i was just reading an article written by a harvard alum who claimed that, in order to make yourself more attractive to top-tier (ivy plus) colleges, it’s better to specialize yourself in one or a few areas of interest and excel in those, rather than be well rounded and not as proficient in all fields. he said that it wouldn’t matter if you were unbalanced if you were amazing in your areas of interest. i’m wondering if this is true?
i’m asking this because this coming year, i’ve reached a kind of crossroads in my schedule– i’m planning on pursuing a career in the sciences, and would like to take physics (so i can take ap physics my senior year), but only have two years of a language (spanish). would it benefit me more to take spanish or physics? would it negatively affect my chances into columbia if i only had two years of a language, or even took a year off and then resumed taking spanish senior year? at this point, i’d honestly rather shoot myself in the foot than take another spanish class (it wasn’t hard, just mind-numbingly boring) and i feel personally that i’d learn more by taking physics, but i will take spanish next year if i have to. i’d also be willing to take spanish senior year, so i have physics and ap physics and three years of a language, but i won’t do that if colleges are too leery of it.
(and i know columbia has a core curriculum that requires foreign language; i’d start a new language that i’m actually interested in learning there, because the spanish at my school is taught poorly/something i just took for a credit. so i’d be fine with language in college)
First I’ve heard admission officers from many schools (including Columbia) say that they look to achieve a well-rounded class. That will include some well-rounded students and some students who have different areas of specialization.
Columbia “strongly recommends” three to four years of foreign language. Many top schools look for four years of foreign language. If you don’t meet the recommendations your application will be at a disadvantage (especially at such a competitive university which accepts about 6% if applicants) as many many extremely well qualified applicants will meet the recommendations. http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/ask/faq/question/2407 You should look up these recommended/required courses for any schools you are considering.
So at some point you should definitely take a third, and preferably a fourth year of foreign language. If you want AP Physics you may look into other ways of getting the Spanish (perhaps 2 semesters at a CC, accredited online classes, dropping an elective to make room in your HS schedule etc.). Discuss the options with your guidance counselor.
@happy1 is absolutely correct. Colleges want to assemble a well-rounded class which will consist of some well-rounded students as well as some pointy students. However, even colleges that accept pointy students expect them to follow their suggested HS preparation unless there is a the student has a valid reason for deviation.
Examples of acceptable reasons why 4 years of the same foreign language are not a detriment:
• The HS offers less than 4 years
• The HS has one teacher of a particular language who retires, and the school eliminates the program
• The one section of a 3rd or 4th level foreign language course conflicts with the one section of another core course (e.g. calculus)
Examples of unacceptable reasons:
• The teacher can’t teach (“the spanish at my school is taught poorly”)
• The student can’t fit in the foreign language because he’s tripling up on math
• The student is not interested in foreign languages (“i’d honestly rather shoot myself in the foot than take another spanish class”)
For these highly selective colleges, most applicants will have met the school’s HS recommended preparation, so those who don’t may be disadvantaged.
The downside of this at Columbia is that for intro courses in most foreign languages, classes meet 5 days a week, so it may be the only class you would have on a Friday, assuming you were accepted.
Additionally, I personally don’t understand the concept of paying $60-70K a year, less whatever FA you receive, to have to waste a class on introductory foreign language. That just seems to be a horrible return on investment in my opinion. You’d be better off trying to place out of it and if you really wanted to learn another language on top of it, there are far cheaper ways to do it.