So some of the schools I’m planning to apply to this fall require at least two years of foreign language (mainly Vanderbilt). However, due to some extreme extenuating circumstances, I only completed a year and a half of a foreign language. How sympathetic will they be to my not having the full two years? Will they just throw out my application when they see that I don’t have it?
Also for school that have a recommended number of years, how much will it hurt me that I don’t have the recommended number? Some of the schools (Harvard, Williams, Swarthmore, and a few others) I want to apply to “recommend” 4 years of language!
Anyone know how strict they are about these requirements?
Are the extenuating circumstances something that you could explain on an application?
There are many threads on CC asking just this question and there’s no firm answer. But many, many of the applicants to the reachiest schools will have those four years, so having a year and a half isn’t great in that context.
You would have to get in contact with those schools and ask. At the very least, see if it’s something your guidance counselor could explain in their letter – I know my guidance counselor told me that admissions officers tend to look more favorably on such gaps when a professional explains them, as opposed to the student.
@ucbalumnus What level of the language? A year and a half of spanish.
@hs2015mom Yes in fact one of my essays talks about it for other reasons. I know only having a year and a half doesn’t look as good, but is a high school foreign language class really a big enough factor to knock someone down from accepted to rejected? Also, my ACT is 35, my SAT II’s are 780 and 770, my GPA UW is 3.9, and my class rank is 1/780.
@SpringAwake15 Thanks I’ll be sure to have my guidance counselor put it in my rec letter to make it clear that’s the reason I dropped.
Wow, your stats are great, and the issue will be addressed by you and the GC. As some suggested above, you might call a couple of the schools who recommend four years and see what they say, though they’ll probably tell you it’s not a deal-breaker.
I think you can go ahead and apply to the reachy-reachies; you’ve got a lot going for you. Have you identified some matches and safeties?
Yes it is a big enough factor as it is considered a core academic course area. And since we don’t know the extenuating circumstance we can hardly guess. Skipping to take other classes wouldn’t be extenuating. That said, I have very occasionally seen students report admission with only 2 years at colleges where 3 is required and 4 recommended.
But was it level 1 and the first half of level 2, or level 2 and first half of level 3, or some other combination?
There are lots of students posting here worrying about having “only 2 years” of a foreign language, but their highest level was level 3 or 4, which is usually counted as 3 or 4 years. However, if your highest level was only the first half of level 2, then that could be a significant “defect” in your application to colleges that require a higher level than that, or highly selective colleges that recommend a higher level than that.
I believe the the extenuating circumstance that usually works is that the school didn’t offer the class and there was no viable alternative. Back in the 80s, I was accepted to Berkeley and other places that probably wanted 2 years of foreign language. I went to a small school that only offered French and ASL. I took the first year of French, but the school never had enough students wanting it to offer the 2nd year. I got the school to write a letter stating that. But these days, many students have more community college options.
The word “required” is self-explanatory. When I see recommended on a college’s list, in my mind, I’ve always substituted the word “required.”
Will not having the required preparation automatically mean that your application will be rejected? Probably not. Will it impact your application in any way? The short answer: it depends. The university will be forgiving if it’s a situation where the HS did not offer the subject past a certain level, or the only French teacher retired, and the school opted not to replace her vs. the student chose not to take further FL in order to double up on science.
However, you are now a rising senior, I assume, so you still have a year to correct the deficiency is the 2 years of preparation.
There are students with learning disabilities, students who already are tri-lingual and have the certifications to prove it. There are students for whom English is their second language. There are illnesses and home-schooling situations and lack of offerings in a small isolated school that might mitigate the lack of a second year…the list goes on. Rather than have us all guessing, why not just call Vanderbilt and explain your situation and get a direct answer since theirs is the one that matters?
I home school my dyslexic daughter. We, too, read “recommended” as “required,” so she’ll have had 4 years of foreign language when she graduates.
There will be plenty of students who will have met the 2-year requirement, so if your school offers a 2nd year or you can take a class at your local cc, I’d do it. I think one semester of college language is considered equal to a year of high school credit.
If two years are required to have two years then you should enroll in the second year of the language your senior year unless you have a documented disability or something that waived you out of foreign language. Again, unless you have a documented disability , it could be a negative in your application to not have the recommended number of years as the top schools you mentioned will get tons of applications from students who have met all of their recommendations for HS classes – still assuming your application is otherwise competitive why not apply to a couple and see what happens. If appropriate, perhaps your guidance counselor could discuss your shortfall in foreign language in his/her recommendation.
The problem with taking my language this year is A) There’s only one teacher that teaches second year spanish and she’s very inconsistent and unpredictable and B) foreign language isn’t given any weight at my school and I would drop at least a few places in class rank which I’m not willing to do and C) given I dropped it at semester I’d have to pick it up at semester and I don’t remember anything from that class.
@billcsho I don’t know why you’re implying I don’t want to answer that question given I’ve already listed other sensitive information about my test scores and grades. I stopped in the middle of spanish two. I thought that was pretty clear.
Thanks to everyone for your help. I’ll be sure to have my guidance counselor address it in her recommendation. I think the circumstances are bizarre enough that they’d be willing to overlook it (or at least I hope so) although I’ll also call Vanderbilt directly to see what their take is. As far as the recommended four years, there’s obviously nothing I can do about that. I hope I have enough going for me that that won’t count against me, but I’ll give some of those schools a call and see how they feel as well.
I don’t get why the circumstances are “bizarre”. Sounds like you don’t want to take the class because it’s unweighted and you don’t think the teacher is good. I doubt that would be a compelling enough reason to excuse you from the requirement.
I don’t think the circumstance is bizarre or even valid – a not so hot teacher and your school’s weighting system is not a good excuse for missing a required course In fact your class rank etc. would be artificially high if your peers took foreign language and you did not. I would not ask your guidance counselor to address it because I think it would make you look bad. You should take the class senior year.
I agree – trying to avoid a bad teacher or obsessing about class rank instead of fulfilling a college’s foreign language requirements is not really a extenuating circumstance – it is a choice. My D was stuck taking an awful Spanish teacher (called “El Diablo” by the kids probably for good reason) to fulfill the foreign language that many of her target colleges required. It wasn’t ideal, by any stretch but she got it done and survived. I would have suggested thinking about taking Spanish over the summer at a college to get it done but it seems too late for that. I agree that you should take Spanish senior year either in HS or perhaps look into taking second year Spanish the fall semester at a local college (and possibly even third year Spanish in the spring semester).