<p>My son will be a senior this fall. He wants to drop his Spanish class and that means he will only have three years of foreign language. He has a full schedule of AP classes and doesn't want to be overloaded. Assuming that he meets all other qualifications, would not taking a full four years of foreign language hurt his chances getting into a top school? Thanks for any advice, suggestions.</p>
<p>Yes, even with a schedule full of AP's, it is bad to not take a fourth year of language and will hurt his chances of getting into a top college. That is of course, unless, there is a scheduling conflict resulting in him needing to take a more important class when the Spanish class is offered. If that is the case, it could easily be explained.</p>
<p>Do the Spanish. It would look bad just to drop it. Not to mention it would mean losing the potential to hone an important life skill/survival tool.</p>
<p>First it depends what you mean my "top". If you mean harvards or elite schools than I would advise your son on taking it. </p>
<p>But also don't forget about his ECs or other schools activities. If he is busy in school clubs, sports,etc than maybe he shouldn't take the course. </p>
<p>For now I recommend him giving it a shot. If after two weeks of school or such he finds himself overloaded than he should drop it than.</p>
<p>I'm going to go the other way. If the school recommends three years of language, he's met the requirements. If we're talking about Harvard or other similar schools, the odds of getting in are so low anyway that the 4th year of Spanish is highly unlikely to make a significant difference anyway. (It's like buying two lottery tickets instead of one. Do your odds of winning go up? Yes. Is it likely to matter? No.) </p>
<p>There's more to life in your senior year of high school than just setting up your schedule for college. If he's still taking a rigorous schedule (and he is), let him drop it if he wants.</p>
<p>This is his schedule for his senior year:
(AP) Calculus, (H) Orchestra, (AP) Adv Bio, (AP) Adv Bio Lab, (AP) Eng,
(AP) Govt/(H) Econ, Spanish 4, Theology and Cross Country. </p>
<p>He attends a Lutheran school -Theology is required. The school is on block scheduluing so they have (AP) Bio/Lab every day other classes (except sports) meet every other day. He has piano lessons and violin lessons once a week in addition to his other ECs. He's not on Cross Country varsity but he enjoys the camaraderie.</p>
<p>He is also the chess club president so there are many things involved with that such as once a month chess tournaments for elementary schools, scheduling 1-2 tournaments within the school league. He's captain of the chess team and has taken them to Nationals so he wants to have outside (the school) training sessions for his teammates. </p>
<p>His orchestra teacher has asked him to work with him in creating the AP Music theory course for the following year. He wanted to take AP Music Theory but the school did not offer it but at least he'll help create it. </p>
<p>He's an A student - don't know his ranking but I know he's definitely top 5% of his class. If he's met the three year language, I hope that colleges don't penalize him for not taking it the fourth year. I want him to be able to get into the best school he can but not at the expense of not being able to do the other things he enjoys. I think my son knows that and that's why he wants to drop Spanish IV. Any other comments? Thank you to all who have replied. We're meeting his counselor next week.</p>
<p>He looks like a great candidate. And if a school won't take him because he doesn't have Spanish 4, maybe it's not the right school for him anyway.</p>
<p>He seems like an incredible student. I would go with my first advice. Just give it a shot and if he finds he is too busy than drop the spanish class.</p>