<p>I may have to stop Spanish this year due to a schedule conflict. My choices are: </p>
<p>i can take Spanish 4 and have a chance at valedictorian while continuing spanish</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>take DECA which isnt an honors class and will severely damage my class rank, but im interested in business.</p>
<p>im really stuck and idk what to do, so any help would be great. if i didnt take a language past 9th grade, how much would that effect me?</p>
<p>I think it would be better to take Spanish since DECA isn't really an academic class. Can you do something similar to DECA as an extracurricular activity? I'm confused though on your mention of 9th grade. Are you just in 8th grade now?</p>
<p>im in 9th right now. and the only way i can be in DECA as an EC is if im in the class, which stinks. ughh i dont know what to do and we are doing our course selections tomorrow.</p>
<p>I highly suggest you stay on the language track. Colleges like to see you keeping on something all the way through your high school career. And I don't think not taking DECA will hurt any possible future career in business as much as not following through on a foreign language would.</p>
<p>don't you still have 3 more years left of high school? how do you know that you'll be valedictorian? anyway, i suggest continuing spanish. it's better for your GPA, and colleges like it when you continue a language throughout high school. but it's your choice, of course. you're the one taking the class.</p>
<p>and not taking DECA, won't hurt your future path in business. try joining a club focused on business in your school. if you don't have such a club, FORM one!</p>
<p>and not taking DECA, won't hurt your future path in business.</p>
<p>the thing is, i want to show passion in business, otherwise all my clubs will just be scattered clubs because im not interested in music or anything like that. DECA and BPA are the only business clubs in my school, so ill be in BPA. but thats only 1 club. </p>
<p>any other suggestions?</p>
<p>Take Spanish 4. If you want to major in business, you can start your own business and/or work during the summer break.</p>
<p>As soon as you can in your state, get a part-time job. This will give you more practical experience in the business world. Showing that you can balance your schoolwork, your BPA interests, and a job will look good too. Also, you may end up with some money to put toward your eventual college expenses.</p>
<p>As to DECA, will you need the money you would make in those job placements and/or the experience from those job placements to get a better job so that you can pay for college? What exactly is your situation here? Back in the stone age, a couple of my friends did DECA so they could make money and eventually pay for college.</p>
<p>As to dropping Spanish, what are your state and/or school district requirements for graduation? In Maryland where I live, you have to have two years of foreign language to graduate unless you do one of the formal career programs. Talk to your counselor about this.</p>
<p>Wishing you the best.</p>
<p>Most colleges want to see three or four years of a foreign language- I would say two is the minimum. If you want to do DECA at a later point in your high school career, that would be a good idea, but for now stay in Spanish and do as much as you can with BPA/a part-time job.</p>
<p>Nah, languages are worthless. I only took 3 years (up to french 3) and i was fine.</p>
<p>i dont need the money for college that i make from DECA competitions. for graduation, my language requirements are 2 years of spanish, and im in my third year. thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>its not actually DECA, its Academy of Finance. it gives me admission to the club DECA and its a 3 year course that each year i take a financial course. senior year, i get an internship through the organization. so yeah thats the program.</p>
<p>will only 2 years of DECA/Academy of Finance look dumb though?</p>
<p>This is just over the top.</p>
<p>wth? how is it over the top? im asking which class i should choose, so i thought someone would help in my decision. why waste your life posting rude things on other peoples threads?</p>
<p>If you enjoy spanish or have an interest in it then continue with spanish. If not, take the business course. I doubt only having three years of spanish will make a gigantic difference in admissions.</p>
<p>im interested in both, which is the problem im having.</p>
<p>Don't take spanish. It sucks....</p>
<p>You definitely need at least 2 years of language for most top colleges, and more is probably recommended depending on major, although if it conflicts with more major applicable courses junior and senior year it might be in your best interest to take those instead. Definitely take Spanish in 10th grade though.</p>
<p>However, my friend got into cornell, brown, and cmu with only 2 years of spanish and I got into cornell with only 2 years. Of course I'm going into engineering, and he's going into computer science, and both of us stopped taking language so we could instead fit intro to programming junior year and ap comp sci senior year into our schedule so that and the fact that spanish is not that useful for engineering or cs might have an effect. </p>
<p>If you want to major in math or science 2 years is probably good enough as long as you fill those void left by not taking it with good courses. In the liberal arts area then you'd probably want 4 years of language. If however you want to major in business, which you seem to do, I have no idea whether or not they'll care much about language.</p>
<p>What does the rest of your schedule look like? My son is currently a freshman and he takes a foreign language plus an elective (choir in his case). At his school they have 8 "blocks" of classes. It seems like you should be able to do both a foreign language and an elective.</p>
<p>If you propose to apply to the top schools you mention in some of your other threads, imo it would be unwise to stop taking a foreign language. Consult with your guidance counselor and think carefully before stopping Spanish.</p>
<p>You can show passion for business in many other ways besides taking one specific class or program.</p>
<p>The word "effect," when used as a verb, means "to bring about".</p>
<p>"Affect" is more commonly used as a verb than a noun. (There is a noun form of "affect," but it's a psychological term, referring to the tenor of the mood one generally conveys. "He has a flat affect.")</p>
<p>I'm sorry if this comes across as pedantic, but spelling counts. That also means that you should pay attention to the use of apostrophes in contractions like "I'm," that you should always capitalize the first person pronoun. </p>
<p>If you follow the rules consistently, even when you're instant messaging, or posting messages on CC, you're more likely to follow them when it really matters.</p>
<p>High school students who want to go to college should study a foreign language in depth.</p>