Should I Take French 4 for AP French?

[studylover123]

I’m going to be a senior next year, and I’m trying to decide which class I should take. I wasn’t able to take French this year because there were other classes I wanted to take and it didn’t fit in my schedule. When I took French 3 last year, my grade was a 99 the first semester and 98 the second semester. I would say that French is one of my best subjects.

However, I don’t want to overload by taking too many hard classes because I need to focus on college applications. I’m also going to take AP Computer Science A, AP Statistics, AP Lit, and AP Environmental Science. Will top colleges care if I go all the way to the AP level of a language or stop at level 4? Even if I do take AP French, will I still be good at it after no exposure to French for a whole year?

[nick3162]

I’m currently taking level 4 as a sophomore. I inquired similarly about whether it’s necessary to move on to level 5. Here were some noteworthy responses:

You’re fine. Complete this year and you’ve reached level 4.
(foreign language, like math, goes by level reached not number of years since sometimes these match but often they don’t.)

When schools say they’re looking for 3 years of language, generally they’re talking about level 3. They don’t care how many years it takes you to get that proficiency.

So you’ve fulfilled that requirement. Basically, if you complete level 4 this year, that’s considered "four years of language).

Though, I would still advise towards taking AP French, as from what I’ve heard, there isn’t too much of a rigor gap between level 4 and 5. If worst comes to worst, you can always opt out of taking the exam in may.

[happy1]

I think your best course of action would be to discuss it with French teachers at your HS and your guidance counselor.