Currently, I am a junior in high school. I am one of the top in my class (4.0, rigorous schedule). However, while I was in eighth grade, I didn’t forecast to take Spanish 1 freshman year, because if I’m being honest, I was dumb/clueless that taking four years of a language was important. I had the idea that I would just start Spanish sophomore year and then only take three years of it. Of course, now I realize that was not a smart decision, and I really wish someone would have made me take Spanish freshman year, but I can’t change it now. I would love to take a Spanish class at the community college over the summer so I could take Spanish 4 next year, but I can’t because I volunteer at a summer camp all summer. I plan on doing that this summer as well, which means I won’t be able to take that class unless something crazy happens and I’m not able to go back to camp this summer.
The point of all of this is, how much does it hurt my chances in the college application process to only take three years of Spanish? Keep in mind that I am a very good student and I plan on having a pretty good application besides Spanish. I’m not going to apply to Ivies/MIT/Stanford, but my dream is to go to Notre Dame. Any opinions or advice?
Notre Dame only requires 2 years of foreign language, but prefers 3-4 years, and says that the most competitive applicants will have 4 years in each major academic area.
http://admissions.nd.edu/apply/evaluation-criteria/
My oldest had 3 years, my next had only 2 year’s equivalent. They both got into excellent schools including Ivies and places like MIT. I don’t think it is a dealbreaker if you are an otherwise outstanding candidate.
@sbjdorlo , Wow, that’s impressive. When they decided not to continue the 4th/3rd year of foreign language, did you freak out? What was your (and your spouse’s) response?
No, not really. We are homeschoolers, so I was able to address the issue somewhat in my counselor letter.
My oldest took two semesters of Arabic at the community college, but the third semester was full, so he never went on.
My middle son took one semester of Italian at the community college, and here in California, that is worth two years of high school. To be honest, he was going to take a second semester but hated Italian so much, we let him take animation II at the college instead. We were going to try to do Italian at home, but in the end, we just dropped it, and I let the chips fall where they may. I wasn’t thrilled, but I didn’t want him to be miserable.
Thankfully, it worked out just fine. My middle son didn’t get into every selective college he applied to, but he will be attending the University of Pennsylvania, so we are quite happy with the results.
@sbjdorlo To be fair and transparent to the OP and others who are in a similar situation, your sons took a chance and it paid off - congrats. However, their journeys were neither typical nor without extenuating circumstances which had to be explained. That said, for the OP, 3 years will by no means put your application into the reject pile if the rest of your application is otherwise strong. Good luck.
Agreed, @skieurope. With my middle son, in particular, we definitely took a chance. We knew we checked off the “2 years of foreign language” box, but we also knew that at least one college, Northeastern, required three years, and of course Ivies “recommend” four years (but thankfully, don’t require it). He still got into Northeastern, though.
With my oldest, he was an exceptional candidate in math and physics, so his lack of a 4th year was probably easily overlooked.
I think the key is why a student won’t take a 3rd or 4th year. Another key will be if the student’s strengths make up for a particular curricular weakness.
So, while I don’t advocate for it, my point was, it’s not always a deal breaker.
My son had only 3 years of a language because there weren’t enough students interested in taking the 4th year. Instead he TA’d for the language teacher as a senior. When it came to his Common App, he just explained about it in the section where you can add information not covered elsewhere. He was applying to elite schools and was worried they would be expecting him to have that 4th year, but it didn’t have any effect at all on his acceptances!
My daugher is a junior like OP and just switched from Japanese IV to Child Psychology. It was due to Pre-calculous being overloaded and she was asked to move to different period Pre-calc. So she had to give up Japanese IV.
Is this a good reason and worth mentioning in her application? I feel awkward because I know she was secretly happy about the result. She didn’t like Japanese at all. And she didn’t make any effort to sit down with a counselor to find a way to take it somehow.
She is not aiming for Ivies but aiming for 100% need-met schools. I am a little concerned that Child Psychology is kind of a weak subject. (although it will fulfill her career course requirement.)
I’m still concerned but it’s nice to hear that it is not necessarily a deal breaker.
OP, it’s great that you are so committed to the summer camp! I hope it will show in your future application.
Since Child Psychology fulfills a requirement, she can just indicate that fact plus that the required move to another period in the “additional information box”. How she felt about it isn’t asked, so don’t tell; it’s irrelevant.
100% need schools will be fine with this.
Just know that in most cases, for the purpose of college graduation, she’ll need to take a 3rd or perhaps even 4th semester of a foreign language, or start from scratch with another one. If she’s interested in a language other than Spanish (which tends to be oversubscribed at most schools), she could even indicate it on the commonapp (I"m interested in either taking an extra year of Japanese, or discovering a new foreign language, either French or Portuguese", for example) since colleges are always happy to have students who’ll fill seats in their non-oversubscribed language classes
Slightly off-topic to the original post, although I will circle back to it. I’m a big fan of leaving things like this to the Guidance Counselor to explain. When the reasons are legit, the GC will generally know how to best word it for admissions. The space that a students has to talk about him/herself is limited; I would not waste space on this.
Now, getting back to the subject of foreign languages, or any other subject that a college “recommends.” If there are really valid reasons that the students did not take, AO’s are not unfeeling ogres. The class gets cancelled, the only teacher retires and is not replaced, the class conflicts with another “recommended” course. Crap happens. AO’s get that, and the GC can explain it away. There is no expectation from AO’s that the student finds opportunities that are outside the HS curriculum; what is important that s/he take the most rigorous curriculum without sacrificing grades. What they will have less patience for is when the student decides not to take the subject because s/he doesn’t like the class, doesn’t like the teacher, or would rather take another class.
Also, keep in mind that recommendations are just that. Notre Dame may recommend that students take 4 years of English, math, history/social studies, science, and foreign language. That’s fine and dandy, but at my high school, it was physically impossible to do so and meet the HS requirements for religion/art/music/gym. I did fine in the admissions process.
@MYOS1634 , @skieurope , Thanks for the comments!!