We have rather an odd question. D (an 8th grader) is planning her class schedule and is not interested in continuing her Spanish classes in high school (currently finishing up level 2). Her high school program is an IB program and she will select self study for her mother language for 10th and 11th grade, hence 2 years of world language. School is saying that a competitive transcript needs a 3 year world language. We are not really sure if it matters for her particularly. She is hoping to apply to music conservatories.
What is her instrument? If she wanted to go into sacred music, I’d say Latin would be a must. Italian is always good for any musician and German is terrific for classical vocalists who want to pursue opera (Italian and French are pretty awesome for vocalists, too). All that said, at this point in time, I can’t think of a stand-alone-conservatory that would care how many years of Spanish your daughter has. However, you may want to think about this: Kids can go in a completely different direction in a few years, and by the time your kiddo is a junior in high school, she may want to be a physician or a philosopher or a diplomat—or a classroom language teacher. In which case, she’ll most likely attend an academic university that would require (or at least, prefer) several years of language. Further, some conservatories that are attached to universities do have different academic rules (including requiring higher SAT/ACT scores, higher gpa, etc) than stand-alone conservatories. And lastly, things are changing, even in the conservatory world. You just never know when/if a conservatory may one year surprise everyone by instituting a language requirement. (My son, who is looking only at conservatories at the moment, stuck it out with Latin. Just in case. And, because he wants to work in sacred music.)
There are many universities with fantastic music programs. IMO, you are unnecessarily limiting your D by not following the 3 year recommendation for foreign language.
PS. In middle school my D was thinking of conservatory. She’s now in her second year of studying chemical engineering.
Thank you all so much for valuable feedback. @MomOfSingers - Her instrument is piano. Wish Latin was an option. School is offering Spanish, French and Chinese. She already took 3 years of Spanish in middle school (will check if they can be counted for high school credit). @happy1 You have a good point.
@momofsenior1 I totally agree.
While it’s most logical to continue Spanish three more years, she neither enjoys it nor she is excited to learn further.
I agree with he other posters. It’s a little too early to plan with any certainly for conservatory. With our kids we planned at the beginning of high school to keep all college options open with balanced prerequisite coursework. Things narrowed after that (probably starting sophomore year) and compromises were made.
The older two had two years of Latin in jr high. Only one of my kids ultimately took another three years of foreign language in high school. She ended up attending a college with no language requirement at all. She did do a summer internship in Mexico and the years of Spanish came 8n handy then. Another of my kids quit after two years of Spanish (hated it), was accepted to a LAC with a language requirement, started back in Spanish 1, and ended up doing a summer immersion study abroad program in Spanish her first college summer. Third kid loved Japanese but it just wouldn’t fit with his crazy music schedule after year 2. He also was a talented pianist but suddenly quit in 9th grade. He’s currently in college studying voice and cello. Voice studies include Italian and German and French.
@musicalchessmom You do not have to commit to three years of Spanish at this point, do you? Just sign up for Spanish for next year and see how it goes. Also, wouldn’t IB allow her to take another year of world language in her mother tongue, either as self study or at a local university, to make three years?
Some selective schools understand that commitment to music may affect student schedules and time management. We ran across some understanding of the extra work done outside the classroom for music, and some loosening of requirements, at some top universities. But of course you cannot count on it.
There are also some online options (if her school allows it) including Latin. Check out The Virtual High School https://vhslearning.org/.
Some kids love online classes, some don’t. My kids like them so much that we got our school ed foundation to fund membership in The Virtual HIgh School for 25 student spots for classes each semester.
The nice thing is that online classes free up the schedule for musicians, and performers, who have a lot to do.
When a college recommends/requires a certain number of years of language that means taking through that level in HS classes (sometimes a HS level class in foreign language is taken in middle school so you need to check on that). For example, if a college recommends 3 years of foreign language it means completing Spanish 3 (or whatever language) in HS. Some colleges look for 4 years of foreign language.
–A student cannot take two years of one language and one years of another language and have it count as 3 years of foreign language. (Otherwise nothing would stop a student from taking an intro class in multiple languages when the idea is to develop deeper foreign language skills and to be challenged academically)
Colleges are generally not impressed by students taking foreign language that is their mother language. Foreign language is viewed by colleges as an academic subject to be learned in a classroom.
–High school is seen as a time for students to get a broad based education. Admissions officers generally do not find it acceptable for students to forego one subject while loading up on a preferred subject. For many students that means slogging through a subject or two that may not be particularly interesting in the interest of getting a well rounded education.
