<p>One of my big EC's in high school has been Latin. Beyond the fact that I took it Freshman, Sophomore, Junior Year, I was also a Latin Club member, then Secretary, then President [which was tough, because I'm a shy guy by nature]. I was on the Latin quiz team, went to conventions, did fairly well there, did some Latin tutoring, had a Saturnalia Party...basically had a rather fun time :)</p>
<p>The problem is in that 'had'. See, for my Senior Year I could either take a 4th year of Latin or do two AP sciences. I talked to the 4th year Latin teacher, and he said that most of the class would be translating Latin prose - a Latin version of Harry Potter, in this case. This didn't sound very interesting to me, but that's not everything. It also happened that around this time I sort of regained my interest in medicine as a career. So I figured that if I was going to commit to any Pre-Med program in college, I had better make sure I liked what I was doing - therefore, taking AP Chemistry and AP Biology would be a prudent decision [something that would mean I couldn't take Latin].</p>
<p>Basically, as it stands now, I have Latin as my major EC, but I'm only taking 3 years of it. Now, I'm not suddenly stopping - I'll still be able to participate as a 'Vet', and Seniors aren't allowed to hold leadership positions anyway - but I will no longer be in the class at school. So I'm wondering what I should do [if anything] to explain all this.</p>
<p>You’ve shown three years of dedication to a subject and a related EC. Now you’re keeping a hand in it, but moving on to other things that sparked your interest. What’s there to explain? I wouldn’t worry about it; at most, make sure you have other positive things going on this year. If your Latin teacher will write one of your recs, he could throw in a line or two about how he he’s missed you this year because of your schedule conflicts, but glad to see that you’re still checking in with the club during the busy senior year. But that would be optional imho.</p>
<p>So you don’t think I need to mention it, say, in my essays? Because I’m devoting my 150-word Common App one to it and I feel it will sound…disonnant should I write about how much I enjoyed Latin and then not take it the next year.</p>
<p>No, for heaven’s sake, don’t waste an essay on explaining why you didn’t take a fourth year of Latin! You enjoyed Latin. Now you’re enjoying some other things. Your (considerable) knowledge of Latin is probably helping you in Chemistry and Biology. Three (rather than four) years of escalating dedication to anything (legal) is not a weakness to explain.</p>
<p>People change. Interests change. Schedule conflicts happen. All of this goes double for teenagers. Moving on to other interests in your senior year is NO BIG DEAL. Colleges see that all the time. Writing a big long explanation would make a more negative impact than saying nothing at all possibly could. Don’t worry about it. Just MOVE ON.</p>
<p>I don’t blame you for not wanting to take the class. I can’t believe a school would chose something like that for advanced students to read over all the great Latin literature out there…</p>
<p>Why not take a Latin class at a local college? Depending on the level of college you’re applying to it could be important to have the forth year.</p>