Language credits

I’m a freshman in highschool , about to be a sophomore next year. I’m currently taking ASL, but the problem is there’s a huge amount of colleges that don’t accept ASL as a foreign language. I was thinking of doing ASL 2 , then switching to spanish 1 and 2 for junior and senior year (that’s obviously not a good idea). I need help on what I should do.

News to me. I am not aware of any college that, for admissions purposes, does not consider a language taught at a HS that meets diploma requirements. But feel free to provide examples.

That said, if you plan on attending a college that has a FL requirement to graduate, it is very likely that the college will not offer ASL and you would be unable to meet graduation requirements that way.

So, 2 questions: How many levels of ASL does the HS offer and what types of colleges are you thinking about (I know it’s early to have a college list, but my advice will be different depending on the college).

There’s 3 levels of ASL. I know Baylor University is one of the colleges i would like to go to (trying to become a doctor in the future). I’m just scared not taking a different language will cost me in the future if I change my mind about where I want to go.

So the first thing I would suggest is to talk to your GC since you are not the first student with this predicament and ask what students in the past have done.

I’m not concerned at all with you taking as many years as ASL that you want; it will not impact your college chances. As I’ve said before on other threads,if an applicant from the Punahou School, for example, presents an exceptional application package, no AO is going to say, “Darn, I would have admitted him if only he didn’t choose to spend 4 years studying a useless language like Hawaiian.”

The challenge will be that a school like Baylor requires foreign language to graduate, and ASL is not one of the options. So potentially, you could take 2 years of ASL and 2 years of Spanish at your HS (since Baylor only asks for 2 years of HS FL), and potentially decrease the number of Spanish courses you need in college. Or you could just decide to suck it up and start Spanish in college. It’s really a personal choice.

The only other thing to consider is that if any of your colleges ask for 3 years of FL in HS, they mean 3 years of the same language.So if you want to make the switch, you would need to do it now.Personally, I’d suggest sticking to ASL if you have interest in it. But I’d be interested to know what your GC thinks.

Thank you so much!!! I’ll ask my GC, and update you

Ask your GC but sticking to ASl through level 3 or taking 3 years of Spanish wold probably be my choice. If you enjoy ASL and it’s acceptable to the colleges you’re aiming for, then stick with ASL 1-3.

update: my GC said that most colleges accept ASL, and asked which colleges I want to get into. She also said that I can always call admission to confirm. I don’t have a huge list of colleges I want to go to… just yet. I love ASL, so I’m probably going to continue for next year. If something comes up, and ASL is not an acceptable… I might switch. Fingers crossed.

Then there’s your answer. Thanks for the update.

Always a good idea in any case, but as I said upthread, you will not find a college that will not accept ASL as a foreign language for admissions purposes. On the off chance you discover one, you might not want to attend a college that is that narrow minded. Good luck.

Hello! I have one quick question, for some reason I can’t PM you.You said earlier that I can meet admission requirements with ASL 1&2, but graduation requirements are unlikely. If you’re available, could you please explain how meeting graduation requirements would work in college?

If a college has a foreign language graduation requirement, it will specify how it is met. Typically, it will be by completing a specific level of college foreign language course, or equivalent proficiency as determined by the college.

Your high school foreign language course work may allow you to place into a higher level in college, if the college offers that language.

You need 15 posts before you can PM.

@ucbalumnus summed it up.

Not all colleges have foreign language requirements to graduate. But for colleges that do have the requirement, and you want to continue a language that you started in HS, usually the college will have a placement test which may reduce the number of classes needed to fulfill the requirement if the college offers the language.

So you’ll notice that I used a lot of qualifiers in the paragraph above. So much of the answer will be specific to the college you end up attending. The reason I said that the college may not accept ASL as fulfilling college graduation requirements is because relatively few colleges offer ASL.Now the college may have a means of testing languages they don’t teach or they may require that the language is one they teach. But again, that’s a bridge to cross once you are evaluating college acceptances. For now, my suggestion is continue with ASL as far as you can and don’t worry about the college requirements yet.

Good luck.

My niece went to a college which didn’t require language. However it did offer ASL classes more as part of its program for teachers of children with special needs. She was also in a ASL choir. It was a fun and interesting concert to watch when she did her senior solo in the concert.