Would only having two years of foreign language hurt my chances of getting in to IU? Would taking a third year make that much of a difference if any? Thanks.
IU, like many public universities, requires only two years of a foreign language for admission. By two years, that refers to level, not necessarily number of years, e.g., if you start a language in middle school and complete the second year, high school level as a freshman in high school, the requirement is met.
As to needing a third or even fourth year, probably not since a large number who will apply and be admitted will have only two years. Having more with a good grade can help in the overal evaluation for admission to the same extent as having good grades in other college prep courses can help.
One thing to be aware of is each college’s own language requirements to graduate from college. For example, the arts and sciences college at IU requires two years of college language to graduate, but you can skip having to take language at IU for most majors by scoring well in an AP or SAT 2 test taken in high school. In other words, taking higher level language in high school might not be necessary for admiassion but it is something that could result in escaping the need to take language once you start at IU.
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IU takes foreign language seriously. You’ll have a foreign language placement test that will determine in which college level you’ll be placed - with only two years in high school you’d likely be placed in college level 1 or 2. College 4th semester is roughly equivalent to AP. IU only grants credit if you’ve been placed in the 4th semester or higher and pass the class.
It’s probably most advantageous to you to take more than two years in high school, both wrt admissions and wrt college graduation requirements.
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It might make a slight difference if your stats are on the border, but that’s probably the only case where it would matter. If you aren’t interested in taking a foreign language in college, you can take world culture classes instead.
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