<p>I'm taking two languages in high school: Spanish and German. I'm getting four years of Spanish and I'm trying my best to get "four years" of German (I'm starting it Sophmore year so I would take a full course over the summer to get "four years"). Normally this would be outstanding, but I'm already fluent in Spanish because I'm a native speaker... I only took it because my grammar was pretty horrible and I wanted to understand the way the language worked. Would colleges (specifically Ivy Leagues) look down on me for taking Spanish instead of taking any other difficult course?</p>
<p>You are right that Ivies will not be overly impressed with your 4 years of your native Spanish, so it’s great that you will have the 4 years of German to demonstrate a rigorous course load. Be sure to take the German SAT II, and/or German AP test to show proficiency. Just don’t use the Spanish SAT II as one of your 3 subject tests- you can use it as an extra.</p>
<p>They won’t look down at the Spanish classes since you have the German as well.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t care how you’ve achieved your fluency AND your depth of the culture and literature of the language. They care that you have. So taking four years of Spanish and (I assume) studying and mastering the literature of that language (as you would typically would begin to do in level 4 or higher) is meeting the spirit of 4-years of one language guideline. That you do well (I expect) in English and the second language strengthens your resume. Taking still another language without compromising your core curriculum may strengthen your transcript further, but at this point the third language would be viewed as an elective.</p>
<p>I agree with fauve, they won’t look down on you because you’ve also taken 4 yrs of German. I think adcoms are pretty savvy and they won’t be too surprised that you took Spanish because many native speakers don’t pick up the grammar at home; as I recall, our schools have special classes in Spanish for Spanish-speakers for just this reason. Still, if you had only Spanish alone, it would not look as strong as taking another language like you did.</p>
<p>I also agree that if you’ve taken it, you shouldn’t rely on the SAT II in Spanish for one of your required scores. I don’t necessarily think you have to take the SAT II in German, any other subjects would be fine too.</p>
<p>If you and your teacher feel that you will have a decent command of literary Spanish by the end of 11th or 12th grade, if there are no AP Spanish courses offered at your school, you should consider independent preparation for the AP Spanish Lang (probably 11th grade) and/or AP Spanish Lit (probably 12th grade).</p>
<p>I’m going to take the AP test in Spanish and the subject test. However, for the latter, I’ll already have quite a few subject tests so it’ll be an extra.</p>