Hey guys. Do any of you know if UPENN’s Wharton has a requirement on how many years of language you need in high school? I cannot seem to find any requirement.
No special requirement except the Huntsman program:
For Penn
“we encourage Penn applicants to consistently take classes in the core academic disciplines (English, social studies, mathematics, science, and foreign language) throughout their four years of high school.”
You’ll need one semester post AP to graduate, so you would need to take as many classes as you can in high school. Scoring on the sat2 also serves for placement, 650+ is a threshold they want to see.
Well, that was not the OP’s question. Regardless, the statement is incorrect.
650 or an AP score of 4/5 in many languages (check exceptions) will provide an exemption from Penn’s graduation requirements, but again, OP was asking about HS preparation.
@skieurope Like you said, not related to the OP’s question, but the 650+ rule may not even be true anymore for Wharton. As part of the new curriculum reform, the Wharton language requirement is going to only be 2 semesters, so it’s unclear, but it’s possible that a score as low as a 450+ would allow students to be exempt (I hope this isn’t the case; that would be way too low of a threshold in my opinion).
https://undergrad-inside.wharton.upenn.edu/requirements-2017/foreign-language-requirement/
http://www.college.upenn.edu/language-placement
@WhartonPenn2017 It’s been a couple of years since I applied to Penn, so I was mostly going on memory. I did read the link before I posted to confirm, and it is a bit vague. However, I interpreted it that the 2 semester requirement applies to classes taken at Penn, but to be exempt, one still needs to achieve the higher score as listed on your second link.
Regardless, the OP needs to get into Penn first 
and any new Wharton admits should verify with the source.
^I looked at the language classes, and the 4-semester requirement is no joke (those aren’t easy/fluff classes, they’re really intense), with the 4th semester class at least at AP level if not higher, hence my estimation students would need one post-AP level class HOWEVER if they score high enough, ie., 650 or AP score of 5 = exempt from the requirement. So basically if you took a lot of high school foreign language and got it certified through a subject test of AP, you don’t have to take foreign language classes at all, whereas if you did neither, then you may have to take two semesters of a foreign language. This would seem to indicate they encourage foreign language study in high school. Hence, answering the OP’s question. 
The 2-semester rule seems confusing to me because it clearly lists languages to be continued from high school and above the 2nd semester class.
Further, Wharton students need to study/intern abroad and many programs have language requirements so there’ll probably be a minimum and a recommended level to reach in college.
Thanks for the help guys.
So right now, I will be taking 3 years of Spanish honors, but I am planning to self study for the AP test and take it in senior year. So do you guys think that taking 4 years of it will be better in the eyes of Wharton in this case?
Due to the conditions which highly favor students who took the subject and/or AP test, take both. It’s not so much that it’ll be better in their eyes, but rather that it’ll be better for you if you get in.
Agreed.
Thanks so much for the help guys.