<p>I have to pick my classes for next year soon, and i'm pretty sure of my choices, except AP Spanish. I love spanish and enjoy learning it, but my teacher this year (who also teaches AP) really tends to favor native and heritage speakers. Rather than treating the non-native kids as on-level and the native kids as the outliers, he expects everybody to be as knowledgeable as the native kids. </p>
<p>Thus, although I want to take AP to learn the language more, he will expect me to already know it. He also said it will be very difficult for any non-native speaker to get an A, which is completely unfair, but I can't do anything about it. Even a B+ will kill my current competitiveness for valedictorian, and that would annoy me to no end.</p>
<p>Is it worth taking it and risking chances at val or sal (not gonna lie, i want this for the life long bragging right lol) just for the 4th language year that lots of ivies suggest?</p>
<p>also, if i do not take a language next year, i can't run for president of Spanish Nat'l Honor society. would having that position be a boost to my applications?</p>
<p>That is a very hard decision. I, too, am in the Spanish program at my school (since Middle School!) We have Spanish V and AP Spanish, the people that want to learn to speak fluently go to AP, whereas the ones that just want an easy grade opt for Spanish V; they do have the same weight though, even if one is pathetically easier than the other. Anyhow, I had concerns about taking AP because there are native speakers taking it (including a rival for class rank, seems like an even playing-ground, eh?) but my teacher grades it a lot based on effort/participation. Seems like your teacher grades it like an AP English course, which puts you at a disadvantage. It really does not seem fair to be in a class with people who have spoken the language their entire lives. It would annoy me to no end to lose rank over something like this, and lets face it, one B won’t kill you, but it does not help when put against people with straight As.
Is there any other language at your school you could take? Could you fill your schedule with another challenging AP, perhaps? If you have a heavy course load, colleges may assume it’s a scheduling issue not weakness. I am not trying to persuade you not to take AP Spanish, it is a good class. However, if it will make you <em>miserable</em> it may not be worth it, especially with everything else going on senior year.</p>
<p>Good luck with whatever you decide.</p>
<p>Yeah I would probably end up replacing it with AP U.S. Government, which I’m really interested in anyway.
I wasn’t gonna take it because my favorite teacher who I’ve become good friends with hates the AP Gov. teacher with a passion, and he doesn’t want me to take it. Lol pathetic reason I know. </p>
<p>I’ll prob end up taking Gov. though cause the more I think about it, the more unfair it seems to be in a class with kids who have been exposed to Spanish and Portugese their whole lives. It’s not worth the frustration and rank drop. I should’ve taken French way back in 8th grade lol; the French program at our school is a joke.</p>