Rising senior is choosing HS courses for next year and won’t take French again. Will have 3 years of French and honors french. Will show progress increase number of AP classes. How will this impact schools application even if school recommends 4 years not requires.
Mine only had two and it didn’t matter for admissions. But they had to take more in college to get to the required intermediate level. Know that some colleges will exempt you from the language requirement if you’ve had four semesters in high school.
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What is the highest level of French this student has taken? Is it French 4…or not.
Probably won’t make a difference anywhere. But most applicants have probably met the recommendations.
That said, “I wanna take more AP” is usually met with an eye roll.
More importantly, many colleges have foreign language requirements to graduate. In theory, the more you take in HS, the fewer you need to take in college when course selection is far more important.
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French Honors 3
Such great info. Thanks!
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If the colleges your child is interested in recommend up to level of foreign language (which your student doesnt have), it is my opinion this kid should take French 4.
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Look at some colleges of interest to see what the requirements are. They may vary depending on major as well. My daughter went to William and Mary, and they recommended four semesters in order to be exempt from the requirement. She had to take two more levels when she got there, but it didn’t make or break her application. I also went there and took three semesters in high school. I was mad when I realized I could have been exempt from language if I had taken that last one. Also, if yours doesn’t take the fourth semester, will they have forgotten lots of the language if required to take a test for placement in college. It may set them back and they will have to take extra semesters. I’d take the fourth language and be hopefully done.
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Probably a good idea to take French in senior year, in order to make sure that they’ve fulfilled the requirements for all colleges to which they’d like to apply. If it’s been a weakness for your child, suggest that they try something like Anki https://apps.ankiweb.net/ for spaced flashcard repetition. It makes a huge difference in learning language vocab.
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Problem is the teacher. Same teacher for 3 years and he is erratic in behavior. She’s just done with the guy. I told her he isn’t damaging/dangerous or inappropriate. Just wacky.
Hmmmm. That is a very good reason not to continue with him. If she has the time this summer, and it’s available at your nearby 4 yr state college, maybe she should take 2nd year college French (both semesters) over the summer? That way, she will have satisfied the two year language requirement at any school (although she might have to take a placement exam to place out of foreign language, at certain schools). She could also do this as a night class through senior year, if that fits her schedule better. Also, most colleges will allow a high school student to take one class a semester for free, for credit, but they probably wouldn’t allow this for second year French, since the high school offers the equivalent of this.
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Some universities recommend 4 years. The college application landscape is increasingly competitive and they are looking for kids that take the highest rigor possible. If she hasn’t taken French 4, she should probably do so. My two cents.
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And as an FYI. One of my kids was required by their college to take two years of foreign language regardless of the level they completed in high school. Kid placed out of one year…so only had to do 1. And this kid had completed honors Spanish 4.
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I also went to William and Mary. I think you mean 4 years in high school, not semesters?
I was exempt because I took 4 years of high school French, which is equivalent to 4 semesters of college French.
Yes. We have block schedule so I think in semesters. Four credits in any case.
Got it. Just didn’t want the OP to think that 2 years of foreign language was enough for W&M - they definitely want to see 4.
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Is she learning French to the expected level from the wacky teacher?
My kids had a lot of different Spanish teachers. But they knew they needed to take through Spanish 4. Believe me…it was a rocky road.
DD, the one who took the language again in college, said she learned more in one quarter of college Spanish than in all of her HS Spanish courses. She also took an online Spanish course for her profession and that worked out well for her too (this was post bachelors degree).
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doing well in the class but finds he isn’t teaching to absorb the language.
There are the schools he might want to apply to and there are also requirements for different colleges/majors within the school.
DS only took 2 years of foreign language. When making the decision to continue we checked the schools he was interested in. For his top choice, he needed 4 years for the College of Liberal Arts, but only 2 for Science and Engineering.
In short, he has to really know where he wants to end up to know if it will hurt him or not.