Unfortunately, it is not bizarre to have a bad Spanish teacher. My son’s Spanish 2 teacher constantly lost people’s tests and entered 0s until they retook the exact same test, frequently didn’t collect major assignments, and “collected” others where he insisted the assignment was different from what the whole class heard. At least he has a good accent. My son is taking IB Spanish instead of AP to avoid having that teacher again. Next year’s IB Spanish teacher seems to have a worse accent than I do (and I never took Spanish), but at least she is very organized.
Spanish 1-3 are nearly always non-honors and the other people take the GPA hit. I don’t think it’s fair of you to avoid the same hit by trying to get out of the foreign language requirement. Valedictorian isn’t all its cracked up to be anyway.
You could probably “audit” the first semester and take the second, since you’ve forgotten a lot. To be honest, 2nd year Spanish isn’t that far along, so there’s not all that much to forget.
Personally, I’d be a bit worried that your GCs recommendation might hint at the idea that you just wanted to game the GPA system, weren’t all that interested in learning for learning’s sake, and weren’t able to deal with difficult teachers (which all colleges have).
Wow obviously that teacher not being good wasn’t the extenuating circumstance and I think it’s a bit rude to assume that I’m trying to somehow cheat the system. There was something else that was the reason I initially dropped it that I don’t feel comfortable sharing that made it so I mentally could not handle the class. A lot of students dropped classes at semester that year due to the same thing - including the two people who are second and third. They kept their language (not spanish - both took German and had decent teachers) until the end of second year but both dropped one of their other electives. So no, I didn’t “game the GPA system” or make my GPA “artificially high”.
All I really wanted to know was how seriously they consider language and I got my answer: call the schools individually and ask. Thanks to everyone who answered I wish you all the best of luck in your college endeavors!
OK, it sounds like the reason was D). When you talk to colleges about the situation, I think you’ll have to tell them a bit about D), because A), B), and C) from post #16 will work against you.
It is because you did not answer the question directly and it has been asked again. We know you had one and a half year but the question was which level. Anyway, now we got the answer. If it is because of the teacher at your school, you may consider taking Spanish1/2 at a community college. Each semester at a CC is equivalent to 1 year at high school.
If you dont wat to take Spanish in your school, you can take it online. Thete are virtual HS that offer Spanish. My daughter took 3 years os Spanish online.
IMHO, you should complete the requirements for the college(s) you are applying to. Your stats are good, so why risk having an incomplete application? Not a good idea, and I agree with @ErinsDad. I know that how kids play the rank game and all, but honestly that’s not a reason to not complete your remaining semester. It’s penny wise and pound foolish. Take it online, or at a community college if you don’t want to take it at your high school.
Well for me( I will be attending Vanderbilt in the fall as a freshman, I’m actually typing this at Commons right now ), I only took one year of a foreign language through highschool. However, I had a corresponding SAT 2 score that proved my fluency in the language.
In some states and school district, 2 years of world language is required for HS graduation. OP should find out about his graduation requirement even before worrying about applying to college.
@billcsho In my school district, either 2 years of classes OR competency(Like 3+ on AP exam or 650+ on SAT 2) for a second language must be shown. Many native spanish speakers do not have to take a language for all four years of highschool.
OP:
If the ultimate goal is to gain acceptance to an elite college that requires 2 or 3 years of FL, then you don’t have a choice to take those FL classes either at your school, online or CC.
If the goal is to be Val and protect your ranking, then don’t take it in your school.
My daughter’s goal was to be accepted to an Ivy or an Ivy equivalent and to be Val. She made a mistake of not taking any FL while in middle school and also made the wrong choice of FL during Freshman year so she was way behind on her FL requirements. So she took them online.