Jumping a year in foreign language, not taking one senior year

Applying to College
1

Hi,
I’m currently in French II with over 100% due to extra credit on tests–the rest of the class is failing. I know as much if not more French than my friends in Honors French III, and the department head (who taught me the first year) expressed not a word of concern when I emailed him but said he’d talk to the course director. If I skip to AP French [4] next year but don’t take a language senior year to make space for other classes (either some form of biology, AP Studio Art, or AP Microecon), would that look unusual, help, hurt, anything else? I assume if the college knows I’m very proficient from two years’ experience they would be impressed, but they might think I had middle-school experience (I didn’t)–I’m just throwing out options here. If anyone with more experience could give their input, that would be great.
Thanks!

2

I see no problem with what you propose. Getting to the fourth year of a foreign language, with no option to take an additional year in high school, is entirely fine. It’s neither better nor worse than doing four years sequentially.

Two similarly situated kids at my kid’s high school will be doing the same thing next year, at the request of the AP language teacher.

3

Two questions here:

  1. Is it feasible to skip French 3? You know French 2…but do you know the content in French 3? talk to the department head
  2. Is it okay to get to the 4th year of French but not take 4 years in HS? Yes
4

Thanks for all the answers. Quick clarification: is getting to the fourth year of content in three years’ time better or worse than taking all four years and ending up at the same place (for selective colleges)?

5

IMHO (which counts for nothing, as I’m not the AO reading your app), it’s exactly the same, neither better nor worse.

6

It makes no difference. Admissions Officers do not give brownie points for taking 4th year of a language (or any class traditionally taken by seniors) as a junior or younger.

7

Admissions officers just want students to have some proficiency in a second language. How you get there is not as much a concern.

8

Some colleges do have an expectation of x years- for some it may be 4. But in your case, jumping to AP, what you’re getting to is the highest usual high school level. Fine. I do agree to prep for it, work through some F3 texts and assignments.

This is not like taking 3 years, stopping at F3, for a college that expects more.

It’s not proficiency, alone. The content, as one moves up, becomes more challenging and includes various topics, cultural, political, and more.