Polyglotishniscoscity???

Applying to College
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<p>Is being able to speak multiple languages a big advantage in college admissions? Here's my story: </p>

<p>My mom is a born and raised French-woman, my dad is a first-genertation American, but Italian in heritage. My dad was a double major in French and Poly Sci in college, so he is fluent in French, Italian, and English. My mom is fluent in French and English, and she learned a good bit of Italian from my dad. My parents thought it was really important for me to be fluent in multiple languages, so they use French, Italian, and English around the house very frequently. Today, I am fluent in all three languages.</p>

<p>When I started elementary school, I took almost daily Spanish classes. I fell in love with both the language and the culture. In sixth grade I told my parents that I loved Spanish, so they decided to enrich my interest. I am fortunate enough to be financially well-off, so my parents and I generally spend our summers in either France or Italy with my respective grandparents. The summers going into seventh and eighth grades, however, I spent in Spain with my parents. I have also spent a couple of vacations volunteering in the Dominican Republic. Finally, my parents bought me the Spanish Rosetta Stone. I quickly finished it and now I am pretty fluent in Spanish. </p>

<p>When I got to high school, I had to decide what language I should take. I spoke with the head of the World Languages department at my chosen school (a private school), and she said that taking Spanish wouldn't be a great idea because I would immeadiately go into AP with my knowledge. She said I should take the AP exam, but not the course. She instead recommended I display my absolute LOVE of languages to the Head of Academic Affairs, and then request to take two languages (one replacing a required art or music elective). I did this, and the Head agreed! Since freshman year, I have taken Chinese and Latin in school. I'm not as crazy about Latin as I am about Chinese, but I love them both as I am a language freak lol. My course list has gone like this:</p>

<p>Freshman: Chinese 1 Honors, Latin 1 Honors
Sophomore: Chinese 2 Honors, Latin 2 Honors
(if you show excellence in a level 2 Honors language class, you can skip the level 3 class at my school).
Junior: AP Chinese 4, AP Latin 4.
Senior: (yet to complete, as I am a junior): Japanese 1 Honors </p>

<p>So far I have taken the SAT IIs in French, Italian, Literature, and Spanish. I am taking Chinese ane Latin tomorrow. I also took the APs in French (Frosh), Italian (Frosh), Spanish (Soph), and English Lang (Soph). My scores were:</p>

<p>French w/ Listening: 800, 5 on AP
Italian: 800, 5 on AP
Spanish: 770, 5 on AP
Literature: 790, 5 on AP</p>

<p>Will this multitude of languages help me in admissions, or come off as being pretentious because I've had so many opportunites to learn these languages? I am looking at Ivies, especially Harvard and Yale.</p>

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<p>You could certainly spin it a different way than you have here. I would downplay the opportunities that you received simply by being well-off (going to Europe, taking spanish classes, etc) and more on what you yourself sought out.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/717580-does-speaking-three-languages-help.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/717580-does-speaking-three-languages-help.html&lt;/a&gt;
word</p>

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<p>to gthopeful, yeah I agree. However, will colleges blame me for being born into an affluent family? I mean, I technically have taken complete advantage of the situation that I’ve been put in. I’m not one of those rich girls who shops all day and parties all night, without a care in the world of the future. I am a flip-flops and jeans (and or sweats lol) kind of girl who would rather go volunteer than go shopping. I love to travel, so I do it as frequently as possible, which is probably why I love languages so much.
to fiona_, thanks, that thread did help? The poster on that thread referred to speaking 3 languages, so will my knowledge of six improve my chances even more? I mean, I could probably have decent chances at these schools without the language hook (My SAT I breakdown was 800 Reading, 780 Math, 800 Writing), but languages and cultures are such a passion of mine that I feel I need to put it in the app. Any more advice?</p>

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<p>Colleges won’t “blame” you. They admit kids from affluent families all the time. But they do want to consider all achievements in context. The higher the student had to climb to get to where they are, the greater the achievement. That you have taken full advantage of the opportunities presented to you will be viewed positively.</p>

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<p>I bow to your polyglot godliness. :)</p>

