Hi everyone, thsibis my first time posting on CC forums. We need some advice regarding choice of foreign language course for my daughter. She is taking AP Spanish language as a sophomore at her private school. We are moving to a different city next year and she will be going to a public school. Her new public school counselor has just informed her that she will not be able to take AP Spanish Literature in her junior year because the school did not get enough sign ups and offered her some other non Foreign language course.
We are not sure what to do now since what we have read so far is colleges require students to take at least 3 years of foreign language and some of them recommend 4 years of foreign language.
In most cases, the level completed matters, and AP level is generally considered as year 4 or higher of high school foreign language. Also, not taking more because the student has already completed the highest level available will typically be understood. You can check with specific colleges if you are not sure.
Thanks! She wants to go a college like NYU. Their website says they recommend 4 years of foreign language. Also, she wants to minor in Spanish in college. Sorry, we are just very new to the college admission process in US and do not want her to miss out on any college in future because of this.
@bopper we are looking into dual enrollment for her at the local community college but the classes are in the middle of the afternoon. We are not sure if the school will allow her to leave the campus for a couple of hours everyday. We are planning to talk to the counselor at school tomorrow regarding this.
Be sure to check where she will place in the college’s Spanish courses. It is possible that some community colleges may not have Spanish (or other foreign language) courses more advanced than what an AP score of 5 indicates.
If the new high school has a significant population of heritage speakers of Spanish, that could be another way for her to continue to practice conversational Spanish. Reading practice can be done with Spanish language media, such as https://news.google.com/news/headlines?ned=es_us&hl=es-419&gl=US .
You could also see if there are any independent study/online options for Spanish Lit. At my daughter’s school, they will give students a study hall in the computer lab to take on line course that they didn’t have enough students interest to have an actual class.
@momofsenior1 we did find a couple of online Spanish Lit options but her school district wouldn’t give her credit for those because those online schools are not approved by WASC and/or the Spanish Lit course they offer were not A-G UC approved. Please do let me know if you know of any institution which is accredited and offers A-G approved Spanish lit. Thanks!
If she has already completed AP Spanish, she has completed 4 years of FL for any college requirement. It is not the # of years in HS completed, but the level completed.
Based on what I’ve seen posted by John’s Hopkins Center for Taldnted Youth (who offers a lot of classes online for advanced kids) online classes no longer can be UC A-G approved.
They do offer AP Spanish Lit, they are accredited and their classes are NCAA approved. It not UC A-G. If that’s a hard requirement, then you may be out of luck. You might check to see if a nearby high school is offering the class (and if there are options for your kid to take only that one class at the other school. Other than that, dual enrollment might be the only option.
But I’d also pick up the phone and call the admissions office (your daughter, not you) at NYU and see what they say.
This isn’t a college application problem. It’s an education problem.
If a student has completed an AP Spanish Language course, and taken the AP exam with a 4 or 5 score, and her school does not offer any further Spanish courses, there isn’t a college in America that is going to penalize her for having taken fewer than 3 or 4 years of foreign language. For all that colleges say they recommend 3 or 4 years of foreign language, every year they accept lots of kids who don’t have that. And an AP class represents 4 or 5 years of language study in U.S. terms. Someone who has taken the AP course successfully has met whatever requirement there may be.
The real pity is that AP Spanish Literature is a wonderful course, and she ought to have an opportunity to take that (or some other Spanish literature course), because she wants to take more Spanish, and because it would probably be a mistake to drop Spanish altogether for two years and then to try to pick it up in college again. She really ought to try to work it out with her school to do something. (And they really ought to be bending over backward to accommodate her, although I realize not every school is good at doing that.)
Even if it’s not a-g approved, it’d count as an AP and it’d help her keep up her skills.
Or check if she can dual enroll at a cc that offers Spanish literature, or intro to Hispanic culture.
Is she a heritage speaker? In that case she could take up a new language in addition to continuing with Spanish literature.
@jmtabb UC A-G is a hard requirement for the school district. CTY Spanish lit will not work because of this condition. I will ask her to call NYU and try and figure out their foreign language requirement. Till now, I did not even know that it can be done.
@JHS Thank you so much for articulating what our daughter has been feeling. She has a genuine love for Spanish and excels in it even though we speak a different foreign language at home. We will try reaching out to the school counselor again to see if they are willing to work with her.
@MYOS1634 She is not a heritage speaker. We are looking into the possibility of dual enrollment at our local CC. If that doesn’t work, she might go for online Spanish lit course like CTY and take the exam. We just don’t know if the school will be willing to put that on her transcript.
Whether or not the regular high school will include an outside course on the record, she will have to self-report and/or send transcripts for all high schools and colleges attended to colleges that she will apply to.
For UC a-g purposes, completion of AP Spanish is level 4 or higher and therefore fulfills the foreign language portion of the requirements due to the policy of higher level foreign language courses validating lower level ones (i.e. completing level 4 or higher means that levels 1 to 3 are assumed).
@ucbalumnus Thank you for this information. I didn’t even know that she can take an outside course and self report. Like I said we are very new to the admission process in US. We will talk to the school about dual enrollment and if that doesn’t work out, we will have her take AP Spanish Literature from CTY and have her self report that course.
