<p>Well I grew up in Singapore, and chinese isn't the first language there but I still spent a lot of time learning the language, so can I count that as a foreign language and take the AP test? or will that look bad in my college app... Cuz i just came into the US. I came from 4th grade to 6th grade, now im back as a high school sophomore, and I only have three or actually two years left, and I don't want to spend too much time learning a third language, but im also afraid that listing a supposedly native language as a second language will reflect badly on me. any suggestions?</p>
<p>It will not reflect badly on you. Relax and just take the AP test; it won’t help you, but it definitely won’t hurt you either.</p>
<p>Just be prepared to deal with the colleges whose requirements for consideration require two years of documented study of a foreign language in high school. They might waive the requirement for someone who speaks two languages natively, but then again, they might not.</p>
<p>I’m aiming for MIT. or sloan. like business schools. does that change anything?</p>
<p>What is your visa status? That will determine whether or not you will you be an international applicant, or a domestic applicant. Many colleges and universities do not insist that international applicants whose first language is not English also present evidence of studying a third language (after the home language and English). Read through the requirements for international applicants at the websites of each institution to find out what their specific policies are.</p>
<p>What is your first language? English? Cantonese? Something else entirely? If you have learned Mandarin as a school subject, then it isn’t your first language, and it certainly is legitimate for you to take the appropriate SAT II, AP, or other examination so that you can demonstrate your level of proficiency.</p>
<p>You also need to sit down and discuss this with your high school guidance counselor. If your school district requires a certain number of years of foreign language courses in order to graduate, you will need to find out how to get enough course credit for Mandarin so that you can graduate on time. If your school district doesn’t offer Mandarin, you may need to arrange to do the coursework online, or you may need to pick another language that you can study at your high school.</p>
<p>can you speak chinese better than english? english is my second language, but it’s also the one I’m most fluent in. I don’t know if adcoms will assume that your fist language is your best language or not…
if chinese is main language spoken in singapore it might look a bit bad for you, but it won’t be a deal- breaker. if it’s not a main lang. spoken in singapore, then no harm done.</p>
<p>Im not too sure of my visa. my dad needs to work here so we just followed. i guess thats like children and spouse of working visa? L2? My first language was chinese, but i didn’t receive formal education for it till i started school in singapore at 6. (first 3 years of my life were in china) when i was like 3 and a half i moved to singapore and learned english as a first lang and chinese as second. yea i have a messed up child hood. learning both chinese and english is mandatory in singapore. well for me since im chinese. if you were another race you would learn your own native tongue. i talked to my counselor. she said for me, since i came halfway thru, my mandarin counts as an automatic second language, im just not too sure if universities were that nice. </p>
<p>@stressedouttt i speak english better than chinese. write and understand better than chinese. I cant really like make a clear cut which is my native language… chinese IS in fact spoken by the majority in singapore, but thats because the majority are of chinese descent. english, on the other hand, is spoken by EVERYONE. so… though on wikipedia it states that singapore has 20 official languages, english, malay, chinese, tamil being the main four. in that order (i dont know why)</p>
<p>L2 is a non-immigrant visa, so you will be an international applicant. You need to talk with your parents NOW about how much money will be available for your education. You will not be eligible for federally determined financial aid such as the Stafford Loans. Unless your state of residence grants in-state status for tuition and fees at public universities to anyone who graduates from high school in that state, you won’t be considered an in-state resident anywhere. Even at a local community college, your Cost of Attendance (COA) could be more than $20,000 each year. The competition for need- and merit-based aid for international applicants is fierce. Even if you can pay the full COA, admissions is more difficult for international applicants than it is for domestic applicants. Your “Safety” and even your “Match” colleges will probably be in your home country rather than in the US.</p>
<p>ok. but i can’t really do much about the fact that i have a non immigrant visa. so should i take the chinese ap or sat II? or no</p>
<p>Take both of them. They are important at different stages in the application process, and are used differently by the colleges.</p>
<p>I live in Singapore and there are tons of kids here who take chinese (and are chinese) and end up at top schools in the U.S. so I don’t think it will make that much of a difference.</p>
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<p>Take both if you want to apply to US universities. Some US universities consider a high score on AP or SAT Subject tests in a language in lieu of seeing the third or fourth level of non-English language on one’s high school transcript. Also, if you have attended a school at a high enough grade level where the primary language of instruction was not English, documentation on that may be accepted in lieu of non-English language instruction.</p>
<p>If you’re going to take the Chinese SAT II and you’re Chinese (idc if you’re Mandarin or not), you better get a 800 or there is no point in taking it. The average on the SAT 2 Chinese is something like a 770 because every Chinese person who takes it gets a 800 since it’s shamefully easy. The reason that the average is not a 800 is because you have the occasional white kid who takes it and gets ~600.</p>