<p>I'm a freshmen at high school currently taking Spanish 2 and planning to take Spanish 3 next year. </p>
<p>2 years of a language is required for UC and 3 years recommended.</p>
<p>After Spanish 3 should I move onto Spanish 4 HP or pursue the other AP's Junior year like science and math? Is it possible to take more than 2 of the same subject in a year (Ex. AP Environmental Science/AP Physics in Junior year)?</p>
<p>My reach is Stanford, goal is Cal. </p>
<p>Which do you think is the better path? Thanks guys.</p>
<p>I have a similar problem, i was thinking of taking upto Chinese 3, however, due to budget cuts, only up to Chinese 2 is going to be offered. I’m taking Chinese 2 next year(sophomore year). Would it be ok if I replaced it with another AP class?</p>
<p>If you’re aiming for Stanford or Cal I’d definitely try to take as many years of Spanish as possible. In order to be on the safe side, challenge yourself.</p>
<p>It depends on your school, but in most cases, you are allowed to take more than 2 of the same subject per year.</p>
<p>Worry less about how to impress college admissions comms, and more about what you might want to do in the future. Everything that you can take at the AP level is also offered in college, so it’s really a matter of getting a jump start. If you think you will be using Spanish a lot, AP Spanish is nice to have–in my experience four years of a high school language doesn’t really give you functional fluency. If on the other hand languages aren’t your thing and you’re really more interested in/talented in math and science, then concentrate on APs in those subjects.</p>
<p>^^ Yeah i’m more interested in math/sciences and would probably take AP Calc BC that year so I can take Multi-Variable Calculus College-Level senior year. How bad do you think it would look if I stopped after two years of Chinese?</p>
<p>I stopped after 2 years of spanish and took 1 year online, and I didn’t have any trouble. As long as you take challenging courses over them, you should be fine.</p>
<p>Keep in mind the UC campuses require a foreign language to graduate (for most majors). If you don’t want to be taking it in college you can waive the requirement at UCLA if you get a 3 or better on the AP test in French/German/Spanish and probably the other UC campuses; you’ll need to check to be sure.</p>
<p>I’ve taken all 5 levels of Spanish in my four years (skipped half of lvl 2 & lvl 3) and found AP Spanish Lit 5 the most useless, yet most demanding class ever. I seriously want to drop it because it’s wasting my time; I know that I won’t get any college credit from it because I already got a 5 on the AP Span Lang exam last year.</p>
<p>IMO, to colleges, it’s not that impressive if you do all four years of Spanish; I have many classmates who got into top schools and only did three years. Unless you plan to major in Spanish/retain your language skills for college (because after one year, you’ll discover that you’ll forget a lot), take three years max and leave your senior year free.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info guys. I didn’t know you still had to take a language in college.</p>
<p>I guess if one path fails for me (No room for Spanish 4 HP) I can go the other way. I heard that the colleges will believe you are “strong and committed” by going all the way in language.</p>
<p>I’d say keep going. Unless you positively loathe the subject, there’s no reason not to–and hey, college credit!</p>
<p>And most schools allow you to double up on APs in one subject area, but you need to check your school’s requirement (and know that, if your double science workload proves too difficult, Environmental is less well regarded by top schools than the hard sciences).</p>
<p>Post #9 = correct. It is indeed important to show strength & commitment. There will be thousands of applications to both places that show minimum completion. Difficult to stand out in such a crowd of minimalists. The prizes go to the maximalists.</p>
<p>Thanks epiphany. Now I really feel dedicated to language.</p>
<p>Also glassesarechic, I did not know that AP Environmental Science was looked down upon. Where do you find info like this? I don’t want to walk into pitfalls like that during high school.</p>
<p>Sorry for the many long questions, but does anyone know a site/program that will help in your Spanish outside of class? My teacher doesn’t care much about teaching and is more focused on fun. I heard about Rosetta stone but it seems like all vocab and no grammar.</p>
<p>Our hs guidance counselors told my sophomore to take a 4th year of her language (Latin) because colleges want to see 4 years of the foreign language. I think this is unnecessary, as she will have a rigorous class schedule otherwise with AP classes, including calculus. Also, she plans to major in music performance and needs the extra elective for another ensemble class.</p>
<p>The freshman counselor is telling his students to take a 4th year because colleges will not count foreign language taken in middle school.</p>
<p>I suspect that these counselors don’t know what they’re talking about. My daughter won’t be looking at Ivies, she’ll be aiming for universities with music schools.</p>
<p>First, FL taken in MS does count as long as you move up to the next level in HS; it is the level you reach, not the number of years taken in HS. So, FL 1 in MS + FL 2, 3 & 4 in HS will satisfy the recommendation/requirement of any college in the nation.</p>
<p>Second, even though I often recommend that a student try to take a full 4 yrs of one language in order to be a competitive applicant, your D sounds like a somewhat different case since she is planning to major in music performance. If she needs to take an ensemble class, that will likely be more important for her than a year of FL.</p>
<p>But if she’s able to make it to year 4 of her FL, you’re all set anyway.</p>