<p>I am currently a junior in high school. I have a question about my chances of college admissions in relation with my courses. First, here is a brief description about my background: I am a Chinese citizen, born in Beijing, China, moved to the U.S. in 2002, speak decent chinese at home with only my mother and a few other family members and does not know how to read or write Chinese. I am currently taking 2nd year Chinese(3 year-course;skipped 1st year because learned characters over last summer) as a sixth major. My main concern is that I've heard from numerous people that taking your own language does not look good for college and can be regarded as being lazy. However, I am already taking a foreign language, Japanese and 2 AP courses this year(my first advanced courses). I want to take this course to improve my Chinese skills and do not want to use it as an easy way to boost my GPA. When I apply to colleges, if I state that I am taking Chinese only for my own benefit and provide a GPA without my Chinese grade, is that enough evidence to show that I only want to impove my Chinese skills and use Chinese to increase my GPA? My main question is, does taking Chinese lower my chances of college admissions?</p>
<p>I think that it is rarely wise to provide explanations on your application in anticipation of some negative reaction to your coursework/transcript. Focus strictly on why you are the best candidate for admissions. Trust the admissions decision makers to have a positive impression of your application. They are not looking for flaws so let your transcript speak for itself.</p>
<p>That you jumped directly into a more advanced course than the entry level course indicates that you are not sandbagging for an easy A. Besides, you are taking another foreign language (Japanese) that is foreign to you.</p>
<p>It’s fine because you’re taking another FL. Also, many students take a native language to improve grammar and other skills that they have not picked up at home. You can state in the Additional Information section of the CA that you are taking Chinese to improve your language skills due to limited ability to do so at home. Perhaps some will think this is an excuse, but I consider it an explanation of something that adcoms may have questions about.</p>
<p>right, thanks. do u think it’d make a big difference in my admission chances? i dont want to damage my application. btw, it was either chinese or a free.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. Taking Chinese 2 cannot be worse than the alternative of nothing in terms of how it looks for university admissions (assuming you do well).</p>
<p>You are way over thinking this. Your situation is actually pretty common, and I would bet ad-coms have seen this many times In fact, UC Berkeley has “heritage” sections of its Chinese language classes. It is unlikely that one class is going to make much of a difference to your overall application. If it’s something really important to you, write a a more general essay about what your ethnicity has meant to you and how you have explored it.</p>