I took one year of Chinese 3 in 9th grade.
I emailed some colleges and a few of them said that only counted as one year. This does not meet their requirements, but they all said the courses they listed were more recommendations than requirements.
How adversely would this affect my application? Would it be possible to be accepted if I only took one year instead of two/three?
I took many other difficult courses. I don’t really have an explanation for why I didn’t take more foreign language classes other than I thought Chinese 3 would count as three years and I wanted to focus on other subjects.
Aiming for ~top 20 schools and UC/CSUs.
From the UC website:
http://ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/e-language/index.html
The point is, that they want you to be able to communicate with someone, in a language other than English such that you don’t end up ignorant like the poster above.
Yes, I do agree that the poster above is ignorant. However, Chinese 3 does meet the UC requirements. However, it doesnt meet the recommendation of some other colleges and that’s what Im worried about
We were told by UC’s just getting to level 3 was not enough that 2 years had to be taken or specific test scores achieved. They are not flexible so make sure you get the proof you need that you are currently at a high enough level.
Many of the Ivy League/Top 10 schools want more than 2 years so unless you used every course to take something better than foreign language in their eyes you might want to consider doing an online class or CC class.
Most colleges will consider what you took as 3 years.
Did you take the SAT subject test for Chinese?
“but they all said the courses they listed were more recommendations than requirements.”
That’s your answer at these schools anyway. They didn’t say 'no you don’t meet the requirements. Sorry." They said these were recommendations. That means they are telling you not to eliminate your application for this reason alone. Assuming you otherwise are an attractive candidate, they will consider your application.
The lesson for everyone else here is to check carefully what the requirements for admission are the schools you are targeting - or may be targeting. It’s not fun to find out in 11th or 12th grade that you didn’t get the minimum required coursework completed and now can’t apply, or are applying with a question mark by your transcript.
Most schools say recommendation but UCs in our experience are not flexible. My son wanted to apply to several UCs but did not take a fine art (has to be art, music, drama where our district allows a few computer classes to meet the elective requirement). All of the UC admissions offices said he would not even be considered without it. He weighed out taking a fine art his senior year to apply to the UCs and decided against it. Some schools are the same way with foreign language. My child only took 2 years rather than the 3-4 that are standard in most area so some schools were not going to be possible for him–I think Yale was one that holds foreign language in very high regard.
For UCs and CSUs, Chinese 3 validates Chinese 1 and 2. I.e. they count the highest level completed (and only HS level 2 is actually required, though HS level 3 is recommended for UC).
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/validation_matrix_math_lote.pdf
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/csu-uc-a-g-comparison-matrix.pdf
For super-selective schools, you probably want level 4 or higher anyway, although they may not have hard requirements.