Hello! So I finished Spanish 3 at my school last year (my sophomore year). I am wondering if not taking Spanish 4 my junior and senior years would look bad. My junior year, I’m taking AP Lang, AP Physics 1, AP Stat, and the rest are honors. I’m afraid Spanish 4 will be too much with my current workload, and I won’t be able to handle it. I plan to major in Computer Science or some other STEM major.
EDIT: By the way, I finished Honors Spanish 3 with an 89%.
It depends upon the colleges you are targeting. You’re fine except for any college which asks for 4 years (or finishing level 4). For those colleges, your application would not be competitive.
There was a girl in my Spanish 3 class (a senior), and she got accepted to UPenn. Do you think it will hurt my application for a college like Georgia Tech?
What does GT’s website say about it?
No. GA Tech only asks for 2 years,
http://admission.gatech.edu/first-year/academic-preparation
There are always exceptions. UPenn and its peers offer “suggestions” but an application would not be tossed simply for only having through Spanish 3, particularly if there was a valid reason for not taking Spanish 4. But if Penn is not in your sights, it’s not applicable to you.
Look at the common data set of any college you are considering applying to (google “common data set XYZ college”) look at section C and you can find a list of required/recommenced HS coursework. If no school is looking for more than 3 years you are fine, if that is not the case, I would continue on with another year of Spanish.
Also check if the college has a foreign language graduation requirement where taking level 4 in high school may help complete it in fewer college courses than taking only level 3 in high school.
hey acoolguy - my son is in the same spot as you. Jr year; and decided not to take spanish 4 this year. He will go into some type of stem program in college. We have looked at our state flagship; and know what the engineering college requires (3 yrs of foreign language); and we know what the arts and sciences college requires for computer science (4 yrs before college). He’s taking AP computer science this year; if he likes it and is going to consider that for a major, he will take spanish 4 as a senior and we’ll get a tutor for him. That way he wont have to take it at all in college, which might be harder than HS. that’s how we are doing it –
my advice is to look at a few colleges and their programs and to see what’s required.
You have to be clear though on whether it’s 4 years of level 4, if it’s four years then you’d have to take spanish 4 this year, and I"m assuming AP Spanish as a senior. If it’s level 4, then he’s fine taking spanish 4 as a senior.
Turns out I can’t take Spanish 4 this year anyways due to schedule conflicts. I’ll probably just take it senior year. Thanks for all the advice guys!