<p>This is my first post and I am not sure if this is the correct forum to post this question so feel free to direct me to the correct one if I am wrong.
My sophmore S loves theater and wants to major is theater or MT in college. He attends his home school as well as our school district's arts magnet program which has a wonderful theater program, plays in the band, and he is also a good student academically.</p>
<p>Ok, here's the question: Should he take a 4th year of language next year or use that elective for something else like Theater Tech or Dance which is also available in the magnet program? </p>
<p>He is finding it increasingly difficult to balance rehearsals and classwork for his AP class, several weighted classes, and instrument practice. I look at websites for colleges and many of the more selective schools discuss having the most challenging academic program or looking at core academics which include language. My goals are for him to go to college and pursue his dreams and I don't want his to make a mistake with class selection that would put him out of the running for a particular school. </p>
<p>I also have to say that I hope he also minors in something else and would even bankroll more than 4 years if he could double major so I do encourage him to have a challenging academic program. I am a science person so navigating the world of theater and music is a big unknown for me and I am not sure that his HS guidance counselor is such a great resource either as I don't think there is a lot of expertice in advising for the arts.</p>
<p>I’m a big believer of taking classes you like once you’re a senior. Colleges appreciate knowing who you are and your class selection relays that. My daughter (currently a Senior MT at NU) only had 3 years of language (middle school counted as one so she stopped taking language at the end of sophomore year) and that didn’t stop her from getting into any school. Not only did she get into NU but she also was admitted to Yale, didn’t seem to bother them that she dropped language as soon as she could!</p>
<p>So I guess the key question is - which classes would HE prefer?</p>
<p>I’m a big believer of taking classes you like once you’re a senior. Colleges appreciate knowing who you are and your class selection relays that. My daughter (currently a Senior MT at NU) only had 3 years of language (middle school counted as one so she stopped taking language at the end of sophomore year) and that didn’t stop her from getting into any school. Not only did she get into NU but she also was admitted to Yale, didn’t seem to bother them that she dropped language as soon as she could!</p>
<p>So I guess the key question is - which classes would HE prefer?</p>
<p>Very few colleges require a fourth year of foreign language study, although they might encourage it. As long as he is not pursuing an IB diploma, he should be fine. My elder son dropped not only French, but Math, after his junior year. I actually had to sign off on the Math, but he wanted to add Stagecraft (at his Theater teacher’s advice) for his theatrical resume. The only traditional, “by-the-numbers,” college he applied to was Rutgers. They contacted his school to clarify his math background. Once they were satisfied that it met their minimum requirement, they accepted him within days.</p>
<p>That being said, my son was never a candidate for a highly selective liberal arts college. I might suggest that your son proceed with a rigorous academic course-load through junior year, and then have fun as a senior.</p>
<p>To the original poster: Since your son is only a sophomore, I wouldn’t gamble on dropping his foreign language next year–for one thing, he might just change his mind, and for another, he isn’t close to narrowing down his list of colleges yet (I hope!). A rigorous high-school curriculum would be crucial if he decided to apply to an academically selective school OR if he was hoping for academic merit aid. Many selective colleges that might not “require” an additional year of language or math might expect it if they are familiar with your child’s high school and know what the possibilities are for its students. I just think it’s too soon to encourage him to put all of his eggs in the acting/MT basket. If you look through CC threads, you’ll see plenty of advice to keep your grades and scores up, and I think we all know that curriculum is important on the transcript, not just GPA. If he’s really interested in MT, he might want to take dance outside of school rather than letting it replace an academic core course. Stagemum’s advice above is in line with what I’m thinking–i.e., continue to take a challenging (but do-able) courseload through junior year, and don’t close the door prematurely to continuing in upper-level courses as a senior. Good luck!</p>
