I’m not particularly good at French, and because there were other classes I wanted to take, I decided to not take French junior year. However, the more I’m reading the more important world languages seem. The only two classes I can change are Wind Ensemble and AP Psych. However, I don’t want to stop Wind Ensemble and I really wanted to take AP Psych because I might be interested into a psych related career. I’m not expecting to get into super hard colleges, but I was wondering if this would have a significant impact on other colleges I’m interested in (Pitt, Penn State, UVA, SDSU, UWash, and who knows maybe UPenn for the heck of it)
Thanks!
Would it be possible to take a French course online?
@LeopardFire No, that’s an awful idea. You don’t learn a language by taking it online, you learn much more by hearing it and having an actual native speaker talking to you.
As for the OP, does your school have “block scheduling” or something? Can you take French III and French IV senior year? (Assuming you took I and II). That would probably equal four years of a language. Even so, you can probably take French senior year and have three years which is better than two.
You could also join French club (or whatever it’s called) and apply to language immersion programs in the summer or something. That might help show your interest even when you skipped it in junior year.
@noplayallwork I understand that, but it seems to me that OP is more interested in taking French for the sake of having a third language credit rather than to become fluent. If taking an in school class isn’t an option, at they could at least get the credit online, and then join the French Club and/or immersion programs like you suggested.
Another option could be looking for dual enrollment classes at community colleges, but I don’t know how proficient they would expect you to be in French.
Or, maybe you could take French or one of your courses at summer school (assuming your school does that) to make room for French on your schedule?
@noplayallwork @LeopardFire My school doesn’t have a french club and I’m not sure about community colleges but I don’t I’ll have enough time to do so. I guess I could always take it senior year but I already have an idea of the classes I want to take then and I’ll have to drop one of those classes then:/ Would it be so bad to only have 2 years of French?
You need to check the website of every university on your current list and see what their requirements are for foreign language. It differs from school to school, and sometimes from major to major within the same school.
What @NerdMom88 said. Neither of my kids went past their high school’s 2-year requirement (they were also band nerds and busy taking other stuff – no spare room in their schedules for a non-req in an area they didn’t really like). It wasn’t a problem for them with college admissions, but they did check schools ahead of time to make sure it wouldn’t be a problem.
@NerdMom88 @yankeeinGA Thanks for the replies. Actually, I read somewhere that foreign language in middle school also counts to the foreign language requirement. Does anyone know if this is true? I took language all 3 years in middle school.
What counts is level reached. So, what level did you reach?
@MYOS1634 honors french 3
You’re good then. You could take one more year to be more competitive but typically you’ll be okay.
Check reach colleges you’re considering but if they don’t say 4 you’re good as long as you have other rigorous classes to offset this relative deficiency.
For reassurance, you can go onto collegedata.com and find the language requirements for each school. For most colleges they “recommend” X number of years of foreign language, but will accept fewer. Mainly this is because many high schools don’t offer that much foreign language. Some offer just one year to meet state requirements.
For example, washington u in St. L recommends 2 years–
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1720
Pittsburgh requires 2 and recommends 3
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=85
Thank you!