<p>I took Spanish in 9th, 10th and 11th grades, ending in Spanish 3H with an A-. This year I planned on taking Spanish 4 (I was recommended for 4AP but the rest of my schedule is looking very difficult so I decided on just 4) but it's not going to work with my schedule.</p>
<p>The only class I have that is not fulfilling graduation requirements is AP Psychology, but this is definitely an interest of mine. We've only had 2 classes so far and I'm already convinced that this will be my favorite class. But it's the only thing I could drop to take Spanish 4AP. If I do the switch, it would also change the rest of my schedule (and I got very good teachers, so I really don't want to), but it would allow me to continue Spanish, which I certainly want to do.</p>
<p>If I don't switch, then I plan on joining Spanish club (which isn't very special, it's just once a week at lunch to talk in Spanish and stuff). I also am getting my humanities teacher rec from my Spanish 1 and 3H teacher, so I could cover this partially up with that. I plan on talking to her about whatever I decide next week.</p>
<p>So what do you think I should do? I'm scared taking only 3 years of language will weaken my ability to get into colleges. And I do plan on pursuing Spanish in college and it would be a drag to start out behind everyone. Thoughts?</p>
<p>If it matters, here's my almost final list of colleges I'm applying to (in order from favorite to least):
MIT
Harvey Mudd
University of Pennsylvania
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
University of Michigan
UCs (probably all but Merced, Riverside and Santa Cruz)
Wash U in St Louis
RPI</p>
<p>Note: I am going to probably either major in computer engineering or business (I probably won't decide for awhile) and if you want other info to determine my eligibility ask and I'll put it.</p>
<p>I am not an admissions officer, so I can’t get you a definitive answer (what does your GC say?) But I always think it is preferable to be strong in core classes and just take the electives if time allows. In your case, most of the schools will take 3 years, but many recommend 4 of foreign language. When they recommend 4, they prefer it and you can be sure most of your competitors took it. I would have you take the Spanish. But I don’t know how strong your overall profile is to make up for missing the year. Maybe you have all kinds of psychology related EC’s that make that class make a lot of sense. Certainly a letter isn’t going to ‘cover this’, though.</p>
<p>I agree with BrownParent, you should take the 4th year of Spanish to be as competitive for college admissions as you can.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking about a major or minor in Spanish, take AP Spanish. Realistically you can get into the UCs with three years of a language (they require two, recommend three), and I presume this applies to your other schools as well.</p>
<p>I mean, I understand that taking Spanish 4 AP is pretty much indisputably the best choice in terms of getting into college. My question really is about how much of a perk it is. I would so much rather take psychology right now because I want to get started in it and I find it much more fun than Spanish. And I know I will pursue both Spanish and psychology as a kind of side project in the future (I will not, however, major or minor in Spanish, and I only might minor or possibly but probably not take it as a second major or something). Also, moving around my schedule to take Spanish would make me lose some of the best teachers for classes like econ and English.</p>
<p>So this is mostly a balancing act of desire versus competing to get into college. With the caliber of colleges I’m trying for, I’m scared that only 3 years of Spanish will seem like a very big weakness (especially for U Penn).</p>
<p>The most selective schools want 4 years of a language. You KNOW what you should do here. Don’t slack off your senior year just because you would prefer to take an elective that you are interested in.</p>
<p>Would I need a fourth year of Spanish as my School you take a modern Language for three years and an ancient language like Greek or Latin simultaneously.</p>
<p>Some of the colleges on your list care less about foreign language than others. So there is no simple answer. For MIT you can get by with 2 years of a foreign language. Upenn and Cornell would no doubt like to see you with 4, although 3 will suffice.</p>
<p>That said, MIT would no doubt like to see you take an advanced math course or science (aka physics) course instead of psychology. Not knowing your detailed senior year schedule, I may not be providing useful advise.</p>
<p>Insofar as your chances for the most selective colleges on your list (MIT, Upenn and possibly Cornell) your rationale for “not” taking the AP version of a course when it is offered is unconvincing.</p>
<p>I spoke to my counselor today about this issue. He said he might be able to get it onto my schedule, but it risks me not being able to take AP Econ next semester. I have to drop AP Psych definitely to lighten the load so I can take AP Spanish, and so that’s dropping 2 AP classes for one. I’d have to replace the 1 semester AP Econ course with something else in order to graduate, but there are no AP classes to do that.</p>
<p>I know that was confusingly worded, but the point is that I will have 2 less APs and take on 1 more AP and a semester of a non-AP class. It’s possible I can keep AP Econ, but if I can’t, is it worth it to drop them? They are all applicable to what I might do with my future, but I believe Spanish is more important than the others.</p>