<p>Middle school algebra and foreign language credits will count as they are traditionally HS courses. Our school district will put any MS math, language arts (taken by a very few gifted students at a HS) or foreign language courses offered at the HS level on the HS transcript- good to show colleges that such courses were taken.</p>
<p>Pay attention to the number of language years- they can be used to satisfy college foreign language requirements as well as be required for admission. For example- 4 years of the same language or 3 of one and 2 of another for a BA degree (3 of one for a BS) can be met with HS (including that one for two years of MS) credits. However, a placement test is required to continue in any foreign language in college. This means it pays to get enough HS foreign language to meet college requirements. Trying to place into a course to finish a language may mean repeating a level. One usually needs to take a college course to get college credits for any HS language courses preceding it. Taking the 5th year of a language in HS is for those who enjoy it, otherwise the time can better be used for another class. </p>
<p>I learned different vocabularies in HS French and college German- TA’s are willing to expand vocabularies in directions HS teachers won’t (btw, had the 4 of HS French, took the German as a language recommended for Chemistry, glad for the learning even though I remember bits of one or the other today, never seems to be both for any one word). Son’s HS French had a lot of vocabulary not yet invented in my day.</p>
<p>adding on to what wis75 says, many colleges will grant credit for good scores on the SAT2 as well as APs so seniors may want to consider taking the language subject test in June. (Harvard for example will let you out of the language requirement with only a 600 on the SAT surely easier than the 5 they require on the AP.)</p>
<p>Mathmom…YOU are incorrect. It is for placement. Of course, nobody would be penalized for reaching the highest level of math or FL before senior year. But, IF the recommendation is 4 years, it means 4 years from where you started as a freshman, assuming you don’t reach the top level.</p>
<p>These things vary from state to state and school to school. At my daughter’s prep school, many kids who took languages all through elementary school are not at any higher level than she is and she started in 9th grade because her elementary and middle schools had not offered it. There is a HUGE difference in foreign language preparation from school to school. And our local public schools do not show any high school level math that was taken in middle school on high school transcripts. The kids do get credit for the high school assessment (for graduation) tests that they pass in middle school.</p>
<p>Let’s be real here. If something is being used for consideration during college admission, are the colleges really going to care that my S took Algebra II AT the high school next door, but WHILE he was an 8th grader in middle school? </p>
<p>Are they going to care that he decided, at the recommendation of his AP Calc BC teacher, to forgo taking the AP Stats class (less mathematically rigorous) in lieu of taking a JHU CTY on line class in Linear Algebra (this year, and MV Calc next year)? (Note: HS is accepting for credit.)</p>
<p>Will this count as 4 years of math, or six years? </p>
<p>My S has decided to request (granted) that the Algebra II not even show on his HS transcript since (horrors!) he got a B+ for one semester (he had some emotional issues going on with his group and I’m just happy this cropped up during MS!)</p>
<p>He has a more interesting conundrum that the GC will just have to address in her letter. S took Spanish 3 and AP SPanish Language in HS, then went off to do other things. So how did he get there from a non-Spanish speaking family? Well, he could have taken Spanish in MS but chose not to BECAUSE (no longer the case) kids coming from the Spanish Immersion Program elementary school were allowed to take their MS social studies classes in Spanish. So, 5 years of total immersion in elementary school, plus three class periods in MS, plus two classes in HS. What does this total, in the admin officer’s mind? Any guesses, anyone?</p>
<p>My D. had to take placement test before she could register for her very first semester at college. Her Spanish and Chemistry college classes were based on results of placement test. The only relevence for a future in her case is that she had AP Calc that is counted as one year of college math by most (but not all) Medical Schools - but that is when they are applying to Grad. School. I do not know about importance of HS math and language number of years.</p>
<p>As MD Mom says, they may; it depends on the state/school/district. I’m also in Maryland, and my son has three courses on his HS transcript from middle school: Algebra I, Geometry, and Latin I. These three courses most certainly count in terms of high school credit. Other states may have different rules, but in Maryland, these courses are high school courses, so show up on the high school transcript, are part of the high school GPA (thank goodness!!! :D), count toward HS graduation requirements, and are reported to colleges. He took the HSA (high school assessment, required for HS graduation) for algebra in 8th grade; his score is on his high school transcript.</p>
<p>My son is currently in 10th grade; at the completion of this school year, his transcript will show that he’s completed four years of high school math and three years of a foreign language. </p>
<p>Other states/school districts may have different rules regarding these courses.</p>
<p>Again, there is a difference between high school graduation requirements and college admission requirements. No college will demand that a student take four years of math in high school or four years of foreign languages no matter what.
Lots of students take BC-Calc in their junior year; some even earlier. It’s quite okay, as far as colleges are concerned, not to take a further year of math and do something else. If students take very advanced math classes early on in high school (or even before high school), it is desirable to take more math classes but only so that they do not forget their math for lack of practice. The same goes for foreign languages.
Colleges will look differently at a student who took Alg 1, 2, Geometry and precalc and a student who took precalc, calc and perhaps another math class at a college. I’ll bet the second student will have a stronger profile.</p>
<p>For the student who has already completed a year of calculus, not necessarily. It depends on the student’s interests. Sometimes, it makes more sense to take a rigorous course in another subject (such as an AP course) instead of taking an additional math course that does not fit with the student’s academic plans (or requires the inconvenience of travel to a community college).</p>
<p>In the school system that my kids came from, where high school courses taken in middle school appear on high school transcripts and count toward high school graduation, four years of math meant that you had taken algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, and precalculus, no matter when you took these courses. So my daughter, who took both algebra 1 and geometry in middle school and algebra 2, precalculus, and AP BC calculus in high school, got credit for 5 years of math, even though she took only 3 years of it in high school. </p>
<p>Also, in our school system, it’s possible to take both Level I and Level II foreign language in middle school, and both of my kids did. My son then took Level III Spanish as a freshman in high school, after which he dropped Spanish forever. This was considered 3 years of high school Spanish both by the school system and by college admissions people.</p>
<p>S qualified to get into Spanish III in 9th grade. Most of his classmates qualified into Spanish I or II. He skipped Spanish in 10th grade, and resumed it in 11th grade. Total: 2 years. Can it possibly be argued that those who spent 4 years catching up to him were considered by colleges to be more admissible?</p>
<p>marite, glad to hear that they are thinking of changing that language requirement - that always seemed really strange to me!</p>
<p>I know lots of kids who didn’t take math as seniors (stopping with pre-calc not even calculus) who got into top colleges as long as the courses they took instead were rigorous it is not an issue.</p>
<p>At least at the selective colleges admissions officers can read the names of the courses and judge the rigor of the curriculum - that’s what counts.</p>