I’m an upcoming junior. I took Spanish 1 freshman year and Spanish 2 sophomore year. I want to take French 1 junior year and French 2 senior year. I’m doing this because I feel like Spanish is becoming too difficult, so I want to start fresh with a new language. Will this look bad? Would colleges prefer seeing me stick with Spanish?
Colleges would prefer that you continue with one language for at least 3 years.
Is it a big deal? Do colleges really care that much?
Maybe/maybe not. But conventional wisdom seems to think that colleges would prefer dedication. Of course, if all your target colleges only require 2 years, then it really does not matter.Additionally, a couple of things to consider:
I hate to break it to you, but French is more difficult than Spanish, IMO. Admittedly, neither is like Chinese on the difficulty level, but if you’re struggling in Spanish, I doubt that you’ll find French easier.
Also, many colleges have a foreign language requirement for graduation. 2 years in any language is not going to get you placed in a high level, so the more you do in HS, the less you potentially would need to do in college
Foreign language is one of the 5 core subjects you need to show knowledge of.
Yes, high school level 1+2 are super easy. Level 3+4 are starting to get hard, but real difficulty begins with AP. It’s the same as math - basically adding and multiplying isnt hardit’s as if you stopped at Algebra1 because geometry looks hard. Colleges who want students who challenge themselves academically won’t like it.
What colleges are you aiming for?
If a directional (“West central U”) reaching level 2 will be OK.
If a flagship or a selective university, reaching level 3 is expected, and level 4 or AP is expected for the most selective universities.
Regardless of selectivity as skieurope said above you’ll have to demonstrate foreign language knowledge of proficiency to graduate from college and level 1+2 from high school barely covers one semester in college.
You can have a taste of this by taking one semester of French or Spanish at a community college.