Did she struggle with her prevuious Spanish classes?</p>
<p>S2 was no good with FL and coupled with having brand new teachers straight out of college made it a nightmare. He failed Span.2 jr. yr. He retook it sr. yr. So he only had two yrs. He got accepted to the two state u's he was interested in ( not flagships) so it worked out. Other S took 3 years of Latin but none senior yr.
Neither of my S's has had to take FL in college for their major.</p>
<p>Many schools (colleges) now are aiming to prepare students for success in a global environment; they are adding FL proficiency (through 3-4 semesters) to their graduation requirements.
My 2006 EE grad needed it; My 2007 Business BS grad was the in last year not to need FL; My 2011 Liberal Arts major needs 3 semester proficiency.</p>
<p>My opinion: I think your son should not take AP Spanish if you are both sure he'll get a C in it. Community College Spanish maybe?</p>
<p>I took spanish from 6th-8th grade and that was all considered spanish I. When I got to high school I took spanish II my freshmen year and spanish III my sophomore year. Does this count as the 3 recommended years of spanish? I’m just confused if people recommend 3 years of spanish as in Spanish I,II,III or 3 years of spanish in high school which for me would be spanish II,III,IV. Any help please?</p>
<p>Spanish 3 according to my D’s Spanish teacher, is a class where kids really get a good grasp of the language.They learn, among other things nuances, which are very important when you are learning a foreign language.</p>
<p>Eluveitie - In my daughter’s case, Spanish I counted even though she took it in 8th grade. I would suggest that you get a copy of your current transcript to see whether the courses transferred to your high school records. Our State U officer did mention that they prefer students to take as many years of language as possible once they have chosen one. So unless you have compelling reasons not to, I would recommend continuing with Spanish. According to my daughter, Spanish III was by far the hardest year, with IV being a relative breeze. Good luck.</p>
<p>If you take Spanish III in high school, that counts as three years of high school Spanish. A lot of people do Spanish II in 9th grade and Spanish III in 10th grade.</p>
<p>Unless there is some unusual and compelling scheduling reason why a student can’t take languages in high school I can’t understand why an academically inclined young person would not take as much language as they can or at least follow through their available high school curriculum in one language. If anything, colleges will look even closer at languages in the future and the vast majority specify what they currently require. Most educated people outside the US speak two or three languages.</p>
<p>While I think knowing a FL is wonderful, I also think a lot of High Schools do a poor job of teaching them. I’ve heard both of my older kids say that their FL teachers in College were so much better. My youngest son is in Spanish III right now and for the third year in a row will probably get a C in the class- he’s not that good at it and the teacher isn’t a terrific teacher. Both of us would rather he have a class that is more relevant to his future and that he will do better in for his last year in HS. There is no college that he’s looking at that requires more then two years of a FL anyway.</p>
<p>French I, which I took in middle school, shows up on my high school transcript. Recently, my school district decided to take language credits from middle school. </p>
<p>However, regardless of the way your school district does business, 3-4 years of a language is preferable. I’d recommend at least Spanish III, if not through IV or V.</p>
<p>As many have said, if it shows up on your transcript, it’s counted towards college no matter what grade it was taken. My daughter hates language so much she dropped it after sophomore year (3 years) and it did her no harm. She now, as a Freshman in college, has a choice of a BA or BS depending on whether she takes 1 year of language and she refuses to take a language. Will it hurt her? Who knows, who cares, she hates it, it’s who she is!</p>
<p>I’m 63 years old. I had 2 years of high school Spanish and one semester of college Spanish. Back then that was all they required. However the fact is I don’t speak Spanish well and wish I had taken at least one more semester in college.</p>
<p>I would suggest staying with a high school language long enough to try taking the AP exam and getting a 3.</p>
<p>Many colleges will accept that as completing the college language requirement. What a great head start. </p>
<p>If your kid wants to be considered for phi beta kappa they need the language.</p>
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<p>Actually, the California public universities do count middle school foreign language, but also look at it in terms of level completed (through its validation policy). So completing level 3 in high school, even if level 1 and 2 are completely absent from middle school or high school records, counts as “3 years”.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/csu-uc-a-gcomparisonmatrix.pdf[/url]”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/csu-uc-a-gcomparisonmatrix.pdf</a></p>
<p>At colleges which have foreign language graduation requirements, taking a higher level course in high school can allow placement into a higher level course in college, reducing the number of foreign language courses one needs to take in college to complete the requirement.</p>
<p>“How many years of Spanish would you recommend?”</p>
<p>Enough so you can actually use it in conversation.</p>
<p>Did we really need to resurrect a five year old thread for this?</p>
<p>Please use old threads for reference only. Please create a new thread instead of posting to a 5 year old thread.</p>