<p>So I'm a sophomore in high school and were doing course planning for next year. Next year, for the first time, my school (small private school) will be offering mandarin chinese (previously it was only french spanish latin). My brother is fluent and possibly moving to China and really wants me to learn to speak chinese (he goes to wharton and tells me its the "language of the future" ...whatever). My dad also thinks its a good idea, and I'm getting a little sick on analyzing Spanish love poetry anyway.... However, I talked to the college counselor and she said dropping a higher level language course looks really bad and so did a few of my other teachers who I asked. My dream school is MIT (I'm pretty sure...but then again I'm only a sophomore) and I have taken/plan to take pretty much every AP my school offers (Calc, stat, physics, chem, bio, us history) and play an outside of school sport on a national level. Anyway, is this really such a bad thing? Especially if I explain on my app?</p>
<p>This is a FAQ, use the Search function (upper R corner) on this forum for “foreign language” and you will find many recent threads asking the same question in one form or another.</p>
<p>seems like a pretty unique situation to me…I can’t imagine many schools change their languages all that often. and I did that already…but thanks</p>
<p>Can you take the Chinese as one of your elective credits? People at our school do that when they want to take more than 1 language. Also, if you have high stats, very high GPA and rank, all the AP classes and then a 2+2 foreign language slpit (with Mandarin being one of them) I think you will be totally fine. It would be very obvious to adcomms that you didn’t change to Chinese because you couldn’t handle Spanish 3 and 4. I have also heard that Chinese is the language of the future! Good luck. :)</p>
<p>While the addition of a language may be unique, the question of whether to take 4 yrs of one language vs. 2+2 is not, and that is the essence of your question.</p>
<p>MIT recommends 2 yrs of a FL:</p>
<p>[MIT</a> Admissions: Recommended High School Preparation](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/before/recommended_high_school_preparation/index.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/before/recommended_high_school_preparation/index.shtml)</p>
<p>However, be aware that other selective schools want to see 4 yrs of the same language, for instance:</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Preparing for College](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/preparing/index.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/preparing/index.html)</p>
<p>[Princeton</a> University | Academic Preparation](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/preparation/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/preparation/)</p>
<p>I think that you should add Chinese if you’re lucky enough that your schedule allows, and that you not drop Spanish. With only two years of Spanish, you will not have attained real fluency. A lot of students say the language does not “click” for them until Level III. Also, a 2+2 split between two languages would make you less competitive in college admissions than applicants who took 4 years of one language.</p>
<p>I’m not sure it would be obvious to admissions committees that you didn’t switch to avoid higher-level, more difficult courses.</p>
<p>MIT, your dream school, recommends that applicants have taken 2 years of a foreign language: </p>
<p>[MIT</a> Admissions: Recommended High School Preparation](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/before/recommended_high_school_preparation/index.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/before/recommended_high_school_preparation/index.shtml). </p>
<p>But what about other schools you might wish to apply to? Would you put yourself at a disadvantage if you decided to apply to schools that recommend three or four years, as most top colleges do?</p>
<p>Thanky you for your replies! Yes, I understand that the essence of my question may nto be completely unique but I was unable to find anythign that really addressed this issue.
Well, I have been taking Spanish since middle school, so this year for me was technically Spanish III. Princeton is my other top choce (at the moment), so thank you for finding that for me, that makes me somewhat uncomfortable with doing this. I could take spanish and mandarin, however, next year I am taking two sciences (honors bio and AP chem since you must first take the introductory course at my school before taking AP) so thats already 6 major (academic) subjects, the most my school allows. And, since I want to go into science (probabaly physics but possibly engineering) and do not plan to take any more than the minimum language requirement in college it doesnt seem worth it to sacrifice takign an extra ap science class? Even if it wouldn’t be awful/unheard to have a split do you think it woudl at least hurt my chances?</p>
<p>Edit: I talked to my dad, and also after reading the blurb on the harvard website, it seems like they really want the 4 years on one language. <em>sigh</em> off to read some more uninteresting spanish poetry…I guess I’ll be in Spanish IVA next year and then Spanish V Ap lit. :(</p>
<p>Your middle school Spanish counts; it is the level you reach, not the number of years taken in HS that counts. For instance, my D2 took Spanish for 2 yrs in MS which was equivalent to Spanish 1, so in HS she took 2, 3, & 4 and is now in AP. However, to satisfy 4 yrs of a FL, she could have quit after taking Spanish 4.</p>
<p>Another thought, how about CC or university courses taken during the summer? Some schools have intensive courses that last only a few weeks.</p>
<p>Also, every year there are people who are admitted without all of the recommended coursework. It really depends on how everything fits together in your entire application packet, no one can tell you how much being a class short of the FL recommendation is going to hurt you. Oops I forgot, this is CC, many people will tell you, but no one really knows ;).</p>
<p>Ah! I’m in a similar predicament - AP chem is a double period at my school, so to take AP spanish next year I would need to drop lunch. However, I may already be dropping lunch to take an extra Calc class.
So wait, in most schools does high school level Spanish last for 4 years and THEN you take AP? Because at my school Spanish IV is AP…
Is it a good idea to take Spanish at a CC? I’m really, really not interested in the language lol… <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>At my school they call 8th grade spanish spanish I and then ap (senior year) is spanish V but I guess its the same sort of thing as calling sr year spanish spanish IV AP.
I already took calc this year so at least I got that scheduling conflict out of the way but i really dont thinkt hey could schedule/I could handle without going insane 7 academic classes…and I think the same way, I’m really not at all interested in the language so I don’t want to take spanish outside of school. I guess I could take mandarin outside of school but I really just have too much of a time commitment w/ my sport to do anything like that. Yeah I understand that this website doesnt really mean anything…I’m really just lookign for opinions other than the people ive already talked to</p>
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<p>I think it varies with the HS, ours has Spanish 1 through 4 and then you can take either/both 5/AP.</p>
<p>muskrat, ya gotta lighten up a little, that was a joke (as indicated by the smilie).</p>
<p>yeah im actually not that oblivious…</p>