<p>It says on the Harvard page that you should be able to easily read and speak a foreign language. I plan on only taking the 2 years of French in my freshman and sophomore year and I was wondering if that will hurt my chances?</p>
<p>Almost every selective school recommends at least 3 years of language, if not 4.</p>
<p>they want you to be proficient in a language other than english by the time you apply to college. therefore, if you already speak another language, you’re fine.</p>
<p>Do you guys know of any students accepted into Ivys or top schools with only 2 years? Could it be explained in the essays?</p>
<p>In other words, does it ruin my application if I only have two years?</p>
<p>I think somebody on here got accepted with 2 years of one language and 2 years of another, because the school district cut the first language after his sophomore year. The Ivies tend to be forgiving of circumstances outside of a student’s control shaping their curriculum; a student at a school that offers 3 APs can be expected to have taken 2-3 (maybe one is studio art and they don’t do art). My high school offered 15 or so, so I had darn well better have taken more than 3. So is this something outside your control, or do you just want to quit?</p>
<p>PS If you are fluent in another language besides English from speaking it at home, things may be different. My family just spoke English, so I don’t know if they accept less formal language schooling from students who are already bilingual. Arguing against this, my high school had a huge immigrant Asian population and every student enrolled, whether a heritage speaker of another language or not, took at least three years of a language unless they were aiming for a college less good than our state flagship. Maybe this was a graduation requirement specific to my school? I have no conclusions, just a few pieces of evidence I don’t know how to interpret correctly.</p>
<p>Why are you taking just 2 years of French?</p>
<p>You do realize that if you are accepted to a selective college, most are going to have foreign language requirements in order to graduate. But, if you take AP French in high school, and score a 5 on the AP test, you would be exempt from many college’s foreign language requirements, including Harvard’s.</p>
<p>Also, FYI: Based upon the below recommendations from Harvard, you better have a really great reason for not taking more than 2 years of a foreign language in high school.[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Preparing for College](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/preparing/index.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/preparing/index.html)</p>
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<p>To exultationsy’s point in post#6, see: [Harvard</a> College Freshman Dean’s Office § Curriculum](<a href=“http://www.fdo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k3806&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup9109#a_icb_pagecontent90081_Language]Harvard”>http://www.fdo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k3806&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup9109#a_icb_pagecontent90081_Language)</p>
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<p>Based on other posts, do you read/write Chinese? If so and can show mastery, then you might be OK</p>
<p>@exultationsy and gibby</p>
<p>The reason I am stopping French is because my school system only allows 1 AP course before junior year and therefore I have chosen to take the maximum amount of AP courses possible before I submit my application. Because of that, I removed French from my schedule. I felt that, for example, AP statistics would be of more weight than a third year of French for a planned Engineering major like myself.</p>
<p>@T26E4</p>
<p>I am “illiterate” in Chinese if you could call it that. I can easily listen and speak chinese and read in pinyin, but not read in “real” Chinese. I scored a 27/29 on the practice SAT II Chinese on CB but found out there was a 30 point section (out of 85or95) with ONLY written Chinese so I have decided not to take it because of the skewed percentiles. What can I do to show my ability to listen and speak?</p>
<p>That isn’t the choice I’d tell my own kid to make, jchen. I’d tell her to keep taking French. And I think that Harvard would, too.</p>
<p>In particular, I wouldn’t tell an aspiring engineer to drop foreign language for AP Statistics. For one thing, if you don’t learn enough foreign language to satisfy your college language requirement while you’re in high school, you’ll have to use up college credits satisfying that requirement. And for another, any engineer who needs to study statistics is orobably going to need a meatier statistics class than AP Statistics.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input, now I am wondering if 5 APs plus French in junior year is more appealing than 6 APs?</p>
<p>Keep wondering that!</p>
<p>Here is another possibility, would it be helpful to continue a third year of French in senior year? I could explain in my essays that it was simply a scheduling conflict. I know this is not typical for a Harvard applicant but would this situation tremendously affect my application?</p>
<p>I agree with Sikorsky; keep wondering! Truthfully, I see no benefit in taking AP statistics over AP French . . . unless you are absolutely terrible in French.</p>
<p>BTW: College Admissions is not a meritocracy – it’s NOT like taking 7 AP’s will get you admitted to Harvard, but 6 will not. </p>
<p>In fact, as Harvard places such emphasis on graduating high school with 4 years of a foreign language or taking 3 years of a foreign language which ends in an AP test (which is what both my kids did with Spanish), I’m going to go out on a limb and say Admissions might question why didn’t take more French instead of statistics. In other words, your decision to take statistics over AP French might create a question mark in your file – which is something you never want to do.</p>
<p>FWIW: If you don’t get accepted to Harvard, other colleges have different foreign language requirements, so you should look into those, as well. For example, at Yale, if you don’t take AP foreign language in high school, you must take 2 years of a foreign language at Yale.</p>
<p>I understand what you mean, but the main reason is that I feel like I would do better in Stats than French. I just do not know what the admission officers will think of me “quitting” on French for a course I am more comfortable in.</p>
<p>Yes, I have noticed that only a couple schools put great emphasis on 3+ years language. MIT also only requires 2 years of foreign language.</p>
<p>No you misunderstood. Both Yale and Princeton recommend 3+ years of a foreign language in high school. Yale actually doesn’t let you off the hook as much as Harvard. At Harvard, you are exempt from foreign language if you score a 5 on the AP test. Whereas at Yale, scoring a 5 on an AP foreign language test requires you to take 1 semester of the same language at the college level. If you score a 4, 1 year of the same foreign language is required. If you score a 3 or below or don’t take an AP foreign language in HS, 2 years of foreign language is required at the college level. So, it pays to check all college foreign language requirements at every college you will be applying to.</p>
<p>Side note: You haven’t started taking French yet. When you do, you might even like it!</p>