Just to provide some context, I’m currently a sophomore studying at a public high school in a pretty good district (suburban upper middle class).
Classes-
Pre-High School: French 1 (Half a year I think), Spanish 1 and 2 (counts as 1 year in total for spanish)
Freshman: English 1, Double Period Math (Adv. Algebra 1 and Half of Algebra 2), Freshman Bio., Business Explorations, AP Human Geo.
Sophomore: English 2, Double Period Math (Adv. Geo and Trig), Chemistry, Accounting 1, Spanish 2
Junior: English 3, Double Period Math (Algebra 2 and Pre-Calc), Physics, Accounting 2 Managerial (Weighted GPA), Normal US History (or APUSH, haven’t decided yet)
Senior: Senior Composition and Advanced Reading (1 semester each), Double Period AP Calc AB, AP Macro ( 1 semester), AP Micro (1 semester), Finance and Investing (1 semester), Business Law (1 semester), 1 empty elective spot that I haven’t decided yet (because I’m not doing Science senior year)
Overall I have:
5 years of math (Up to AP Calc AB)
4 years of english (normal)
4 years of business (Accounting 2 is hardest business class)
3 years of Social Studies (2 or 3 years being AP)
3 years of Science (Bio, Chemistry, and Physics)
2.5 years of Foreign Language
Any weak areas academically that I can improve on junior and seinior year (have a free elective spot senior year as well) to improve my chances? Thanks for reading if you made it this far btw
Hey Cheddar! I appreciate your observation, however, could I make up for only 2.5 years of foreign language by doing a total of 4 years in Social Studies? Also, if I apply for a business major at ND, will they appreciate the fact that I’ve done lots of business major related classes (Business Ex., Acc1 and 2, Finance and Investing, Business Law) or would they have preferred me to have taken other classes? Looking forward to your response
Here is what ND says it wants for Mendoza applicants: "For students intending to enter the College of Arts and Letters or the Mendoza College of Business, excluding the Arts and Letters Pre-Health program, Neuroscience and Behavior, and the combined Arts-Engineering program, the required 16 units must be distributed as follows:
4 units of English
3 units of Mathematics - Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry (4 units preferred)
2 units of Foreign Language (3-4 units preferred)
2 units of Science (4 units preferred)
2 units of History/Social Science (3-4 units preferred)
3 units of additional History/Social Science, Science, Foreign Language, Mathematics, and English courses
Then they go on to say:
Although we require at least 16 academic units for admission, our most competitive applicants will have four units in each major academic area and in the most rigorous level their high school offers.
If you want to be competitive, I’d follow their guidelines and take the number of units they say they prefer. (French taken in 6th grade will not be counted.)
@suzy100 Would you recommend Spanish 3 my junior year in that case? I really hate foreign language in general though and it might lower my UW GPA so idk whether I should go for that 3rd year. Also, that French course that I took in 6th grade was part of the IBMYP (Middle years program) if that makes a difference to it counting as a half a year?
@CheddarcheeseMN So 3 years of foreign language would make me competitive huh. Could I pursue a new foreign language for that last year of foreign language (would that count as 1 full credit)?
@VaibhavKeshari Yes, indeed my understanding is that ND Admissions in general would like to see minimum of 3 and ideally 4 Foreign Language high school credits. Depending on specific circumstances, 3 credits (or even 2 credits) with an AP Score 5 in the foreign language, other than your language spoken at home, might do, otherwise please make absolutely sure to provide clear evidence of your language proficiency through your High School transcript. Best of luck!
@hpcsa Thanks for the advice, I guess the best option would be just to tough it out and do spanish another year. By the way, could I pursue a different foreign language other than spanish for that 3rd credit (1st two credits of foreign language are in spanish) or do they only look at the the number of credits in the same language? Looking forward to a response
@VaibhavKeshari My recommendation would be either to go for 3 (or 4) foreign language credits in one language, or alternatively, if you really do not enjoy studying Spanish, to choose two languages and to complete 2 credits in each (i.e. 4 credits in total) during your high school career.
@hpcsa I see… It’s not really anything against spanish, I just don’t like foreign languages in general and thought that it would be easier to start over with a new language for 1 year. Would that 1 year of a new language count towards the 3 credit recommendation though? (I don’t think I got an answer on that for my previous question)
As mentioned above, my recommendation for a strong ND application in this respect would be either three foreign language credits with AP score of 4 or 5 (or comparable SAT Subject Test results) or, alternatively, if you prefer two foreign languages with 2 credits, ie four foreign language credits in total with good grades. You asked for input on how to possibly further improve your already strong academic credentials. Well, these are the suggestions for you in terms of foreign language credentials for Notre Dame apps. Best of luck and success!
@VaibhavKeshari My son, ND 2022, really disliked taking Spanish in high school. He really wanted to take French but it was not offered. He spent a lot of time with his guidance counselor (at a competitive private high school) exploring whether it would be possible to not take Spanish IV his senior year and substitute economics or some other subject. The strong advice he got was to stick with Spanish for his fourth year. At Notre Dame, he has elected to start all over with French, even though this means that he will need to take two full years to meet ND’s language requirement rather than perhaps one year in Spanish (given his background). So…my takeaway from this is to suck it up and take four years of language and then do what you want when you get to ND. Hopefully your four years of high school French will mean that you will not need to take more than one year of French at ND.
Bottom line, the margin for error on admissions to schools like ND is pretty small. Avoid trying to provide a high school transcript that appears to be deficient in certain core areas (which I think is the question that you originally asked).
Hey Savant, I appreciate you taking time to help me out. Thanks to all the insightful answer I have gotten on this thread, I have decided to stick with SPANISH for at least 1 more year (I’ll decide whether I want to do my fourth year when the time comes). I’ll have to substitute my US History course I’ve planned next year for my senior year in that case along with ap macro+micro.
