Iam interested in Engineering. There is a risk of getting a B in AP Spanish.
Considering whether to continue it or drop it.
Appreciate your suggestions.
Are you a high school student considering applying to Stanford?
I think that you should stick with your Spanish class. IMHO getting a B in an AP class is not a sufficiently good reason to drop it, and Stanford is going to be a long shot either with or without the potential B.
Try watching TV shows in Spanish in your spare time. Watching the news in Spanish will have the advantage that you already have some clue what the news will be talking about which might help you pick up more of the dialogue.
All depends on how everything else is going, and your full record, including activities. Do you otherwise have the full picture they want ? You know what that is? This is more involved than just avoiding a B.
IMO getting several Bs in areas that are not the area of your interest is not that bad. My kid got 3 Bs in science and still got into Stanford REA. There were many kids from his high school who got all As who did not get into HYPSM schools. The only thing I know to this day why our kid (no hooks) got in over other kids is that he had interesting ECs and his teachers liked him as a person and Stanford adcoms who reviewed his applications told me his essays resonated with them because they seemed genuine and honest and that in their opinion, he would have gotten into some of other top schools.
Thank you all for your encouragement.
Do not take classes just to get high grades in high school. My kid stuck with Biology AP even though he got B+ in that class and he knew it would be very difficult for him to get A because the teacher’s quizzes contained questions he could not have prepared in advance. He took the class, not because he loved it but because he wanted to make sure he’s not inclined towards medical school. He has a good demeanor and personality to be a good doctor but I guess he just is not inclined towards this area. Yeap, he’s not going to a medical school and will in all likelihood major in a non-STEM field. The best approach/attitude to take when applying to HYPSM is not expect to get in and apply to other good schools to which you are likely to get in. Explore Honors Colleges at certain public colleges because they offer very good merit based scholarships. Our kid and we were totally surprised when he got into Stanford REA because his attitude was he would have been ok just getting deferred.
Since he’s taking a gap year in a study language abroad scholarship program, we are hoping he will not have forgotten how to write in English when he returns to US. lol
Just make your essays genuine and personal and hope that your essays will resonate with some adcom who will push for you. You have to formulate and write your essays in such a way that those essays capture who you are. Don’t try to impress; imagine you and this adcom person are sitting together on a long airplane flight and this kind, inquiring adcom asks you certain questions about yourself. Be GENUINE in your essays.
For us, we really don’t care what field he goes into, as long as he enjoys THAT field. We told him one of his tasks in college is to try to find an area he enjoys.