<p>This question came up over on the Admissions forum.....</p>
<p>Many selective colleges want an applicant to have taken a language thru "Level 4". If a student began their language study with "Level 1" in junior high or middle school, would taking Level 4 thru junior year suffice, or do the selective colleges want the applicant to show 4 HS years PERIOD, meaning the example student would need to take a Level 5 course in their senior year?</p>
<p>I won't even pretend to know how this issue is resolved today, but 35 years ago I finished HS at a school where I took French IV in 11th grade and then took no language as a senior. When I tried to transfer between colleges my application was initially rejected because they thought I did not meet the foreign language requirement. I called admissions and had them take a closer look at my HS transcript, and all was well. So 35 years ago, French IV as a junior was OK. I would be curious to see how that is handled now.</p>
<p>I've asked many admissions counselor's this: in most cases, they look at the level you've reached in a particular language, which is, of course, shown on your high school transcript. It is always a plus to go beyond 4 years. :)</p>
<p>Papa:</p>
<p>do they "need to" -- probably not since the lang requirement is fulfilled, but if the V class is AP, it should would look better than underwater basketweaving. </p>
<p>this is similar to 'four years' of math for math-advanced kids.... colleges typically start counting math with Alg I, so four years of math is Alg 1, Geom, Alg II, and pre-calc, even if a student takes the first two (Alg I & Geom) in middle school (of course, in this example, adcoms might wonder why a student stops taking math after Soph year, and any math/science school essentially requires Calc). </p>
<p>French or Span 4 is similar, regardless of what year the student takes it. But, similar to the math example, an adcom might wonder why a student stops at french 4 in Soph year, and does not finish the sequence with AP French, or French at a local college if AP not offered in HS.</p>
<p>thanks all.....in my now-junior S's case, he will have completed Spanish thru level 4 and Latin thru level 3 by the end of junior year (3 yrs Spanish & 2 yrs Latin while in HS). He does NOT like languages, so convincing him of the merits of continuation may require more salemanship than I am capable of!</p>
<p>How about this one. I'm on block scheduling. Took Spanish III and IV freshman year after taking two years of spanish in middle school and Spanish V and VI sophomore year. I'm not taking anymore. How many years do I have? 6? 4? 2? Luckily, it doesn't matter because the school I'm applying to only requires 2, which I'm positive I have at least that many.</p>
<p>I took four years of French, but since I started in 7th grade, I completed French 4 AP in sophomore year. I enjoyed French, but I had had to travel to another school to take French 4 and I didn't want to do the same again for French 5. I figured I would be better off taking classes that related more to things I liked, so I ended up tripling and doubling up on sciences classes junior and senior year, respectively. I doubt finishing foreign language classes early would be an issue, especially since it's something your S is not interested in as long as he takes advanced classes in areas that interest him in junior and senior year. (I was admitted to good number of selective schools and I doubt having extra foreign language classes was ever an issue)</p>
<p>In my county, languages are considered 'high school courses.' As a result, even though I started Spanish in middle school, it appeared on my high school transcript.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>PapaC, for a kid who doesnt like languages, your son has done quite well! Mine hates language study with a passion. He took two years of Indonesian (where we live) then two years of Spanish because he thought it would be more practical. This 2+2 was a concern to us for selective colleges, but in the end, it didnt matter at his ED choice. </p>
<p>The other factor to consider is how a language adverse student will do once s/he gets into a college vis a vis the language proficiency requirement. This was a major factor for my son since most colleges dont offer Indonesian (in which he is fluent) and one or two years of college level Spanish would have been pure torture for him. Thus colleges without language proficiency requirements like Williams, Amherst, Brown -- were favored.</p>
<p>So for your son, Id say it depends on the requirements of the schools that hes interested in. If he thinks he could place out and if he has other classes that hed rather take Senior year then Id say 4 Spanish + 3 Latin is beyond the call of duty.</p>
<p>thanks momrath.....hadn't gotten to the proficiency part yet....good words of wisdom...PC</p>
<p>DD finished honors Spanish 4 in 10th grade. She wanted to take an different elective in 11th grade so she opted to stop Spanish. It worked out well for her...took AP Music Theory and got a 5 on the exam.</p>
<p>thumper.....exactly what my S wants to do ....... stop at Sp 4, then go to AP Music Theory</p>