Hi,
I was born in the US, but I have lived in China for the first three years of my life. Thus, I am fluent in Chinese, as are my Chinese parents. I have also taken the SAT subject test (800) and the AP test (4 ) last year when I was a freshman.
When I was in middle school, I started French in 6th grade since our school offered that. Basically, I have a strong foundation for French since I took French I over three years. Last year, I took French II honors (highest offered), and this year I am taking French III honors.However, my French teacher does not care much for the students, and I really donāt feel like I will be prepared for the AP test if I make it to french 5.
Next year, I will be a junior, and I am prepared to take 6 APs + band. I am shooting for a 5.0 weighted GPA that does not include French. However, I have noticed that many Ivy League colleges want to see 3 or 4 years of the same foreign language. If I take French IV (honors is highest) next year, that would bring my weighted GPA down to what it is right no and affect my class rank. I have also lost some interest in French because of my teacherā¦
Please help me decide if I should take French IV next year, not take it since I already am fluent in Chinese, or maybe take it over the summer at a community college?? If taking it at a community college, could you please explain how I could register?
You keep saying that, but have nothing to prove it.
I am shooting to win Powerball this week; that might not happen either.
That makes it sound like you are an AP junkie - taking APās just because they are APās. Thatās certainly not the path to the Ivy League.
Playing the GPA game is not the ticket to the Ivy League. Regardless, that only works if you get all Aās. If the college requests 4 years of a language, it will not automatically rejects you for only having 3. But there is little doubt that you would be less competitive.
I see; that does make sense. So would you agree that continuing with french would be more helpful than a higher class rank/ GPA? Would you recommend taking french over the summer in a camp/ something like that if I was motivated?
Aside- Iām pretty confident in my abilities in getting straight Aās, since Iāve never gotten a B before, and thereās a lot of pressure in my family.
Thanks for replying!
@Iloveband - you should be aware that colleges donāt put much stock in native speakers taking SAT II and scoring 800s. This is common practice, as one can see when one looks at the score distribution on this test. On the other hand, if you show you can do well in a third language that you made an effort to learn, that shows perseverance and initiative.
@skieurope lol Iām guessing his Chinese speaking parents would make him/her pretty fluent
My friend got into Yale having only taking 2 years of Latin, but he was fluent in Korean (and he didnāt even take SAT II). I think with 3 years you will be fine, especially if you are already fluent in Chinese and took the AP test and SAT subject test. And as long as you are top 10%, top colleges tend to not look past that, but if rank is important to you, take the classes you want to achieve that goal
The wisest thing to do is meet at a minimum the recommmendations/requirements for any school you are interested in. Why would you make your application weaker than your competitors? Take the French class.
Iām guessing it doesnāt. Having parents who speak a foreign language does not mean that the kid will learn how to read/write Chinese, or to speak it with grammatical correctness.
Regardless, Iām not a big fan of taking academic classes over the summer. Few colleges, and certainly none of the top ones, are looking to fill a class with academic drones who have nothing better to do than study. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, I fail to see why any applicant to a top school would not follow the collegeās schedule advice. No college will accept ābad teacherā as an excuse. Suck it up and take the class during the academic year.
Try not to get sucked into the weighted GPA game. Avoiding French 4 just because your high school gives it less weight than some AP lite course is not so great for overall academic development.
Do you happen to live in Texas, where the state universities base admission on class rank and therefore heavily pressure students to play the weighted GPA game for class rank?
When they say hs prep should include 4 years of foreign language, they mean hs. They donāt say, claim fluency, nor ask about middle school or before.
OP, youāre asking about Ivies, but falling back on the notion itās all about stats and the number of AP. Holistic is more than that. And if you know someone who got by with 2 years, youād have to know what else he had, whether, eg, he skipped the last years of language due to sched conflicts with highest level math, for a STEM major, or other good reasons. Try to understand what the āmoreā they look for really is.
My suggestion: apply to Middlebury Summer Language Camp (very intense, very selective, recognized) or Concordia language camps (good reputation) or (if 16 years old and living nearby/able to live nearby) to the Intensive French program at Penn State or Ole Miss.
After that, you can take 4th or 5th semester French at a local college during the year (if you can drive to one that offers itā¦)
This way, you complete the language requirement and you avoid the bad teacher.
(note that College French 1 = high school French 1+2, College French 2 = HS French 3H, College French 3 = HS 4H, College French 4= APā¦ and thatās at a typicaly university, if youāre speaking about a top university basically French 1, 2, 3 in college = AP.)
Youāre allowed to have a B here and there, you know. You wonāt be selected because you have Apās, Aās, and 1500 on your SAT. That will be part of it, but youāll need to show what you do outside of class - both competitive and noncompetitive activities. Your āhow I spent the past 2 summersā better not be āSAT prep camp and summer classesā, but rather something along the lines of family vacation, working, fishing/swimming, learning to knit, practicing with my band, designing a little cartoon with friends, read all of X saga (Proustās, George Martinās, CS Lewis"ā¦), interviewing old people about their childhoor in the 40āsā¦
In that sense, if you choose a language camp, make sure you do something non academic the rest of the time between sophomore and junior year, and summer after junior year think of something totally different related to your other activities.