<p>Hi, I'm going to be a junior next year and my schedule was supposed to consist of
Chem 1-H
Calc B/C AP
Oral Interpretation
French 3-H
APUSH
English 3AP</p>
<p>However, I just found out that Frentch 3 and Oral Interpretation are the same period, and I have to take OI because I'm on and am very passionate about the speech and debate team. So now I'm going to take Physics 1H instead of French, try to remember the French I know, and then take French 3 senior year. The only problem is I know most colleges like to see 4 years of a language, but I feel like I have a good reason for only being able to take 3. Now, I'd like to know how much taking 3 years instead of 4 of French due to this scheduling conflict will truly affect my admissions chances at a highly selective college, because I'm kind of freaking out over this.</p>
<p>If it is due to a scheduling conflict, it SHOULDN’T hurt you. You should certainly have your counselor mention it in his or her letter of rec and/or you should make a note of it in the “additional comments” section or whatever it’s called at the very end of the Common App. Colleges will be understanding that this was out of your control. Or another option might be to participate in speech and debate club as an extracurricular. At my school anyways, there’s a speech and debate class and a club and many of us on the team were not in the class but still participated in the club. Perhaps that would be an option allowing you to mention speech and debate on your college apps, while also taking French.</p>
<p>Adcoms don’t get enough credit for really understanding which schools operate which ways. There are a hundred different grading scales out there and they have to interpret them all. They know the schools that consistently hand out A’s, and where an A really does mean superior and you have to work darn hard for it. They have to understand the context of which you are coming so they can judge you. This is where your GC must be VERY specific and spell out what your limitations where.
Having said that, think long and hard about leaving out a year of a language for an elective, even an academic one. Look at your target schools and see how many they are asking for. That may play a key role. In many of the top tier schools foreign language is considered to be a core academic class. If you take another class instead you need to be able to really show the weight of your decision. It is not that you CAN’T take four years, you can’t take four years AND the OI class.
I understand clearly how an academic elective can enhance your activity in a specific EC that you are heavily involved in. It happens at our school. It really depends on the college and if you feel you need it to be competitive.</p>
<p>Another note, it will be very difficult to leave a language for a year and pick it back up. Is there a possibility you could take the class at your local community college or even online? Just tossing out options that I know students at our school have used to work around wanting to have the most core academics on their application, as well as participate in academic electives related to their EC’s. </p>
<p>Another smaller note… maybe a student can chime in here. I have heard a few cases where students were killed taking Physics and Chem in the same year. You may want to ask if anyone has done this at your school and how they fared.</p>
<p>Good luck!!</p>