Third Year Foreign Language?

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
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<p>I am a junior heading into his senior year trying to figure out if I need a third year of foreign language. I find myself to really hate it and to be really bad at it in general.</p>

<p>My course curriculum has been pretty standard thus far. I have taken the most rigorous courses my school offers besides for non-honors English freshman year. (Freshman Year: Geometry, World History, Spanish 2, English, Physics. Sophomore Year: Algebra II, US I, Chemistry, Spanish 3, English. Junior Year: Pre-Calculus, AP US II, AP Computer Science, AP Statistics, AP Language and Comp, Biology. No foreign language junior year.)</p>

<p>I was planning on taking Mandarin 1 next year, but just learned that is not being offered next year. If I were to take a language, my options are to pick up with Spanish and take Spanish 4, or work over the summer and take Mandarin 2. </p>

<p>My courses for senior year right now are looking like: AP Calc AB, AP Biology, AP Psychology, AP Government, AP Literature. I might possibly take AP Econ, and need to figure out the foreign language.</p>

<p>I am looking at mostly schools right below the ivies with a few ivy equivalents. A few include Carnegie Mellon, uVA, Northwestern, UChicago, Emory, NYU, Brandeis.</p>

<p>Right now I am looking at majoring/minoring in a combination of economics and computer science.</p>

<p>From what I have seen, no school requires the three years, most just recommend it. </p>

<p>Does taking the extra history, science, math make up for the lack of foreign language or do I really need to take it? I would really prefer not to, but if the sentiment seems to be that I should, than I will.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot</p>

<p>NOTE: I go to a public highschool. Know this forum is more for homeschooling, but couldn't find a more appropriate place to put it. Sorry about that.</p>

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<p>UVa has an admissions dean that has addressed this question on their forum before. To be a competitive applicant they like to see all of your ‘solids’ (math, English, science, history, and foreign language) all four years of high school. This is regardless of years taken in middle school. The point being they don’t want any subjects dropped in high school.</p>

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<p>OP,</p>

<p>I think you can still get admitted to top schools with two years of the same foreign language if the rest of your transcript is very strong.</p>

<p>My son was admitted to some top schools including Princeton, which “recommends” four years of a foreign language with only two semesters of community college Arabic and a year of homeschooled ASL. He had intended to take a third semester of Arabic (it was on his midyear transcripts but not on his final transcripts) but the classes were impacted here and he never was able to take it.</p>