My foreign language courses are a bit messed up and I was wondering how colleges would look at it. I took French I freshman year at my high school and got A’s both semesters, but the year after I transferred to a private school and wasn’t able to place into French II there because our French teacher at my public school sucked. So I took Japanese I instead, since they offered it and I’d always wanted to take it. I did fairly well, getting an A+ the first semester and an A the second. But then I transferred back to public school because of tuition problems and of course they don’t offer Japanese.
Now, I’m enrolled in a program where I take courses at community college in addition to high school and the high school courses only include Spanish. So I wasn’t able to enroll in French first semester and this semester I’m enrolled in 1B at the community college, which I think is the equivalent of French 2 in high school. However since I haven’t taken French for a while, I have doubts about my ability to get an A in this class. So could anybody enlighten me about how the jumping languages/ skipping a semester, etc. look on my transcript? Thanks a lot for any help, it’s much appreciated!
Sincerely,
Christina
<p>[are you a junior or senior?] what places have you/are you going to apply(ed) to? i can tell you more if i know about the schools you are shooting for.
:)</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. I'm a junior and I'm not sure about what schools I'm applying to yet, but probably NYU, Cornell, maybe Harvard or Stanford as a reach. I'm also trying to take ASL at the community college, but that's mainly just for fun, though hopefully I'll be able to complete the whole 2 years they offer.</p>
<p>If you are shooting for the Ivies, some of the adcomms might look at the variation in second langs twice. However, if you somehow make it clear, through a letter/email or something that the circumstances forced you to have to do it, it may be plus instead of a minus for you. In your letters, try and make it obvious that they should pay more attention to the fact that you took second language throughout high school despite all the changes. They will be happier to know that you do what you are devoted to whatever you do despite your situation, and will not take the language variations too seriously.
I think it is definitely necessary to let them know about this, because if you don't, it could go against you - they might take all the skipping around as a sign of uncertainty or instability. This MAY reduce your chances. But if you let them know, it would be an extra point for you.<br>
*oh yeah...one more thing - you got A(+)s in all of the langs you took - that will also show the adcomms your motivation.</p>
<p>hope that helps :)</p>
<p>~ anita</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the advice :) </p>
<p>-Christina</p>
<p>I think that was very good advice, AnitaVM. Most highly selective colleges expect 3 and preferably 4 years in one language. But you do have extenuating circumstances that you can briefly explain in any "other info" section. I think perserverence is more important than an A and colleges will recognize this.</p>