–Agree that an online option could work well, especially if she wants to study a language not offered in your HS.
–And again I would encourage you to keep your D’s options open so she can decide down the road if she wants a conservatory or a university.
I happen to know about this all too well! We allowed S to drop French after two years so he could take wind ensemble, choir, and AP Music Theory during junior year. It did not affect his ability to get in anywhere (he explained it in his applications as well as during interviews, when asked.) However, when he arrived at Eastman as an instrumental major, he discovered that he had to take one year of a college level language at conservatory. Had he taken three years in high school, he would have placed out of it.
S really doesn’t mind and will take French next year, after getting his freshman year requirements out of the way. Your mileage may vary!
Free-standing music conservatories, including Juilliard wouldn’t care about 3 years of foreign language (but Italian / German may be plus for opera singers) or 3 years of Science or 4 years of Math. Many applicants for those conservatories are home schooled / independent study or from performing arts high schools.
My son made a decision to study at music conservatory when he was 8th grade. He has “almost“ no interests in Science, Math, History or sports. Instead of attending a local performing arts high school, he chose to stick with a traditional public high school which is known for grade deflation because all of his friends from 1st grade attended. Even though his high school counselor kept telling us about those “competitive classes” “recommended courses” since 9th grade (actually February in 8th grade), we advised him choosing courses very carefully to make more time for his music activities / practices / lessons and compositions. He chose middle path of high school courses (including band) with no extra classes except two different Foreign Languages (one for 2-year HS credit and another for AP/5-year credit). I am pretty certain, those two foreign language credits had nothing to do with his college acceptances. It was all about his audition results and resume.
Private conservatories are very expensive and they seem giving a little money as financial aids / grant for lower middle income students because they have to offer top musicians a competitive talent scholarship from limited fund. If my son had applied to many kinds of music schools including in-state universities with good music program to compare talent scholarship / COA with private conservatories, it would have reduced our stress because talent scholarship / COA was much more important than acceptances for us. It worked out great for him at the end but it was like a gamble…
Thank you all SO MUCH for taking your time to help us. You all gave us lots of food for thought. @Parentof2014grad I never knew colleges may also have a language requirement (got my BS in my home country). It might just make sense to take care of language requirement in high school then. @songbirdmama I think you are right. If she takes at least 1 more year Spanish, she will complete level 3. It seems the most logical way.
@compmom I will check with school if it can be an option. I am huge fun of online classes. My younger one is chess player and all his classes are online. It gives us so much flexibility. @happy1 Many good points. After all information shared here generously, i think she should at least take Spanish in 9th grade and complete level 3. I hope D can see that it will be easier to pass the IB test in 11th grade if she just continues Spanish. @akapiratequeen - It’s great to know that depending on school, she might end up finishing the language requirement either way. Knowing that will help D make a right decision for her. She wants to complete it in high school or possible in college? @JeJeJe We are in very similar situation. D claims she has no interest other than music. It is hard to believe that she is in full time public gifted program since elementary, accelerated multiple grades in math, scored almost a full score in SAT math when she was 12 years old. She wants to continue her school with her friends which is known as a very challenging program, but at the same time she is dreading all the requirements of IB program. It is a complete gamble and very very stressful already. I just hope it somehow turns out okay for D.
Please do talk to the guidance counselor at the HS to be sure one more year of HS Spanish will get your D to HS level 3. At many high schools only one year of Spanish (at most) counts as a HS level class.
@happy1 is correct. do check! But also: try not to stress. Your D is brilliant and talented and will end up in the right place regardless. Anything she misses now can be made up later. So do your best but try to enjoy the ride!
I need to remind myself your recommendation of doing my best for D and enjoying the ride every day… thank you and everyone else in this thread for support. It means a lot.
I’m late to the game but wanted to say not to base your high school curriculum on attending a conservatory. We thought D was going to go to a conservatory or our state school so didn’t have her retake her ACT tests. In the process, she fell in love with a state school studio and music school. Since she didn’t have a higher ACT score, she missed out on $7,000+ more scholarship. That’s $28,000 over four years that could have gone towards grad school. You never know where your journey will take you so prepare for all scenarios.
All the feedback helped us so much to decide. DD just made the class list and she decided to continue with Spanish 3 class (already completed Spanish level 1&2 in middle school). As far as we understood, she can take Spanish 4 in 10th grade, take IB SL test for Spanish same year and complete world language requirement.