I studied Spanish for seven years in elementary and middle school up to fluency, and when I got to high school, I decided to pursue Chinese as a third language. In my activities section, I am putting that I have self-studied Spanish, but I have taken no testing (SAT/ AP tests) demonstrating scored proficiency. Will colleges simply not care/ be uninterested by this information if there is nothing to “verify” it?
They won’t care. Your study of Chinese fulfills their recommendation of HS study. You can certainly list Spanish on the Common App as a language you know, but that’s not something that will make or break the app. And I would not list self studying Spanish as an activity, unless you have, in fact, self studied more while in HS. And even then, I’m not sure how meaningful an activity it is.
Are you truly continuing with self study or you think claiming this is an asset, when in reality, that “study” is over and done?
Look at the Common App. There’s another place you’ll indicate proficiency and it can look odd to say fluent in Span but claim ongoing self study.
Self study suggests you didn’t learn it in school, but you did.