Is 4 years of a language a must?

Applying to College
1

Hi I am a rising senior and am considering dropping AP Italian from my senior year schedule. This will mean that I will have completed 3 years of Italian (all honors level) not including middle school. I know that many schools view this differently, but overall do you think not taking 4 years of a language is a con to top colleges in the country? Let me know why.

Thanks

2

Is the highest level you completed level 3, level 4, or level 5?

In terms of course rigor and how it is viewed, it also depends on what other course you would take instead of AP Italian.

3

@ucbalumnus I am assuming that I have completed 3,4 and 5 because the next step is AP for me. I would be putting AP Stat in for AP Ital.

4

What are the names of the high school Italian courses that you have completed? If a student in high school started with the beginner course, how many years would s/he take to complete the level that you completed?

AP level is often level 4 or 5 in many high schools. Note that middle school language courses may not be as intensive; in some cases, two years of middle school language covers about as much as one year of high school language.

AP statistics is not generally seen as one of the more rigorous APs.

5

So Freshmen year I took: Honors Italian 2.
Sophomore year I took: Intermidiate Italian second year honors
Junior Year I took: Pre-Advanced Italian Honors

That seems to me that I have gone up to level 4, since I started freshmen year at 2? Does that satisfy 4 years of a language then (including 8th grade)? People have told me that middle school is included.

6

If your frosh year course was a level 2 course (i.e. the course after the beginner level 1 course), then your junior year course should be a level 4 course. Most colleges will see that as “4 years of foreign language”, but you can ask each college specifically to make sure.

7

Ok thanks so much. That helped. I will probably ask around at the colleges I am applying to.

8

Also, your high school’s course names are odd. Most high schools would just name the courses Italian 1, Italian 2, Italian 3, Italian 4, Italian 5/AP (possibly with honors sections available). Students who have some knowledge in Italian from middle school or heritage knowledge may start in a course more advanced than Italian 1.

9

Yeah they are odd for the Italian courses. For French and Spanish they are 1,2,3,4.