Currently, I’m a sophomore taking Spanish 7/8H after haven taken Spanish 3/4H last year. My teacher recommended me for the skip, and I followed accordingly.
About 3/4 of the semester through and I am thoroughly disliking the class. However, I hear that selective colleges request students to take 3 or 4 years of the same language. Will I still be competitive for top 20 schools (solely based off the merit of my schedule) if I drop Spanish next year and settle with only 2 years?
Here is how my schedules would look either way:
Option A (3 years of language):
AP Spanish
AP Calculus BC
AP Compsci Applications
AP Physics 1
AP Government
AP English Language
Free Period
Option B (2 years of language):
AP Environmental Science
AP Calculus BC
AP Compsci Applications
AP Physics 1
AP Government
AP English Language
Free Period
Do you dislike the class because you didn’t take Spanish 5/6 and are behind on the material? Maybe you can be placed in Spanish 5/6 instead? I would ask the teacher if that is possible because if you are looking at selective colleges, just two years of a foreign language will be detrimental.
If you skipped a year, that means you will have completed level 3, not level 2. if all of your colleges of interest recommend only 3 years, you should be ok.
There is no simple answer as to why I dislike the subject. Part of the reason, yes, is that most of the class native and I am therefore behind.
I’m pretty sure its too late to switch into 5/6. I’ve spoken with my teacher about it in the past and she seems to think it’s a bad decision, granted that I have an A+ in her class.
My understanding was that colleges request for their applicants to reach a certain level of fluency in a language, regardless of the specifics of how many years that will require. I can most likely get an A both semesters of 7/8, demonstrating that I succeeded in 4th year content.
I don’t follow your logic there. In 9th grade, I took level 2. I skipped level 3, and therefore, I’m currently at level 4. I could either stop at this current level or move onto level 5 next year.
I’m looking into top 20 schools as reaches, specializing in computer science as a major. Here is my current (obviously tentative) list:
Safety
University of Colorado- Boulder
University of Colorado- Denver
Match
Colorado School of Mines
Cornell
Georgia Tech
Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Reach
Duke
Caltech
MIT
Carnegie Mellon
Brown
Dartmouth
So just to summarize, my main question to the readers of this post is whether it matters more (1) how many years I take or (2) what level I reach. The current plan is that I will have completed level 4 sophomore year, unless I switch back to level 3.
It’s worth noting that I’ve let the situation escalate a bit further than is desirable… We only have 4 weeks left of the semester and I still haven’t made the decision.
I’m not quite sure if my teacher would even let me switch back to 5/6 and receive an A there
When schools say they’re looking for 3 years of language, generally they’re talking about level 3. They don’t care how many years it takes you to get that proficiency.
So you’ve fulfilled that requirement. Basically, if you complete level 4 this year, that’s considered "four years of language).
It would matter for credit. If you get a 4 or 5 on AP you could place entirely out of language depending on the school so if you’re confident enough in the material definitely go for it.
You’re fine. Complete this year and you’ve reached level 4.
(foreign language, like math, goes by level reached not number of years since sometimes these match but often they don’t.)
Talk with your parents about college costs and budget. Georgia Tech and UIUC will not give you anything to attend. If tour patents can’t pay from income and savings, cross then out.
Check out ASU Barrett, Harvey Mudd?
Run the NPC on eaxh college.
The question was whether or not it mattered that it only took me 2 years to reach level 4. Apparently though, the consensus is that I should be fine with stopping Spanish as a 10th grader for elite college admissions.
Interesting, this seems to be a tricky subject matter. I’m not so confident that I could score well on the test, but I guess if I were to take it this year, there’s always the chance… My main concern with doing so is that potentially getting a 2 or 3 could reflect poorly on my candidacy for certain academic awards such as AP Scholar.
Thanks for the extra clarification, I appreciate it :).
With regards to having UIUC and GeorgiaTech on my list, I picked those schools mainly from hearing that their admissions are less competitive, but equally highly ranked for their CS programs. One article I read posted the admission rate for GeorgiaTech CS as staggeringly higher than other top tier schools with similar CS rankings.
I do recognize, like you’ve mentioned though, that it could be a challenge financially, so in the future as I near closer to Junior year, I’ll definitely have to take a look at some of those factors.
I still need to have an in-depth conversation with my parents about tuition. They are in a position to pay a large amount of the cost; however, I don’t see much of a reason in attending Georgia Tech, with Colorado School of Mines a 3rd or 4th of the cost and both as being competitive engineering schools.
I have not considered Harvey Mudd nor ASU Barrett, so thanks for the suggestions. I’ll have to look into them in the future.
CS at UIUC has an admit rate below 10% and Georgia Tech’s selectivity has shot up too.
It’s good to have dream schools but one of the hardest tasks ahead of you is 1° figuring out how much each year your parents are able and willing to provide you for the purpose of college and 2° finding two safeties you like and can afford.
