<p>My son's large public high school only offers foreign language through the AP level, and due to financial constraints, does not allow students to start a second language senior year. My son finished AP Spanish junior year, and thus can't take a class this year within school. He was planning to address this in the "is there anything else we should know" section. (I should also mention that although he loves Spanish, he felt it would be too much to take an additional class after school with sports and musical activities.) Any suggestions about what to say about this? Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m not sure what he wants to address. He has fulfilled the foreign language criteria for college by completing the equivalent of Spanish 4, right? </p>
<p>What is he explaining?</p>
<p>My kids finished honors Spanish 4 in 10th grade and never took any additional FL in high school. No explanation was needed at all for college applications.</p>
<p>My understanding was that selective colleges want four years of language in high school, and my son has only three years since he started in freshman year with 2nd year Spanish. Is this not correct? </p>
<p>Most (if not all) schools will see on the transcript that your son finished AP Spanish and can find out that no more was offered at your school. My D dropped Spanish 5 at semester time without telling me ahead of time. Her reasoning was because that none of her Spanish teachers had been good teachers and she wasn’t learning anything, so what was the point.</p>
<p>She was accepted early to Tulane, not exactly an Ivy, but nothing to sneeze at. And, she is a Spanish major who has had experiences in Central and South America that taught her that her high school teachers knew more and taught more than she gave them credit for.</p>
<p>She gave no extra explanations on her applications, nor did her counselor.</p>
<p>your son has maxed out the Spanish courses he can take at his high school. Right? </p>
<p>Spanish 2 in 9th
Spanish 3 in 10th
Soanish 4 in 11th.</p>
<p>Right?</p>
<p>He took Spanish 4. He has fulfilled the four year requirement. </p>
<p>We had the same issue and contacted several colleges about this. All said our kids had fulfilled the requirement for fourth year FL study.</p>
<p>Call the college’s of interest and ask them. </p>
<p>If it’s a huge issue, do an online course.</p>
<p>Correct. But some people say he should enroll at some local college which would be challenging with his schedule. </p>
<p>You will have all kinds of people telling you what you (or your son) should do. Do what is right for him (and you). I think he will be fine.</p>
<p>cbdnyc: My daughter had a similar issue and was unable to take AP Spanish as a senior in hs because it conflicted with AP Bio lab. She had planned on taking AP Bio since she was a freshman and she wasn’t going to give it up to take an actual 4th year of Spanish. She did the same as your son, Spanish 2 as a freshman, Spanish 3 as a sophomore and Spanish 4 as a junior. Her school let her attend the AP Spanish on the days she did not have Bio lab and she was able to take the AP test but she did not receive credit it for it from her school. She wrote a one paragraph explanation in the “anything else” part of her applications. She was accepted into some very highly selective schools so I’m sure she was not penalized for not having 4 credits of hs Spanish. </p>
<p>On a side note, we did consider Spanish at a local college but her senior load was too heavy to add two nights a week for a class at a local college.</p>
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<p>IF you are in NYC, has your son completed 6 credits of spanish and has he taken and passed the LOTE? HOw did your son score on the AP in foreign language? Did your son take the SAT II in spanish? Has your son inquired as to whether or not he can take foreign language with his school’s College Now partner?</p>
<p>If your son has not done the following, then IMO, he has other things that he could focus on other than not taking spanish?
Is your son on track to get an advanced regents with mastery diploma?
