Is two years of a foreign language enough?

Applying to College
1

<p>So right now I'm scheduled to take third year french my senior year. I couldn't take french my freshman year because of scheduling conflicts (band and french were the same period and I needed the art credit). </p>

<p>However, my french teacher does not really see eye to eye with me, and really, I am uncomfortable in the class, and there is only one teacher. So I'm really considering dropping the class to take something else, perhaps an extra social studies like AP human geo, or something along those lines. How horrible would it look on a transcript to see only two years of a foreign language? Would colleges understand that my teacher made me uncomfortable and truly that was the only reason I didn't want to take a third year (thinking about writing a little sentence about it on the "additional information" section on the common app)?</p>

<p>For reference, transcript would look like..(if I dropped french this year)
9th: Hon Eng 9, Hon World History 9, Biology I, Algebra II, Concert Band 9, Marketing Foundations</p>

<p>10th: Hon Eng 10, Hon Current World Issues, Chemistry I, Pre-Calc/Trig I, French I, Marketing I</p>

<p>11th: Hon Eng 11, AP US History, AP Physics B, AP Calculus AB, French II, Marketing II</p>

<p>12th: College (UW in the classroom) English, AP Environmental Science, AP Calculus BC, AP Government US, AP Human Geo, Marketing III</p>

<p>thanks, I know its lengthy!</p>

2

<p>Most selective schools prefer three to four years of Foriegn Language. With less selective schools you can sometimes get by with only two. So it depends on what kind of schools you are interested in attending. Frankly, I think most prefer to see Foriegn Language than all the Marketing classes. </p>

<p>And no, I do not think it would help your application to say you only have two years of Foriegn Language because you were “uncomfortable” with the teacher. That comes across like a bad, immature excuse for not following through. If that’s the best you can do it would be best not to try to explain it.</p>

3

<p>I didn’t really like the way my French class worked either. I did not find it challenging and worried that I would not be properly prepared for the AP exam, so I decided to take it at a local university in my final year. It turned out that there was a schedule conflict anyway, so I didn’t have to explain it to my teacher, which was great because I had to have a rec from a foreign language teacher for one school.
You might want to try that path. College classes can get expensive, so try to find out from your counselor if your school, district, city, or state has a program with any colleges where you can take classes for free or for a discounted price. You’re already planning on college English, so you might be aware of such a program.
I agree with FLVADAD that saying you were uncomfortable with your teacher would be a negative.</p>

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<p>FLVAD, the marketing classes actually really helped. I have placed in the state and national levels for DECA and FBLA, and I’m applying to business schools. </p>

<p>Millancad, thanks for the great suggestion, I will have to look into that.</p>