My son really has a hard time in Spansih III honors. He has no desire to continue with the language class next year. I am struggling with allowing him to pass on Spanish IV. However, as great as the school is that he attends, they have subpar Spanish teachers. Actually, the teacher that previously taught 3 and 4 was placed in another position. His teacher is new to the school this year.
Question is do you think having only 2 years of a language really hurt his college app?
If he’s in Spanish 3 isn’t that 3 years of language?
Yes. However, the first year was in 8th grade. I have also heard by gc and principal that the most selective schools prefer 4 years of a language. I feel like he’ll be ok and won’t be affected. Especially if he substitute the class with an honors or ap class he should be fine. I would like to get feedback on that thought.
My concern would be not about college application but rather about his future academics at college. As far as I know all majors require the foreign language. Aren’t you concerned that his future college Spanish class may hurt his college GPA, which may be by far more important for his future than his HS GPA? I definitely would. My D. made sure that she took care of her toughest class while in HS. She took college US History while in HS and her dad has helped her a lot in this class. With enormous efforts including hours of discussions with her father, she was able to pull an A and did not need to take it in college.
It is not the case with Spanish. I believe that they still need to take Spanish at college, no matter how many levels they completed in HS. However, being better prepared while in HS may insure a higher grade for college Spanish class. Sorry if my prospective is not exactly in line with yours.
No need to apologize. I appreciate the feedback. Plus, not seeing it may way gives me more to ponder.
He’s taking pretty tough courses, 2 aps and the rest honor classes. I am embarrassed to admit that I am Spanish. I dropped the ball in teaching him the language at home.
I just feel that as much as I help him the class itself is not productive.
The only thing that has me wavering is that the Spanish IV is suppose to be good.
Life is short. Spanish with a less than optimal teacher is not a productive use of time. BTDT. I believe that completion of Spanish III will count to most admissions committees as 3 years of Spanish. After all, kids that take Geometry in 8th grade don’t get dinged for “not taking Geometry in high school”
Language teachers seem to be the weak point for many otherwise good schools. Even so, I think I’d encourage him to take a third year of Spanish. (We made our son do this, too). It really will help his application, and will give him a solid foundation for his college language requirements. My son did end up switching to Japanese when he got to college. 
Could he take the regular Spanish 4 class, not honors?
All schools do not require foreign language fluency from all majors. My D took three years of French. It appears that she will be able to place out of the language requirement at all schools she has been accepted to. I personally was an engineer and there was no foreign language requirement for engineers at my undergrad school.
@cardinal2020mom, I wish that foreign language were not a requirement in HS and college. DS took French in HS, and placed out of everything but two semesters worth in college. He took one, but still hasn’t taken the other. He’s a kid who takes the toughest math and CS courses, but he’s just not good at foreign languages (FL). But, tough, it’s a requirement for graduation that is unlikely to change
Have your son continue with Spanish in HS. When DS applied to college, while FL was not explicitly a requirement at his first choice, it was expected that he’d taken the most rigorous courses, which at his HS was an IB diploma,which in turn had a FL requirement.
I think most kids would be better served by more stringent math requirements, but I guess the FL teachers’ union has a great lobby, and 4 years of FL is almost a requirement at most colleges, and definitely at selective schools. Good luck!
Ps. Don’t feel guilty about not teaching him Spanish at home. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Life gets in the way of even the best parents.
My first one dropped the foreign language after three years. At their school Spanish 3 and 4 were combined in one class (too few students for two classes) and she didn’t think there would be enough difference in the curriculum to justify spending another year in the class. She had no trouble with college admissions but didn’t apply to Ivies or schools that wanted to see four years. She’s studying engineering and isn’t required to take more foreign language. She did an internship in Mexico last summer and may have wished her Spanish was stronger. 
Second kid hated Spanish, although her grades were fine. She quit after two years, and I worried that it was a bad idea to allow it. She’s a senior now, also has had no trouble with admissions or scholarships even though she’s applying as an international studies major at a bunch of LAC’s. She will be required to study a language in college, and currently plans to start fresh with a different language. She may end up regretting not taking more language in high school, but it’s too soon to say.
Both of them had good applications otherwise, and having less foreign language just wasn’t an issue.
Most colleges recommend 3-4 years of a language, but very few actually require it. Two is fine for most schools. The more selective schools he is targeting, the more seriously you need to take the course recommendations. Since he’s already in third year Spanish, I wouldn’t worry too much that the first year was 8th grade.