Will he received honors designation for this advanced regents diploma </p>
<p>Spanish through AP Spanish is fine, regardless of what year it is completed. College admissions do not expect a student to go through hoops to find courses not offered by his high school. Now if he wanted to continue to study Spanish, that’s another question.</p>
<p>Sybbie719: He’s taken 3 years of Spanish in high school (spanish2, Spanish 3 and then AP Spanish - he got a 4 on the AP test). He doesn’t have time during the day to take an additional class through college now (he has 9 classes a day). I actually don’t know what a mastery diploma is but he did well on the Spanish Regents (and the rest of his regents). So basically, I’m not looking how he can add a Spanish class, I’m just wondering if there is anything he should say on his common app about not having a 4th year of Spanish in high school. Thanks!</p>
<p>
No; it’s not worth bringing up.</p>
<p>My son was in a very similar situation last year: finished AP Spanish in 11th grade (also score of 4) but did Spanish 1 in 8th grade which was indicated on his transcript. He made no mention on any of his apps about his Spanish education, and he got into several top 25 universities/top 10 LAC’s. Colleges mainly look at the last year of the foreign language completed. A 4 on the AP Spanish test is self-explanatory and more than enough. I would put your efforts into making the rest of the applications and essays as good as they can be and not worry about this.</p>
<p>The only thing to suggest is that he finds a way to keep up with his language skills this year in case he wants to continue it in college.</p>
<p>No- your son has 4 years of HS foreign language. The middle school year’s worth counts for HS. Once you have had 4 HS years- equivalent to 4 semesters of college btw- you have mastered the basics. Any further work would be refining skills and studying culture and literature. It is common for students to finish with a foreign language in 3 HS years then to take other HS courses. He now has an extra class hour for whatever he chooses to take. </p>
<p>
in 2012, NYS introduced 3 New Regents diplomas:</p>
<p>• Mastery in Math (Advanced Regents diploma only): Students must score 85 or higher on each of the three math Regents exams. </p>
<p>• Mastery in Science (Advanced Regents diploma only): Students must score 85 or higher on each of three science Regents exams</p>
<p>Advanced Regents diploma with Mastery in Math and Science: Students must score 85 or higher on each of the 3 math regents and Each of the 3 science regents.</p>
<p>In addition, students who graduate in the top 10% of the class at every high school in NYS, majors in STEM and works a STEM job for 5 years in NYS may be eligible for free tuition at SUNY and CUNY.</p>
<p><a href=“NYS Higher Education Services Corporation - NYS Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Incentive Program”>http://www.hesc.ny.gov/pay-for-college/financial-aid/types-of-financial-aid/nys-grants-scholarships-awards/nys-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-incentive-program.html</a></p>
<p>This must be a one of the most FAQ of high school course work selection for college admission.</p>
<p>For most colleges, the level completed is more important than the number of years taken in high school. Most high schools do not offer anything beyond AP level, so most colleges do not expect a student to be able to take additional years of that language after completing AP level.</p>
<p>Given that native and heritage speakers of Spanish are not hard to find in many parts of the US, it may not be that difficult for him to speak Spanish in random social encounters (e.g. ordering tacos at a restaurant, or talking to high school friends who happen to be native or heritage speakers) for continued practice. Spanish reading skills can be practiced on a daily basis by reading news here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_us”>http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_us</a>
<a href=“http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_mx”>http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_mx</a>
<a href=“http://news.google.com/news?ned=es”>http://news.google.com/news?ned=es</a></p>
<p>Our school lets you take AP Spanish twice - again senior year - if you already took it junior year. It is not a repeat of the same material because they vary the curriculum. (I don’t know if you enroll using a different course name/number.) My son elected not to take it, however, and still got accepted to a “selective” college. I don’t think you need to have him go beyond AP.</p>
<p>@LBowie There are separate AP Spanish Language and AP Spanish Literature tests. Is that what your school offers? (I agree that there is no need to go beyond AP Spanish Language.)</p>
<p>It is fairly common for 11th graders to take the AP Spanish Language test. Last year, 48,883 juniors vs. 53,542 seniors: <a href=“http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/Prog-Summary-Report-2014.pdf”>http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/Prog-Summary-Report-2014.pdf</a></p>
<p>If your son took AP Spanish, he’s taken the equivalent of Spanish 5. He’s fine. My younger kid stopped with Latin 4 junior year and did very well in admissions. Very few high schools have post AP language courses. Your child has more than fulfilled what colleges are looking for. He certainly doesn’t need to start another language. </p>
<p>Some of this thread must be confusing to OP.
OP, he is fine. He maxed out on what his hs offers and that was at AP level. Not sure I’d say sports prevents some additional learning; keep it simple and positive. </p>
<p>I don’t know where this idea comes that middle school counts- most transcripts show high school only. Many (if not most) selective colleges refer to high school or secondary preparation. But when the hs itself only offers through AP and you reach that in junior year, you are not automatically expected to go find some outside opportunity. And not if you have a nice, rigorous senior schedule (which they can see on the transcript.)</p>
<p>The issue can come up when a kid stops at, say, Lang 3 in soph year, thinking that adds to 3 years in hs- and not maxing out the offerings. </p>