<p>My S is a Junior and wanted to quit FL( latin) this year. His GC really encouraged him not to because he is a strong student and didn’t want to close any doors, even if he is probably headed for a BFA program. He is in AP Latin this year, and although he certainly doesn’t love it, he is happy he will have a strong transcript now that he is still on the fence about a BFA program or LAC route. My S who graduated last year dropped FL after his Sophomore year and I am convinced it hurt him in admissions… even though he did replace it with another academically rigorous class. There is a ton of conflicting advice on this subject, but I think the best idea is to do what feels best to your S.</p>
<p>Both of my kids went to a school that only offered foreign language for two years. My daughter took French and my son took Latin. Both of them got into great colleges with only 2 years of foreign language. They both had the most rigorous classwork that was offered and they both were in rehearsals until all hour of the night. Their high school is ranked 127 in the entire nation. I don’t remember any college requiring more than 2/3 years of foreign language.</p>
<p>It has a lot to do with what is offered at your school and with how well the college or university is acquainted with the high school profile. For instance, our independent K-12 school is virtually next door to a highly “ranked” flagship public university that attracts a lot of applicants, both in and out of state. They pay close attention (from year to year) to the most rigorous senior program available and are very open about that with us. If your school doesn’t teach APs, for example, or advanced calculus, or whatever, then it’s not a problem if your transcript lacks those. I’ve seen more than a few selective colleges that require three years of foreign language and recommend four, by the way. Obviously it’s different if your admission depends largely on an audition, but the OP’s kid is only in 10th grade and might want to be careful about closing any academic doors so early in his high school career. Of course there will be plenty of exceptions, as there are for everything, but why take that chance if he’s a solid student? And why choose to limit your knowledge to the world of theater while you’re still young? Learn a language in depth while you can–there definitely won’t be much time for it if you do pursue a BFA! Just my 2 cents, but am speaking as a lifelong teacher who’s seen a lot of kids change paths, so I believe strongly in keeping your options open–and by the way, i also believe that learning a second (or third) language is one of the best things you can do for your brain! ;)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! We met with the counselor today and he decided to take that 4th year of FL next year. Also taking AP English, precalc, physics, theater and band. Encouraged to take AP US history but declined as he is doing his second AP history this year and I think getting burned out. Counselor discussed that could mean the difference between getting into UVA or William and Mary so I know what you mean about taking the most rigorous curriculum available but he has just had almost no down time this year and I think that it could be really tough to do 2APs for him and enjoy theater. There will be time for second guessing!</p>
<p>Following up on these posts – I think know your kid is important in this. One can always theoretically talk about leaving options open – but after two years of high school and spending five weeks at Stella Adler over the summer doing a BFA type curriculum 24/7, it would have been the upset of the century for my daughter to have come to us and said she wanted to do a BA program rather than a BFA program. For BFA programs, I saw none that had an issue with just two years of a foreign language so we let her drop it and not have her take it as senior when she ran into some health issues during her Junior year.</p>
<p>I’d be more concerned about dropping History / Social Studies than the FL! You can check the common data set of various schools to see their requirements / recommendations for courseloads. I randomly picked NYU and BU: </p>
<p>NYU requires 4 units of Soc. Requires two of FL, but recommends 4</p>
<p>BU requires 3 of Soc, but recommends 3-4; requires 2 of FL, but recommends 2-4.</p>
<p>You can find this information under the “First-Time First Year Admission” section of the CDS.</p>
<p>I agree with ActingDad as far as KNOW YOUR KID. S stayed in Spanish this year, because he is good at it. He is also good at History, so he continued in that. He is not so good at science/math and is currently struggling with calculus, and I am kicking myself that I forced him to take that. He also did not take the 4th year AP in science that is the recommendation of our high school (bio, chem, physics, then an AP in one of those), and took a fun science (forensics CSI style) instead. That science does not have a lab, which BU says they prefer that students take 4 years of a lab science.</p>
<p>My son has not taken one AP in high school, and we picked honors classes in only the humanities (english, history, language). His GPA is solid, but we know he didn’t take the most challenging courses that our high school offers. This allowed him to have success in his courses while doing theatre year round. I believe for him it was his theatre resume that got him into his dream school, along with his audition. </p>
