<p>I agree completely</p>
<p>At my school we are required to take at least 3 years of one language or 2 years of one language then 2 years of another.</p>
<p>My school offers spanish, french, german, latin, sign language, and mandarin chinese</p>
<p>I understand the whole “mastery” in Spanish, but she hates it and she has no desire to “master” it. She wants to master science and math and the fact is there is no student out there that can master all three because of graduation requirements… especially in Texas where the 4X4 is in effect which is 4 years of math, science, social studies and english. By the time you meet the fine arts requirements, PE requirements, Computer Science, etc, something has to give. My basic question surrounded the fact that should she give up an AP science or math for a fourth year of language.? Her transcripts reflect 3 years, not two, so to colleges it shows three years. I actually called Princeton admissions yesterday and they said a fourth year did not matter if she was passionate about science and math. What they don’t want to see is a little bit of everything. Find a subject or two you love and push them to the limit.</p>
<p>I really don’t have the room on my schedule senior year to take Spanish year 3. That would require me to not take one of the two: Human Anatomy ( which falls into my future career) or Physics ( which I haven’t took at all). </p>
<p>There are many ways to show your a dedicated, competitive student without forcing upon 3 years of a language. I would like to have/ take 3 years of Spanish… but engineering freshmen and sophomore year did not leave the room to do so.</p>
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<p>Though since studying a language needs more time, I probably would have done better taking all my language classes over the summer, if not most. Spanish year one freshmen summer, and so on. I think it would have allowed me the time to be more fluent in Spanish.</p>
<p>in my opinion students shouldn’t be required to take any language classes in high school because they’re a total waste of time. I can self study everything I’ve learned from Spanish 1-3 in about a week, yet it takes 3 years for high school courses to teach it.</p>
<p>My daughter could not fit AP Spanish into her senior year schedule, so is taking two English classes. It didn’t seem to affect her ability to get into a high quality LAC, don’t know about the ivies though.</p>
<p>My kid was accepted to Amherst with 3 years of high school Spanish. Not “honors” either. There is only one level of class offered here, although there is a 4th year class. He didn’t take it.</p>
<p>I think admissions makes recommendations about ideal high school course work, but they look at the whole applicant. If there is one core academic area where I think you may have some leeway, it’s foreign language. Especially is there are other impressive elements to the application in other areas of endeavor – either within the curriculum or outside of it.</p>
<p>My older son stopped Spanish after Honors Level III. He wanted to take journalism instead – which wound up being far more important to him personally and in the college app process. I don’t think three years vs. four was a make-or-break issue for the schools that declined him. He has to start a new language in college anyway, because he has to pass an exam in German, French or Russian for the grad school programs he’s considering.</p>
<p>Other S is taking AP/IB Spanish this year at Level V.</p>
<p>Yeah, sometimes it will matter more to find that thing that gives you real direction, purpose… that shows your enthusiasm. Like CountingDown’s son and journalism.</p>
<p>My kid did fine in Spanish. He got all A’s, it wasn’t a big problem in terms of the amount of time he had to spend on it. He was just bored to death with it. He wasn’t aiming for fluency, he was trying to fill a minimum requirement. When, instead of doing another year of Spanish, he had options to take other classes at an advanced level in subjects he loved, well, it wasn’t really a difficult decision.</p>
<p>I mean, I think it’s a good idea to take all four years if the student can do that, get good grades doing it, and not sacrifice more meaningful things to study or pursue. But that’s not always the case.</p>
<p>I was admitted into Duke (a top 30 college according to US NEWS and World Report) ED. </p>
<p>I have only 2 years of Spanish.</p>
<p>While being fluent in another language helps (I am from the country India so I am fluent), I only took 2 years of Spanish, the minimum requirement to graduate from HS. I disliked spanish and did not want to take any more of it. That said I took every AP/Honors course offered at my school other than Spanish V. On Duke’s website it recommends 4 years of a FL, requires 2 and says you can substitute a FL with another rigorous course (ie. AP Science/Math).</p>
<p>If you D doesn’t not like Spanish don’t take it. If any school is going to reject her for not taking a couple more years of Spanish or any other FL that school is obviously not a good fit for your D. </p>
<p>This is simply my 2 cents. Like I said English was my second language. I fluently know other Indian languages which may balance that out, but I don’t know.</p>
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<p>You may be able to self study the information but the three years of exposure to the language is invaluable - I strongly feel that even if it’s the same material a person who’s taken three years would be a much more able speaker than the person who study’s the material in a week.</p>
<p>Understand that it’s not just about what the colleges are looking for and what the minimum requirements are. Learning a second language is becoming more valuable and almost a necessity in today’s globalizing world. You may have a dozen job applicants who are all equally qualified engineer majors but the one who can speak a foreign language fluently and communicate with foreigners is more likely to get the job. Especially with languages such as Spanish (useful in the U.S.) and even Chinese (growing global power).</p>
<p>S1 originally signed up for journalism because he wanted to do more writing, but it turned into something so much more – it broadened his horizons and got him really interested in politics, philosophy, advocacy, etc. – not to mention he developed some seriously marketable web design skills (useful for making money while a poor college student! ;)). </p>
<p>We were really surprised that at every college interview he had, the person wanted to talk about his experiences with the school paper. I guess the journalism defied the math major/programmer stereotype. None of us imagined that dropping Spanish would be such a good thing for him! (I will add that his GC was vehemently opposed to him dropping FL after three years.)</p>
<p>As for S2, foreign language proficiency is a much bigger part of his goals.</p>
<p>What I didn’t know you needed four years of Spanish? I only took three and if I would have taken a fourth I would have had to give up some of my sciences (Like the OP I took 6 years of science by doubling up two years in a row). I don’t understand why it would need to be four years especially for an engineering/science major like myself.</p>
<p>Exactly 'rentof2’s point, Dbate – if the tradeoff is to study things that you’re really passionate about, or to take more challenging courses, I think colleges understand that. I think MIT recommended three years of FL when S1 applied. I wouldn’t worry.</p>
<p>Heck, my DH only applied to colleges where he wouldn’t have to take a FL!</p>
<p>I have a question is it acceptable for entering freshman to take a language that they did not have in high school? My school only offers French and Spanish, and being from Texas I nautrally chose Spanish but I really didn’t want to. In college I would like to study chinese, but will colleges expect us to have prior knowledge bc I know literally almost no chinese whatsoever.</p>
<p>No, if they offer an intro level language course you will not need previous background. My son took 3 years of Spanish in high school, and then took Chinese I his first semester in college.</p>