I am wondering how important taking 3/4 years of taking the same foreign language in high school is. My high school only requires two and I would prefer to not take any more, but am currrently scheduled for my third year (in foreign language). Would it be detrimental to me to only take two consecutive years if applying to colleges like Middlebury, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Colby, and UVM? I assume UVM probably wouldn’t care, but would the more selective liberal arts colleges?
There are colleges that require three years on a foreign language, so, it’s very important to take three years unless you want doors shut to you that would easily have been opened otherwise, admission-wise.
Middlebury (idk about the others) suggests 4 years of one foreign language. For highly selective schools, I was always told that “recommends” means “requires” unless there is some kind of special circumstance. It probably won’t send your app directly into the trashcan, but it will be something that you have to compensate for, which is not good.
There are two issues here: how many years of one foreign language you need to get in and what level of proficiency you need to get out (graduate).
For admission to selective colleges 3 years is safer than 2. Most of your competition will have taken 3 or even 4. Some colleges spell out requirements, other list recommendations. If you choose to go with only 2, then you’d better have a pretty good reason for dropping language early on.
Most – but not all – colleges have a minimal language proficiency requirement. This can be measured in different ways, e.g., number of years of high school study, scores on AP or SATII, proficiency test administered upon matriculation. If you are language adverse make sure you understand the requirements of your college choices. Language study on the college level is more difficult and faster paced than at the high school level, so you may just be delaying the pain.
My son ended up 2 years each of 2 different languages in high school. This evidently didn’t hurt him at his ED choice, but, I think, would have been a negative at some of the other on his list (which was similar in selectivity to yours). His college did not have a language requirement which was a great relief to him.
The universities you’re interested in will expect level 4. If you don’t have that you need something else exceptional to offset it.
In addition, as explained above, most of these colleges will have a language test or placement system and foreign language requirements.
As momrath points out, unless you major in engineering, most colleges have a foreign language “distribution” requirement that requires you to complete the equivalent of two years of a foreign language IN COLLEGE. Any preparation you have for that from high school–whether to shorten your college coursework by placing out of intro courses or by doing better in those classes grade-wise–is worth the investment. Whether you take extra years of a foreign language in HS versus AP Calculus or an AP hard science is debatable, but the extra years in a foreign language certainly trump other course options you may have. Please don’t take AP Human Geography or such rather than the foreign language.
Ok. Thanks for the responses. I will probably stick with 3rd year of foreign language