Third Year Foreign Language In High School...Please Help

<p>I am a sophomore currently enrolled in Spanish 2 Pre-Ap. I am debating whether or not I should sign up for Spanish 3 next year in order to graduate on the Distinguished Plan. I am wondering if taking this third year of a foreign language is ABSOLUTLY necessary in order to get into A&M. I understand the pros of going Distinguished however I very much dislike Spanish, and feel that filling that spot with another class (particularly the Engineering 1 class that my high school offers) would be far more beneficial to me than a another year of Spanish. However, I do not want this to jeopardize my chances of getting into A&M. Any suggestions? (BTW- I am in the top 15% of my class, 10 people away from being in top 10%. I have a 3.8 GPA, in National Honor Society, and Spanish Honor Society. I haven't taken my SAT or PSATs yet.)</p>

<p>---Basically, did anyone here get in without a third year? My goal is to get Automatic Admission so I won't have to deal with this but of course the Bill to do away with Automatic Acceptance would have to be (possibly) passed by the time I apply :P</p>

<p>You only need the Recommended Plan if you’re an academic admit (1300 SAT/top 25%).
I absolutely dreaded Pre-AP Spanish 3 and should have not taken it because it really didn’t help in the end. But take 3 or more years of a foreign language if you plan on applying to top schools…Otherwise don’t.
Just make sure to get decent test scores, keep your class rank up, and apply early and you should have no problem getting into A&M.</p>

<p>Okay…thanks…I don’t think I’ll take it…actaully grrr…I don’t know…I’m so confused. I just dread Spanish and Spanish 3 (regular and pre-ap) at my school requires giving LONG speeches in Spanish…I feel like it would be torture for me, but thank you tho</p>

<p>If I were you, I’d ask this question directly to an admissions counselor. I would not put my admission on the line if you are not in the top 10% and you have no idea if you will be an automatic admit with SAT/ACT scores.
With the top 10% takeing so much of the freshman admissions - and you not being in that group, I would think you should go the distinguished route. If you end up in the review admit group it will not look good for you with only the recommended deploma no matter what your gpa is, you took the easy way out and that isn’t what A&M is about. period.</p>

<p>ita w/KLParker</p>

<p>You should do it. Going above and beyond is what colleges like. If you stick to something all 4 years it looks good. I was in the same position as you when i was a sophomore, and i decided to go ahead and get distinguished and take latin 3 pre-ap. now as a senior, i’m in my 5th year in latin and will have two AP foreign language courses under my belt by the end of the school year. (if you don’t know this, they award a lot of credit if you score well on the AP test, meaning, depending on what you want to major in, you will have to take little or no foreign language classes in college) I think this is one of the reasons I got accepted so quickly, even though I was not in the top 10%</p>

<p>Definitely ASK!</p>

<p>However, my belief is that it’s totally unnecessary for A&M. Even if you don’t make top 10% OR academic admit, I know many HS seniors accepted with only the 2 years of Foreign Language. Possibly it depends on your major, most of the kids I know went science/engineering.</p>

<p>if the rest of the people that go to TAMU at your school (in general) do graduate with the DAP Diploma and you dont…then the admissions committee will prefer them over you…</p>

<p>now that top 10% is being eliminated, TAMU will start to become competitive! language is very important for someone majoring in the liberal arts school…</p>