Regarding 4 years of a foreign language, if you havn’t read the below thread I started last month there is some great insights by CC members. To summarize, if you are looking to apply to Top 25 (Top 50) colleges it’s highly recommended to take all 4 years:
Summer
Physics (UCLA)
Spanish 4 (outside of school)
Senior
AP Stat
AP Calc AB
AP Gov / AP Econ
AP Lit
Spanish 4 (complete by end of 1st Semester?)
Student Government
The wild card is her APUSH teacher just approached her this week to tryout for his Academic Decathalon team which meets after school from 3-6pm most school days. Seems like a LOT of work plus a part-time job throughout the year?
@lkg4answers, our MS also starts Spanish at 7th grade, but in HS kids with two years of MS Spanish start in Spanish 2 and even then many feel it’s inadequate preparation. Taking foreign language in college is so much more effective than in HS (including AP), but I understand not everyone can afford it, both time-wise and money-wise.
@socaldad2002, yes, very useful thread, thanks for starting it.
I personally highly recommend academic decathlon (or at least hold very fond memories of it, made lots of friends, had fun, etc.). Unlike Mock Trial, you have a chance to get lots of personal achievement medals and showcase your grasp on material even if your team does poorly and doesn’t advance to the next round. If our school had a team, I’d encourage D to join, though not sure it’s realistic to fit both decathlon and Mock Trial and keep AP-intensive schedule. All this being said, joining senior year might not be as effective with everything that’s going on. College apps plus scholarship apps would eat up a lot of time
@socaldad2002 , D21 is in Academic Octathlon (her 2nd) year. this if for 9th and 10th graders, then Decathalon for 11th and 12th graders. By far it is more work than all other classes together. She does love it and has met her “tribe”. No way could D work too.
@typiCAmom I suppose it depends on teachers. At our HS, the vast majority of kids get 4 or 5 on the Spanish (lang) AP exam. They are non native speakers and a large percentage take the first 1-2 years of Spanish in junior high so the sequence must be working in our district.
I find it interesting that at UC Davis, one can re-take any AP course taken in HS except Spanish. One can retake physics, calc, bio, chem, psych, history, etc. If you took AP Spanish in high school, you have to start at Spanish Lit. #-o
I am sure this has been debated before, but if your DD or DS is not going to major where the ap credits matter, is there any reason to take the test? My DD is questioning the need to take the Government test.
@wasldremin - you are so right about checking out AP credits, how they work with majors, and how certain Universities handle them.
for our S20, I have a list several colleges of interest. For each university, we have his ideas for majors (engineering/CS types).
*Within each U, we have a list of which AP scores are needed; and what University level class and AP class will transfer in as. EG: AB Calc is Calc 105 at one school.
*Then within each major he’s looking at, we have a list of what general classes are needed, and how those AP transfer credits will fill those general needs. Eg: at 1 school, for an engineering major, he only needs 1 class in social sciences; that one class is covered by AP environmental sciences, or AP Govt, or AP Econ. AP chem will not transfer as a credit to his intended major; so it does him little good to take it credit-wise.
I LOVE looking at these things; it’s like a puzzle. I wish he had more interest in art so he could cover that requirement with an AP class; he’ll have to take one in college.
As 3scoutsmom said, check out each school! And from there decide on the tests, if you have that option. If your kid doesn’t have a particular major or path chosen, its probably way harder to plan this all out!
Checking out each school is great, but remember, many students transfer later (we always hope they won’t but it happens). Having the AP credit to help with transferring to a future school that may take it should be considered. $100 can save alot money later.
Another thing AP credits can help with is building up a little safety net for, say, a semester abroad that ends up not quite yielding as many credits as it was supposed to, for whatever reason.
I definitely agree that time looking through the DC’s schools of interest for their list of AP credits / bump-ups / etc. is time well spent!
My oldest had enough AP credit going in to qualify for sophomore standing even though she wasn’t in a hurry to get through in 3 years (could have done 3 1/2 easily but didn’t want to do that even). But anyway, even though she didn’t use the credits to get finished sooner, they gave her priority in choosing classes (she got to register with the class up from hers so she got to pick sooner than the kids she entered with… this is a common perq) but also, she also got to choose housing with the class up from hers, so she was easily able to get a single her sophomore year.
I don’t think D would have any practical use for any of her 4 AP credits (other than Seminar, where taking AP test is a requirement to proceed to a Research, at least in our school), but I worry if she skipped any of the tests, AO’s would think that she took the test and got a poor grade she doesn’t want to report.
@typiCAmom That is why I told my daughter to go ahead and take them. My D20 wants to go into nursing and at some of the schools we are looking at almost none of the AP credits matter.
@socaldad2002, a 5 might give a small boost for a kid who got a B in class - AO might guess it could have been a teacher issue. In case of an A in class, a good AP score simply confirms the grade was earned in good faith.
May I ask, where is your daughter taking Spanish 4? Is she going to take National Spanish Exam in the spring?
@typiCAmom “May I ask, where is your daughter taking Spanish 4? Is she going to take National Spanish Exam in the spring?”
I’m not really sure what the name of the program is but it’s not affiliated with the HS. She will have an instructor that works with a few kids at a time. I do know it’s not cheap but her PC is highly encouraging her to complete 4 years of foreign language. She took Spanish 7th/8th (Year 1), Freshman (Year 2), Summer between freshman/sophomore year private instructor (Year 3).
My concern is if/when she takes it this summer she will have been away from the language for 2 years. I just see it being a grind for her with little to no benefit as most colleges do not even “require” 3 years let alone 4 years. The other issue is she has straight A’s and if she gets a let’s say a “B” or “B-” in Spanish 4 does is negate the positive aspects of having 4 years of foreign language vs. 3 years with A’s? Lots to consider.
