How important is it to take 3+ years of a foreign language?

Test Preparation AP World Languages
1

Hi!

I will be a junior in the next school year (2016-2017) and I wanted to know if NOT taking a world language for three years will affect me.

I’ve taken two years of French; I got an A- average freshman year and an A sophomore year. Next year, I don’t want to take french because it’s honestly one of the worst classes I’ve taken. I feel like I put in more work into french than math and science combined, and it stresses me out a lot. Next year, there is only 14 students total taking french 3, and I go to a 4A high school with 2,200 students… A lot of people decided not to take french 3 because of how stressful it is.

Next year, I’ll be a part-time running start, which is a program in Washington state where I can take community college classes. I will be taking PreCalc honors, Physics Honors, Cooking for Wellness, leadership, and PE at my high school and one class per quarter at a community college so us history for fall quarter, english 101 for winter quarter, and english 102 spring quarter.

I really don’t want to take french 3 because I really do believe it’s more hard than other french classes at other schools. I’m not sure what universities I want to go too, but I know it won’t be a really selective school. So, if I wanted to get into a somewhat/not as selective university (acceptance rate around 50%-65%) Will taking only two years affect me?

I have a 3.95 unweighted gpa. My lowest grade is an A- for the past two years, I took one honors class freshman year (geometry honors), and three honors classes sophomore year (english 2 honors, alg 2/trig honors, and chem honors). Next year, I will be taking 2 honors classes, 2 electives, and three community college classes, where I will also receive 40 college credits for those classes because of running start and college in high school programs. I’m apart of national honor society and apart of cooking club, and I plan to join key club next year. I don’t do any high school sports, so I depend on my grades… I haven’t taken any AP classes because I’m getting college credits, and I believe by the end of senior year, I will have 55 college cedits which is little more than a year of college. And as for SATs, I’ve only taken the mock test of the new sat (out of 1600 instead of 2400) and I got 1220/1600 but I haven’t taken any prep classes so I hope that will go up. I don’twant to take french 3, but if i really have to/should, I will take the class.

This is a lot to read but i really do appreciate if someone can help me! Also, if you bave any suggestions to raise my chances of getting into a college, that’d be great.

2

Different schools have different requirements. You need to check each school individually.

3

For schools with the 50-65% acceptance rates that you mentioned, only having the two years of foreign language should not affect you. Being an overall good student with good test scores that’s involved in something(s) is more important, as well as your application (essays, recommendations, etc). 1 extra year of French for those schools won’t be critical. If you don’t like it, don’t take it. Authenticity is more important than trying to do “what colleges want to see” in almost all cases. From what I can gather, you will be much happier not putting yourself through a class you don’t like. I know a lot of my friends took Latin 3 only to look good for college applications, and they were miserable because they didn’t want to be there.
Have some fun. Take a class that’s more interesting to you.