Hello,
I am currently a Junior in High School and I am taking 4 ap classes and one Honors class, which is the French 4 Class in question. So far I have taken up till French 3 and ended all the classes with an A+, however, I must preface this by saying that French 3 was taken in Middle School over the span of 7th and 8th grade as is the norm at our district. Overall, this class has proved to be quite the struggle as coming back from a year of virtual has been anything but easy, and combined with the workload of other classes this class is definitely not one I enjoy taking. The teacher doesn’t do much to help either with the amount of work she assigns and all that being for a language course. This is all leading up to college aps next year and with the semester coming to a close I have the option to drop the course and take one that is a “freebie” as my guidance counselor calls it. What should I do? I currently have a B- in this class.
Are you applying to colleges that “recommend” level four of a foreign language in high school? “Recommend” should be taken as “required”.
So check and see. If that level four is recommended, then you will be in an admissions pool with others who have taken level four.
Just to be clear I am leaning towards colleges that require 3 years of a certain foreign language
You should also look at graduation requirements at colleges that are of interest to you. The fourth year may satisfy a graduation requirement. If you think that coming back to a FL in HS is difficult, try waiting until college. That can be even worse. Will your 8th grade class be on your HS transcript?
Ok, that sounds good and no I believe my eighth grade courses do not show up on my high school transcript but are saying “I have completed French 3” hold the same wight “I have taken three years of French?”
Oh one more thing, having grown up in a foreign country I am bilingual in Hindi as well. I don’t know if this makes a difference.
Are you saying these colleges specify a specific foreign language? If so, where would this be?
Take NYU for example, a college such as that states that it requires 3 years of a foreign language but I saw on some other forum that these are general recommendations and if I was strong in other aspects it would make up for it.
My question relates to your comment about a “certain” foreign language. I know of no college that requires a “certain” foreign language.
I will repeat my advice. If a college “recommendation” is for level 4 of a foreign language, view this as a “requirement”. The strongest applicants will have completed level 4.
And as noted by another poster, without that level 4, you very well could be looking at taking foreign language again in college. So do check.
NYU’s College of Arts & Sciences has a core requirement of language through the second semester at the intermediate (2nd year) level. Here are the ways to avoid taking the classes:
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
College students may fulfill the foreign language component by presenting outstanding scores on SAT II, Advanced Placement, or International Baccaulareate examinations or by passing a departmental proficiency examination. For further information, consult the CAS Bulletin under Placement Examinations in the Academic Policies chapter. For Advance Placement and International Baccalaureate exam equivalencies, consult the chart in the Admissions chapter.
Students whose entire secondary schooling was in a language other than English, or who complete the International Writing Workshop sequence (EXPOS-UA 4, EXPOS-UA 9), are exempt from the foreign language component. Students who complete the dual degree engineering program are also exempt.
If you drop French 4 Honors, what language(s) will you have on your high school transcript?
If level 3 is not present in your high school record, it is equivalent to nothing for colleges until you complete level 4 (though if you complete only a semester of level 4, they may take it as level 3.5).
If you don’t complete level 4, colleges will view you as having completed level 3. It doesn’t matter if something is on your HS transcript…or not…
The final level you complete in high school will be the final level you will have attained.
My kids actually did Spanish 1 and 2 in middle school. 9th grade was Spanish 3, and 10th was honors Spanish 4. For college criteria purposes, they were viewed as having completed level 4 (even though some of the previous levels were middle school).
Neither took a FL in 11th or 12th grade.
If you have the time, one option would be to try to find opportunities to use French outside of class. This should make the class somewhat easier. It is difficult to learn a second or third language unless you get to use it.
There are for example a few good French movies and shows on Netflix. One good French comedy on Netflix is “Gad Gone Wild”, which was recorded in Montreal. Also, oddly enough the BBC had some good French instructional videos available on-line the last time that I looked (which was multiple years ago).
Another option would be to get other students from your class together to have a “déjeuner Français” one or two days per week where you have lunch together and attempt to speak French the entire time.
I have no idea whether already speaking Hindi fluently is sufficient. No one in my family experienced this (we all had a second language, but it came with high school classes).
OP did mention that French 3 was in middle school, so the high school record will show no foreign language if the OP does not complete at least the first semester of French 4 (which could be seen as level 3.5 if the OP drops after that).
@Dhruv_Gopan are you saying you took French in 7 and 8 grade and then NO foreign language again until 11th grade? Please clarify.
If this is the case…why?
Not at our high school. Foreign language is a full year course. You have to complete the whole year…not half of it.
I don’t know of any decent college or university that would view “other aspects” of your application to make up for a “core” foreign language class.
When I went to high school, way back in the caveman days, I entered my high school fluent in Spanish. My counselor, in ninth grade, said “because you are a native speaker of Spanish, the schools will not accept that as your foreign language- we would have no academic record of that. Our high school university targets, at that time, were the UC schools.
My options were to take Japanese, French, German, or Latin. I chose to take French for 4 years, since it was so similar to Spanish.
The universities need to see how you perform, in a foreign language, along with all your other core classes.
I don’t think you understand that foreign language is a core requirement, and if you don’t have the minimum of four years, in competitive schools, you’re not getting into a number of schools.
My opinion….finish honors French 4. Just get it done. If you really did take two years off between middle school, and your junior year, this is likely why you are having trouble. Most folks take French four the year after French 3.
But what’s done is done. Finish the course. If need be, get some tutorial help. Aim for the highest grade you can get….and just be done with it.
Considering your situation and, apparently, the fact you completed Fr 3 in middle school, you really to complete Fr 4 in HS. If Fr 4H is too hard, drop down to Fr 4 regular and get a tutor.
(Try watching fun shows in French with subtitles, such as Call my agent and Lupin on Netflix, Art of crime on mhz/Prime, or Candice Renoir on Acorn. All fun, easy to follow, with good stories and typically French settings.)
Note that foreign language is a core class.
Colleges such as NYU would definitely expect level 4 if you completed level 3 in middle school.