<p>Honestly, I think coureur is right on. And speaking so many languages is awesome. I think it really shows immense passion for linguistics.</p>

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<p>to phanatic, yeah that’s exactly what I want to show. I am so in love with linguistics, language, and human communications in general. I love school lol, every subject even, but I always look forward to my Chinese and Latin classes. My school is so awesome because they offer 5 full languages and one year of Japanese. I saved up money from my summer job last summer to buy the German Rosetta Stone, and since I bought it I have been using it almost daily. I took a German placement test in March for my school, and I was placed in German 3 Honors. I guess that’s pretty good, but my goal is to take the AP lol. I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to take both Japanese and German next year, or just stick with Japanese. Any suggestions? And also, just like I did with Chinese and Latin, I will be starting fresh with Japanese. Do you think I should take both German 3 Honors and Japanese, or just stick to Japanese? Also, should I try to get German down even more so I can take AP German 4 next year?</p>

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<p>German sounds like a good route, as you’ve taken 2 languages each year in high school.</p>

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<p>Ok thanks Borb. I was planning on doing that. I’m going to up the ante on my studying to try and get into AP.</p>

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<p>They’re not going to blame you, and somehow indicating your affluence will probably be positive for schools without need-blind practices. Anyway, I was just saying stuff that’s been given to you rather than sought out isn’t really of much value to an admissions committee.</p>

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<p>Wow, normally I always point out on these kinds of threads that there are in fact many high school students who speak 3 or 4 languages (including myself), but your linguistic accomplishments totally blew me away. That’s really quite amazing. Congrats.</p>

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<p>Thank you muchly CaliforniaDancer! I would say I’m proud of myself too, but it’s just become kind of a way of life lol.</p>

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<p>You are insane. Are you a god? Or a machine? Or BOTH?</p>

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<p>CaliforniaDance, I doubt there’s “many.” Maybe a hundred or two. That’s FEW, considering there are millions of HS students.</p>

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<p>:D I wrote my college essay about my love of languages and it went well for me. For some prospective, I grew up with Korean and English. I took Spanish for 6 years, American Sign Language for 3, Japanese for 2, self-studied French, Esperanto, and at least a hundred Chinese characters (mostly Korean pronunciation, mostly with my mother’s help). I had some community service from doing ASL shows from kids with my class and was inducted for/held positions in 3 different language societies. Using all this as a center piece for my app, I got into 3 of the 5 schools I applied to (Brown (attend), Georgetown, BC: accepted; Yale, Dartmouth: denied). Right now I’m a prospective Linguistics and French Concentrator (major).</p>

<p>Best of luck!!</p>

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<p>If it helps to know, this guy I know who got into a bunch of ivies was fluent in about 4 languages, similar to you. English, Italian, French and Bulgarian (or another eastern European language - not trying to come across as ignorant).</p>

<p>I think it’s fantastic that you speak so many languages and if I were an admissions officer I’d love to admit someone who would bring so much passion and culture to the class.</p>

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<p>joshcasto - well, maybe that was somewhat of an exaggeration. I guess it’s just especially true at my school where a lot of kids speak English, Chinese at home, and then study a third language in school. A lot of kids also take 2 foreign languages.</p>

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<p>Haha this tread sounds like me without the affluentness and the parents speaking three languages and supporting my learning. Does this really help in college admits? If so, im gonna abuse this to the max cuz i really love the languages i speak and i hope that they help (as if they were ppl) me. Ive tooken exams to show my profiency (not fluency, im not fluent, i just speak them very very well). Im amazed though. I dont really EVER hear about other polyglots. And its a shame that not that many ppl care about us.</p>

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<p>OH. PS. i think you should take both! I wish i my school had those classes! we just have spanish (which i completed in two years!), french (which was a joke and i dominated!), and german which im currently in (i was so boss that i didnt have to take german one but the school only had up g2). do it! its really fun! you’ll love both cultures!</p>

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<p>To vosamim, not to sound rude, but you claim to be a linguistics freak, yet you said:</p>

<p>“Ive tooken exams to show my profiency…”</p>

<p>I’m not a grammar nazi or anything, but that’s just atrocious.</p>