My 9th grader is in Spanish 2 honors currently and really hates it. Her grade is good in it but it’s a lot of work, stress and frustration. Much worse for her than any of her other honor classes combined. We had hoped she would enjoy Spanish more than in middle school by taking the honors option because it could have been so interesting. We had thought more culture and history relating to Spanish speaking countries, etc. instead it’s been much more monotonous memorizing of vocabulary and spelling in short periods of time. She was on the bus recently and noticed a girl in Spanish 3 nonhonors was studying exactly the same word lists as the Spanish 2 honors were for a test that week. Anyway, our solution is for her to drop honors next year. I’m hoping that if she takes Spanish 3 non honors next year, maybe she won’t despise it quite so much, be less stressed over it, and hopefully be willing to take Spanish 4 non honors the following year. I don’t think she has to have every single class be honors, especially since her schedule in general is rigorous (no regular study hall, other honors classes where offered, AP’s, etc). Would your son consider Spanish 4 non honors next year?
That said if my daughter decides after Spanish 3 that she is done with language, I’m going to let her make that decision. As long as she is aware it may make it difficult for some schools (and/or she may need to take language in college instead) then it’s her call. I have a friend whose high ability son made that decision. He said if a college won’t take him because he didn’t take one more year of Spanish even though he has great grades, test scores and a load of honor and AP classes, then it’s not a college he wants anyway.
Actually four years of FL is only a requirement at the most competitive schools. In my readings 2 years is pretty common for directional Us (and even some - most? flagships) and, of course, CCs don’t have a language requirement. Also most colleges require more years of math than FL.
OP, if Spanish is making him miserable then I would say he’s done. That will probably drop the most competitive schools from his match list (if his stats make them matches) and he might well have to take a FL in college, but he can try a new one. My DW took French in HS and German in college.
My S was a sophomore when he completed Spanish 3. He had no desire to continue. We contacted the schools admissions offices to clarify whether the 3 year recommendation required 3 actual high school years or if reaching level 3 was sufficient. It turns out that reaching level 3 was all they were looking for. You may want to check websites or contact admissions offices of the schools he is interested. (Of all the schools my S was interested in only one clearly stated on their website that reaching level 3 was enough—hence the emails.)
As for the requirement to take a language in school, you can check that on the schools websites as well. I suspect it varies by school (and even by major). I’m not familiar with “what’s typical”. My S has no requirement, my D had a requirement for 3 semesters but was able to test out of 2 of them.
I guess I overstated the FL requirement. DS is a CS major but FL is still a distributional requirement for him. Unlucky for him :))
You believe correctly.
4 years is not a requirement at most colleges; it is a recommendation at the tippy top college. However, it is important to note that, while many will tell you that one should view “recommendations” as “requirements,” I am a freshman at one of those colleges, and while I had the recommended FL prep, I did not have it in other areas, and I still got in.
The other thing to keep in mind is that these same colleges often have a foreign language requirement to graduate, and the more he does in HS, the less he needs to do in college. If online or community college Spanish courses are options, perhaps you/he can look into those.
Just to reiterate for the most selective schools they are looking that you took level 4 of a FL and not necessarily 4 years of language.
My older daughter struggled with Spanish but stuck it out. It was on par with her horrible experience taking calculus, for which she was ill prepared. She did need to take a foreign language in college but only one or two semesters; she took Latin.
If he has a likely list of colleges where he intends to apply, double check their requirements first. It would be unfortunate to find out that he needed four years when it was too late to do anything about it.
Sorry about the bad teacher. A sub par teacher can really kill enthusiasm for a subject.
My oldest daughter was always a top student, with the exception of Spanish. It was more time consuming and frustrating for her than any other class. She took Spanish 4 in her junior year in HS (three years in HS). At her HS, you needed to complete 5 years of language (most started as freshman at Spanish 3 - but she went to a different middle school) before taking the AP class, so she would not be eligible to take the “highest level offered” in the subject. Her guidance counselor made a fuss, but ultimately let her drop language her senior year as long as she replaced it with an AP. She applied and was accepted to top 20 schools (and WL at Harvard). She was offered honors programs at UNC, UVA and BC - and took UVA’s Echols Scholars program - partly because they waive the language requirement for students in the program.
Thank you all for such in depth advice. We have an upcoming college fair being held at the school and have universities from most selective to very selective lists attending. I will make sure that he/we bring up that point and feel them out. Plus, I hope for him to get a better feel of where it is he thinks he will want to attend. Unlike my D16, he has no set place that is his dream school.
Actually, my D16 made it through Spanish IV and passed on taking AP Spanish this senior year. It do not hurt her acceptances. Therein lies the difference, she took the 4th year of Spanish, where D18 is considering not doing it. Hopefully between your insight, the info we receive at college fair and our continued discussions he will have a schedule that will not hurt him come college acceptances.