Should I take French next year even if i hate it?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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@TyrantKoala - You should not be conflicted. The advice that “…colleges prefer students who are really good at one thing rather than decent at everything” is only applicable beyond a minimum number of core classes and/or a certain level of mastery in those core subjects. For the most selective schools (you state that you are considering the “best colleges around the country,” the expectations would include:

4 years of English
4 years of math (preferably through Calc)
4 years of science including a minimum of 3 lab sciences
4 years (or through level 4) of a foreign language
3-4 years of history/social science;

The “really good at one thing” comes into play when choosing electives, extracurricular activities and summer programs. They still want to see the core classes.

Carnegie Mellon and MIT seem to require only 2 years of foreign language, so you may be okay as far as they go, but you might be shooting yourself in the foot with other schools that you might be interested in.

What you did in 8th grade doesn’t matter unless you took French 2 and were able to get through French 4 by sophomore year of high school (i.e., the level matters more than the number of high school classes you took).

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And most students at both colleges WILL have taken up to level 3 or 4… And will be ‘pointy’ on top of that.

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OP, be very careful with what Grace Kim said. She does not say “prefer.” The best bet for an “average excellent” student is to dot all his i’s and cross all his t’s. Reread and see how she qualifies the comments.

And if you want to aim high, there’s little room for “hating” a core subject.

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Also, OP, if you don’t test as proficient in a foreign language as a college freshman, it is likely you will have to take it in college. Foreign language classes will be more challenging in college than in high school, as they move through material much faster. You would therefore be compounding your problem if you put off FL until later, when you really WILL want to focus on your area of interest.