<p>okay so i'm a senior and i have taken 3 years of foreign language(middle school counts as 1 and then freshman and sophomore year). I didn't take Spanish 4 as a junior becuase i didn't have room for it in my schedule because i took classes like ap computer science and ap chem instead. Now i am in Spanish 4 honors and because of the year i took off of spanish i truthfully don't remember a single thing and it is horrible. I have to choices which is switch into none honors but that would take away my lunch period and make my senior schedule booked which i don't want to do, or i could just drop spanish all together and only have 3 years of it. My list of colleges right now is
Stanford
U of Michigan
Carnegie Mellon
Harvey Mudd
U of Illinois
Colorado School of Mines
USC
Johns Hopkins
because i am applying to the engineering programs do you think they will care that much? and in my guidance counselors recommendation she said she will explain why i didn't take a language junior and senior year.</p>
<p>Three years of Spanish is what they expect. It won’t hurt you (especially if you show you are a math/science person). Having more than 3 years of Spanish would be something that may help you stand out.</p>
<p>Each of those schools is going to want to see that you chalenged yourself. Dropping a course senior year won’t look great. three years should be enough for a foreign language requirement, but you should check each schools web site to be sure.</p>
<p>^ No colleges require more than two units of a foreign language. Granted, several may recommend that an applicant have 3 units or even 4 units, but it’s not a requirement.</p>
<p>If you still have time to change your schedule without having a free period, I’d switch out of it. 3 units is plenty if you’re not really interested in further pursuing the language. You have nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>gildo the colleges won’t see that i dropped the class they will just see that i never took it because school just started</p>
<p>descrescendo are you saying i should drop it and then replace it with something else? because i was thinking just having a free my senior schedule is
AP physics
AP calc AB
AP stats
Satire(fall)
intro to philosophy(spring)
AP econ
senior internship(spring)</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t leave a free period open. Pick a moderately difficult class to fill it with. Having only six classes senior year may hurt you, since top schools expect applicants to take the most demanding courses available at their school through 12th grade.</p>
<p>I think colleges would also like to see something more regarding English. I thought 4 years were required at most top schools, and you only have 3.5 (right?). </p>
<p>I’d say that takes a precedent over Spanish.</p>
<p>oh satire and intro to philosophy are english classes so at the end i will have 4.5 years of english, 4.5 years of social studies, 5 years of math, 6.5 years of science and 3 years of spanish. With all that would you still recommend i don’t take a free?</p>
<p>^I’m still confused as to how you have 4.5 years of English rather than just 4. </p>
<p>And how do you get 6.5 years of science?</p>
<p>Also u might want to check up on whether middle school language counts for college admissions. If not (I don’t think it does, though I could be wrong) then you’d only have two years of foreign language at this point.</p>
<p>I’m actually in the EXACT SAME position, except I’m not taking the Spanish my senior year. I only have two years and it’s too late to join the class since I’ve been out of it for over a year. I’m just praying that it’ll all work out for the better since I’ll have 6 years of science (7 if you count non-AP programming classes), 5 years of math, 4 of English, and 3.5 of social studies (4 if you count non-AP econ). Double math, double science, English, and a semester of history can’t be seen as a bad senior schedule if I’m applying for engineering…</p>
<p>I’m in a similar predicament. I am currently in Spanish 4, but there are only 4 people in our class. Plus, they lumped us together with Spanish 3. So, I’m basically learning everything I learned last year and independently studying. I talked to a few colleges, and they all said their most competitive applicants have 4 years. However, Carnegie Mellon told me (in my case) they’d rather have me take a class that I enjoy and is probably going to be a lot more difficult.</p>
<p>3 years of a foreign language won’t make or break you. It might help to have 4, but 3 will definitely suffice (it’s still better than 2!).</p>
<p>I think you are fine dropping it - especially if you trust the counselor will explain why you did not take it.</p>
<p>You are taking 4 AP classes – that is a strong senior year schedule.</p>
<p>SENIOR099-- A student often gets >4years of a subject when “elective” periods are taken up with core academic subject – for example, the OP is taking 2 years of math during the senior year by taking AP Stat & AP calc.</p>
<p>At least for the reach colleges on your list (e.g. Stanford) the advice that you’re getting is not quite right. I also think that you don’t have a good option.</p>
<p>The most selective colleges like to see your reach the equivalent of 4 years of one foreign language – at a level high enough that so that you read and appreciate the literature of that language. There’s a great deal of difference between “3” and the equivalent of “4” and “5” or more years.</p>
<p>But the one year gap that you have between Spanish 3 and Spanish 4 is difficult to overcome – not surprising with language study. So you may not have a choice unless you’re willing to work very hard.</p>
<p>^Yeah of course they like to see you have four years of language, just as they like to see 6 years of science. In other words not taking 4 years of language will not hold back an applicant that has everything else going for her. Especially considering most applicants will replace that gap with another class more specific to their interests. In fact taking a 4th year of language instead of, say, a 5th year of math would definitely hurt your chances if you are going for STEM. </p>
<p>Yeah Longhaul I know that you can get more than 4 years of classes. But I still don’t see where the .5 is coming from, unless the OP took a semester long English class in addition to his/her regular English class one of the earlier three years. </p>
<p>For most posters I’d take his/her word on it, but the OP’s counting methods seem a bit dubious.</p>
<p>My school only offers semester-long electives for history for seniors, of which I’m taking one in my second semester. That’s how I get 4 years of history from taking 3 regular history classes and two semester-long classes, for example.</p>
<p>^What? Where is your history class? Does philosophy count as both history and English? If so is it two periods long?</p>
<p>I’m not the OP and I’m not taking philosophy. I’m taking an actual English class this year (required for seniors) and a World Religions class second semester.</p>
<p>^haha my bad.</p>