<p>I’m not saying throw caution to the wind, but you really need to know if your kid will implode by taking high school courses that are difficult while trying to participate in theatre activities.</p>
<p>This is so true…my S’s school does not offer AP but instead they have the IB program. We could have insisted he take the whole IB program but we recognized the reality…my S’s theatre commitments were more important to him than school sometimes. so we had to be sure to balance the challenge of the course with reality. He took IB English, history, theatre and Spanish but in no way was he ever going to succeed in IB math and science courses.</p>
<p>My S is struggling with this already. He is a Junior and starting to think about next years classes. He has 2 AP’s this year, latin and psych, and it has seemed to be a manageable schedule with his 2 very demanding arts classes…acting and choir, and 6-7 productions he has been in. I was actually very proud of him this first semester… his report card was amazing. So he was successful in planning his schedule for this year, even though everyone thought he should take the AP Bio instead of honors.</p>
<p>Now… next year is proving to be harder. He will have all the demands he has this year with college app’s thrown on top. He really wants to take AP Physics… which worries me the most, AP Lit, and is really up in the air about AP USH… the teachers are much better in the AP, but I worry it will be just be too much work. He will also have Calculus, a required religion class fro 1 semester and he wants to take this astronomy class. I am now worried about what Sdon said about NYU… because he will only have 31/2 years of Social sciences… World, economics( 1 semester), USH, and Psych?? will he be denied because of this? He absolutely HATES history.</p>
<p>5boys, I don’t think he’d be denied because of 3/12 vs. 4 years of History. I"m not in Admissions so I can’t be sure, but: it is what it is and I’d be shocked if they were that rigid in their application process.</p>
<p>The more academically selective schools will look to see that the students challenged themselves within the context of their school curriculum. English, Math, Science and Social Studies (History) are really the big four of the “core” that schools look at. Parsing whether students take all advanced courses and all four years is probably not going to make the final difference as long as the student maintains a sufficient amount of rigor. Note I didn’t say the highest level of rigor. My kids didn’t have the highest rigor levels in all classes every year, but they did do four years of the core.</p>
<p>5boys, from the sound of it, I would have your son not do the APUSH. Keep him in History though. That’s my amateur college guidance advice; SoozieVT is really the authority on that. </p>
<p>My kids didn’t even do honors in Physics senior year, let alone AP, but they at least took the Science. They did do APs senior year in Math, English and History. Honors in language only. My D got into NYU, and even a school as selective as Washington University in St. Louis without an AP in Science or Language. She switched languages, so only reached third year level (Middle school counted for the first two). Just giving this as an example.</p>
<p>It just seems to me that anyone who wants to keep academically selective schools as an option should be careful about dropping any one of the “Big Four.” I am pretty sure that whenever schools – or at least the academically selective ones – calculate GPA, they will not even be including “electives” in that…</p>
<p>Thanks SDon… that is kind of what I thought. It’s not like he is slacking. He will have 4 years of FL through AP Latin, and all the strong core all 4 years… math through calc but no AP,english finishing with AP Lit, Honors physics, chem and bio, with AP physics next year( this is his favorite subject and got an A+ in honors physics, I am just worried about the math because he won’t be in AP Calc), and then the 3 1/2 years of SS. I am thinking a no on APUSH too. His school does not even average in electives when they report their GPA’s… so we are always dealing with reality, which is good. I think it looks more impressive, even to BFA audition only programs, to show that you can handle rigorous academics AND tons of theater commitments too. I think his latin will help him… it will show he understands language pretty well, which is a plus for theater.</p>
<p>It’s Physics B… so here’s hoping. Talked with GC today about his schedule for next year and she said she thought AP Physics and AP Lit would be plenty rigorous enough without the APUSH. …so whew… on the same page. She reiterated that you do’t have to take every AP, just the ones that speak to you. It’s definitely all about balance for theater kids because so much time is spent in the theater, and you have to sleep at some point:-)</p>
so I can’t be sure, but: it is what it is and I’d be shocked if they were that rigid in their application process.</p>