<p>ok so i am in a bit of a conundrum right now.</p>
<p>as of now i have 2 years of spanish under my belt. </p>
<p>i was planning on taking AP chinese next year to finish up my language requirement for the colleges i am applying to, but just today my counselor said that chinese would not count toward my third year of language.</p>
<p>so…</p>
<li>I have to take spanish</li>
<li>I have to drop another class</li>
</ol>
<p>but my courseload is basically full, so i have the option of either</p>
<li>dropping orchestra and taking both chinese and spanish</li>
</ol>
<p>OR</p>
<li>drop AP chinese and take spanish instead.</li>
</ol>
<p>which one should i do?</p>
<p>What colleges require a third language?</p>
<p>Drop Chinese 1, take Spanish 3 instead.</p>
<p>I don’t think this student is trying to fulfill a requirement for 3 languages: English, Spanish and a third language (Chinese).</p>
<p>I think she was trying to mix-and-match the 3 years of a foreign language requirement that colleges have–which is usually 3 years of the same foreign language. I think she found out from her counselor that she has to stay with Spanish and take a third year of Spanish and that she couldn’t fulfill the 3 years of for lang by taking 2 of Spanish and 1 of Chinese.</p>
<p>I think she should forget about Chinese, and just take the Spanish 3 instead of the Chinese 1, and keep the rest of her schedule as it is, meaning stay in Orchestra, etc.</p>
<p>Check into the colleges you’re applying to that requires a three year languages. If Orchestra is your solid strong EC I wouldn’t drop it if I were you and instead opt for maybe taking Spanish/AP Chinese at a local college and have the other language taken at your school.</p>
<p>Check with the colleges. By that I mean call or email them with your specific question. This requirement/recommendation really varies by college. It may well be “recommended” and not absolutely “required”. The three year recommendation for one language is usually to guarantee that the person has a decent command of the “other” language, because most US HS students only learn another language when they finally get to HS. Another thing to sort out is whether the HS itself requires three years of study in one language just to graduate.</p>
<p>Now, someone who wants to go into an AP level of Chinese (or any other language) without previous study of that language in HS is probably a native (or near-native) speaker. Taking an AP exam is one of the few ways that native speakers have of demonstrating their proficiency in that language to the colleges. If you do find that you can’t take AP Chinese in HS because of scheduling issues, I would suggest that you consider taking either the CLEP exam (if it exists for Chinese), or arranging for some kind of self-study (do you go to Chinese school on the weekends? Can you get a teacher there to put together an AP prep group?) and then taking the AP Chinese exam without taking the class in HS. You can do this, you just have to be willing to shell out the money and to be sure to register for the exam(s).</p>
<p>HS counselors, and many HS language teachers, really don’t know what to do with native speakers. There is kind of a sense that if you haven’t come up through the “traditional” foreign language program at the HS level you haven’t really “learned” another language, and so they often just don’t like it when the native speaker wants to take a class that is really at his/her level when they finally can.</p>
<p>ok thanks for the replies.</p>
<p>I am chinese, but I am definitely not fluent in the language. I think I will probably double up on language next year by dropping AP government and taking Spanish 3 instead.</p>
<p>drop chinese.
no reason to take it</p>
<p>i think chinese will be more helpful for my career though, whereas spanish i am just taking to meet the requirement.</p>
<p>If you already have a basic command of Chinese, you should figure out a way to keep improving it. It is one of the languages, if not THE LANGUAGE, of the 21st century!</p>
<p>Taking AP Chinese, because it is a 4/5th level class may automatically fulfill a 3 year requirement because it is above the 3rd level. Ask the colleges you are interested in. Or if you need one for graduation.</p>