<p>Hey all,
I'm a rising senior and I've taken two years of Latin. The block scheduling that my school utilizes has made it difficult for me to fit band and AP/language courses, limiting me to only two credits of a foreign language. I know that many school recommend 3-4 years, but how much may taking only two years hurt me? I am applying to Columbia, Brown, and Emory as my harder schools to get into. How will only two years of language affect consideration of my academic record by these schools if I have a 2370 SAT, 3.92 unweighted GPA, 770 Math II and intend to take 1-2 more SAT II's and get in the 750-800 range? Should I try to alter my schedule to fit in Latin 3? Is it a viable option to bypass Latin 3 and take the Latin subject test? Also, I am a Hispanic student who is decent with Spanish and could probably pick it up if needed, so I was wondering if I should just avoid Latin and take the Spanish SATII instead. Thanks!</p>
<p>All language tests are evil. Even native speakers have been known to not get 800’s.</p>
<p>As for the foreign language issue, a few people here say 2 is okay. I personally think 3 is bare minimum. But given your outstanding stats, I think you could pull off 2 years. If you can fit Latin 3 in, that’d be awesome. But if it comes down to giving up something you really want to take, keep that instead.</p>
<p>bump 10char</p>
<p>Some colleges (e.g. California public universities) accept high enough scores on SAT subject or AP tests in a non-English language in substitution of high school courses. Not sure how the super-selective schools would view that, though. Some of them may prefer to see level 4.</p>
<p>If you ace the SAT subject and/or AP test in Spanish and take Latin 3, that might look better than one or the other alone.</p>
<p>But the other concern is if you are not able to take band. Some colleges want to see art and/or music in your high school course work (the California public universities do).</p>