I am selecting courses for junior year and I have taken french 8th,9th,and 10th. My interests are not related to foreign language but many of the best colleges around the country state that they prefer 4 years of foreign language. Instead of taking french 4 I would probably take an extra AP or class that interests me.
If they say it’s “preferred,” it’s not optional.
would you say 8th grade would count as a year as french cause in my school after french 4 there is no french 5, and only AP french
Having four years of a language generally means getting through level IV or AP, regardless of whether or not there is a level five. You’ve indicated that you’ve had three years; I’d advise against stopping now.
Foreig, language is a core class and piling up AP’s isn’t the way to go, especially if you replace a core class with a non core AP… ,If you’re interested in very selective colleges (top 50 universities/LACs) then you must try to take French4. AP is optional - it’s considered very rigorous but as a senior you’ll have more choices as to which classes you take.
Agree that a random AP isn’t the bang you may think.
It’s not a random AP i was thinking of taking Comp Sci A since I’m taking principles this year and I’m into computer science. But I guess I could just take that in grade 12
My school is weird but the path is french 4 in junior and AP french senior.
I’m probably gonna take french 4 thinking about it now
Don’t take anything solely for the sake of admissions officers’ and colleges’ impressions. While completing up to Level IV of a foreign language is impressive, if you feel as if you would be truly miserable taking another year of French or struggle to come up with a reason for taking French IV other than “it looks nice”, it would be foolish torturing yourself during what is arguably the most important year of your high school career rather than taking something that is relevant to your interests and what you want to do in the future. In that case, I’d take AP Comp Sci.
(Also, I don’t have a bias against foreign languages. In fact, foreign languages are my favorite subjects to learn in school as well as in my free time; I am currently in Spanish IV and I plan on taking many advanced Spanish courses in college).
How about “The colleges I’m targeting request 4 years of a foreign language?” That’s a good reason to me.
While there may be valid reasons for not following a college’s recommendations, the colleges did not make those suggestions purely for giggles. They are not looking for kids to be specialists in HS, so be aware that the following are generally not valid reasons for ignoring their advice.:
• My teacher can’t teach
• My teacher only speaks in the foreign language
• I don’t like French
• I’d rather double up on math/science, etc.
• I can’t get an A/it will impact my GPA
• I want my first/last period free.
Well, that changes a lot. Somehow, I happened to skip over the part where the OP specified that the colleges they were looking at wanted four years of language. Not sure how, exactly, that happened. That was my sleep-deprived mistake (I was goofing off on CC in the middle of the night before the first day back from Christmas break). I was more under the impression that the push to take French IV was as a result of a general desire to be “attractive” to prestigious universities and admissions officers rather than a need to fulfill actual, concrete admissions criteria.
In this event, @TyrantKoala would put themselves at a significant disadvantage in the admissions process by willfully going against the recommendations of their targeted universities, and this is before they even look at other credentials (such as GPA or SAT scores). I’m just a high school senior and not an admissions consultant or guidance counselor by any means, but I am sure that failing to do what a college specifically asks of its applicants can turn a match into a reach.
Also, being a major proponent of foreign languages myself (as I said in my other post), I would take French IV even if it were not required of me, as I feel having an advanced grasp of a foreign language can be extremely helpful, even outside of a school setting, and I feel the OP is very lucky to even have access to such high-level foreign language courses (my HS had to shut down its Spanish IV class because I and one other student were the only two signed up for it, forcing me to take it online, only offers two foreign languages, and never even offered AP level foreign languages).
I do still think it is a shame to have to give up a class that the OP seems to actually have interest in, but it does seem necessary in this case.
If you didn’t take French, what class would you take? Instead of taking your extra AP, you can self-study it, depending on the subject. Just think about it: is it worth being denied admission to a school you really wanted to get into just because you didn’t want to take another French class? Besides, you might actually find that you like French - I didn’t like it very much in middle school but once I started French 3 I started to really like it, and I’ve heard French 4 is the “fun” year! Taking a class that isn’t completely related to your interests can show another side of you to admissions as well, a student that’s good at more than one thing is almost always better than a student that only shows achievement in one area.
Also, if you’re struggling at all with French you can feel free to PM me, it’s one of my best subjects. I’m sure you’ll do fine though! (edit: I made a grammar mistake…)
Actually from I read colleges prefer students who are really good at one thing rather than decent at everything. One of reasons I’m am conflicted
Also say I wanted to study computer science in like Carnegie Mellon or MIT, is it still necessary for that extra year of language ?
Source? Unless it’s on the admissions website from a college that also says it wants 4 years of a foreign language, I would take it with a grain of salt.
If the college takes the time to put together a list of classes it requires/requests an applicant to have, then that applicant should have a really good reason for not following the college’s advice.
No college expects an applicant to become a specialist in HS - that’s what grad school is for. Many colleges like to assemble a well-rounded class, which will generally include a mix of students who are themselves well-rounded as well as some who are very point in one particular area.
Where’d you hear they “prefer students who are really good at one thing rather than decent at everything?” “Decent,” maybe not. But for top colleges, lots of your competition will be strong in all. When you start naming MIT and CMU, you need to be on top of your game.
In all ways.
Well, no, since they only request 2 years. But that’s not what you said in the original post.
Having said that, both of those colleges have a sub-15% acceptance rate, so I would not make your course selections solely on those 2 colleges. If all your target colleges only request 2 years, then you can get by with 3 years. But for any of those colleges that request 4 years, then you should assume that most applicants will have 4 years and that those college could not care less what MIT or CMU suggests.
http://galined.com/archives/do-colleges-really-want-well-rounded-students
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■/the-ivy-coach-blog/tag/well-rounded-students/
Here are 3 sources
Ok thank you