Is there a "superior" foreign language for colleges?

<p>I purposely avoided the SAT II Korean subject test even though I am confident I can get an 800 on it. Taking a native language class(it wasn’t even offered) or subject test seemed to be associated with the negative connotations associated with immigrants keeping in their shell of comfort, and it being construed as being a relatively unchallenging course. </p>

<p>I understand that some native speaker classes may be very much difficult, and yet, they may not be in different schools. We are trying to look at this from the viewpoint of an average admissions officer, and by certain comments on this thread, its easy to see how an adcom could take it the wrong way. In some cases, like in my neighboring school, taking a native language IS the easy way out.</p>

<p>Studying a language that noone else studies is always a plus.</p>

<p>Take ancient Sumarian. </p>

<p>Why does everyone do crap just so it helps admissions. Take a language that you like, DAMNIT. Everyone wants to do something so the guy at Harvard will take you in. I highly doubt John Harvardadmissionsofficer wants more fake plastic there. Do something you have a PASSION in. I am taking etymology and the study of human language. Why?? Because it interests me. </p>

<p>The day people stop doing random and POINTLESS crap to get into Harvard will make me so happy. Like an earlier poster said, if you are Chinese and you want to become a Savant at it there is NOTHING wrong with that.</p>

<p>I completely agree. I am a second-generation immigrant and took Spanish to improve my Spanish in public speaking. I am now a lector at the Spanish mass at my church and am doing some research on topics related to my culture. If you show your interest in the culture/language via other means, I imagine the SAT II in the native language would help anyways. The main thing is to show sustained interest in something.</p>

<p>^I don’t think SAT IIs are typically used to express interest…</p>

<p>Sanskrit
They offer it in school</p>

<p>Heck, probably 50000 kids here study it
the only prob is…very few of those apply
and even fewer with a national merit certificate</p>

<p>i really dont know how the adcoms see that :S</p>

<p>i dont think it matters if you take your mother tongue as long as if your english is good,
meaning you have a decent CR and W score. That way you could argue taht you were born in the US or something, and started learning you “mother tongue” in the US. Perfectly justified.</p>

<p>Aren’t you the guy i responded to before? lol</p>

<p>anyways, as a college student who worked part time in the admissions office w/ the dean @ a certain university, let me offer u some advice:</p>

<p>i’ll use the example of a Chinese guy taking SAT/AP Mandarin, Mandarin at school…etc</p>

<p>sure you can argue you were raised in the US. sure you can argue that your parents didn’t teach you english. but the fact remains that your Chinese. That simple fact just decreases the effect of your AP/SAT/School courses. Admission offices DON’T CARE about the language of your living environment. Harsh eh? But sorry bud, that’s the way it works.</p>

<p>The university I worked at is a top 20 US Univ, and most of the time we don’t even look at Mandarin AP (unless your last name is something like “du Pont”). French/Spanish/Latin/German takes WAY, WAY higher priority. Don’t bother yourself with Mandarin; universities totally don’t care about that specific AP</p>

<p>I’m Hispanic, but I barely spoke Spanish at all before seventh grade… literally. I could understand it when my family spoke it, but I remember that I would always respond in English and would have a hard time remembering words so simple like “silla” = chair… </p>

<p>I took Spanish I Honors for Spanish Speakers in 7th grade, the Spanish II H for S.S. in 8th (which counted as high school credit). Then I took Spanish III H for S.S. in 9th and AP Spanish Language in 10th (I got a 5)… Seriously, I speak a lot more Spanish now, than I did then… would colleges still consider it an easy way out or underestimate how much I improved?</p>

<p>Also, as a side note, I’m independently studying French, and I’m a beginner/intermediate now… Does this look good too even if I don’t take a standardized test to confirm it? And would I be ready for the SAT II in French?</p>

<p>Thank you sooo much!! (Sorry for all the questions lol) :D</p>

<p>Colleges look for 3 years generally, but honestly if you were an admissions officer which would look better to you:</p>

<p>3.7 GPA applicant with Spanish
3.7 GPA applicant with French
3.7 GPA applicant with RUSSIAN </p>

<p>I’d say Russian, and Arabic are less common foreign languages so they may look more appealing in an applicant than Spanish. Most people take Spanish, German, Latin, etc but do you know of many that take Russian and Arabic? Yes it depends on the school…but for the most part, Spanish and German foreign language students outnumber a Russian and Arabic. No language is “superior” in a sense in college admissions, but taking a more exotic language may be more beneficial in my opinion.</p>

<p>After taking 3 years of French (1, 2, 3), I switched into Chinese (4, 5) for 2 years. My parents are Chinese but English is my 1st language, and I was not fluent in Chinese. I would have continued on in French (I always got A’s), but I wanted to improve my Chinese because I’m interested in business, and I thought that learning/improving my Chinese would help me in the future. But adcoms won’t know that, so how badly would my A’s in IB Chinese held against me? I know it seems like I was taking the easy way out, but in reality, it was probably much harder for me to switch than continue in French. By the way, I didn’t get 800 on SATII Chinese…like I said, my Chinese isn’t that great; 780.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>You should put a brief note in the Additional Information portion of the CA saying that you were not taught Spanish at home and that you learned in MS and HS courses. With families trying to assimilate, this situation is not as rare as one may think. It is important to let adcoms know that you are not a native speaker so that they don’t think that you took Spanish just to slide through. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>It would be nice to have some sort of test to show your proficiency in French since you don’t have grades. However, it would not be a good idea to attempt the SAT II with just a beginning level, most kids take it after at least French 4 and often after AP. With score choice, you could take the test and not send the score if it’s too low (unless any of your schools want all tests).</p>

<p>Thank you so much entomom!! Finally helpful advice :)</p>

<p>You’re welcome! Have you seen the Hispanic Student subforum? You’ll find lots of information about admissions, scholarships, summer programs, college fly-ins, etc:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Yeah I have to agree that taking an “exotic” language would definitely help in admissions. I mean in the very least it would help you to stand out. I know that if I was an adcom, I’d just think that 4 years of Arabic was pretty cool and would want that kid at my college.</p>

<p>Classical languages may help a little too (Latin & Greek). Minimum, having 4-5 years of Latin will definitely give you a huge boost in the AP English Literature and AP English Language tests. Latin poetry and prose has all those concepts in it.</p>

<p>Oh and re sanskrit:
Brown and Harvard are the only schools in America (the continent?) that offer a major in Sanskrit. So while it wouldn’t really help you too much (any more than the typical “ooh exotic” reaction) at most colleges, HOLY S**T would having Sanskrit help you at those schools.</p>

<p>Like - instant in? I think so. Possibly hook-level benefit.</p>

<p>

Yep there was a time not too long ago when taking Latin was an impliable prerequisite for admission into the Ivy League. Knowledge of classics was the hallmark of an educated young lad (and still is).</p>

<p>Actually no lol. Surprising as how I’ve been here for almost a year haha. Thanks, I’ll look into it.</p>

<p>I didn’t bother to read all these posts, but I moved to America from a country that speaks Mandarin Chinese. I took the SATII, took the AP test (but took another language at hs) and it didn’t hurt me in the college process.</p>