I had this thought and got curious—
If someone only took one year of high school language, and never took any more, would they even have a shot at colleges that require 2-3 years of language? Or would they be severely limited in terms of choices?
(This is genuine curiosity, I took four years of language).
The key word here is “require”. If something is required, that means you must have it. Unless there is a REALLY good reason your school counselor can explain in their letter. But really REQUIRED means…you must have it.
Definition of “required” is what they say they require on the CDS. Just didn’t know if that was flexible at all.
Why are you asking? Do you know someone who is only planning to take one year of foreign language in high school?
If they took level 1, then a college that requires 2-3 years would not admit them.
If they took one year of a higher level (as is common for those who started a foreign language in elementary or middle school, or is a heritage speaker), then some or many colleges will count level N as having taken N years.
And even then, that likely won’t suffice if required. But the reality is that outside of UC and CSU (where required means required unless you test out via AP/IB), I’m unaware of too many colleges mentioned in this site that require (vs recommend) a certain number of years.
There are some schools that will accept a computer programming course as a foreign language. I think Georgia Tech is one.
@skieurope UNC system schools require two years of a language other than English. You can take it before or after high school, though, but it must be before matriculation (so you could take it in 8th grade or the summer after high school).
They also count level N as N years.
However, foreign language requirements for high school students applying to frosh admission are not that unusual at state universities. Examples:
And adding…if you haven’t fulfilled the required courses in FL, at some colleges for some majors, you will be required to take FL in college in order to get your bachelors degree.
Depends if 1 year in HS= the student only reached Level 1 in the foreign language => then they’re severely limited wrt 4-year colleges they can apply to directly from HS. All universities that “recommend” 3 or 4 (ie., the most selective&with the best FA) are out of reach.
If 1 year in HS follows an immersion program from K-8 and that year is AP French or Honors Spanish Literature 6… then it’s okay because level reached is high enough.
At many HS, you can’t even graduate if you only have 1 year of HS language.
Glad this was mentioned. Some states require more than one year of FL to graduate from high school. Some schools do.
I believe MIchigan and DC have a two year requirement. My state has one year. You need to check.
Many colleges have HS course requirements that are in excess of graduation requirements.
Some states, but few colleges, allow CS as an alternative for FL to fulfill graduation requirements.
Regardless, colleges that have course requirements really don’t care if their requirements exceed HS graduation requirements. Entry requirements are generally explained on the admissions page. So for the hypothetical case where the applicant has French 1 as their only language class, they are not getting admitted if the college requires 2 years.