I think you are all kidding yourselves about the languages most hs students in the U.S. have opportunity to learn. The vast majority have only Soanish, French and maybe German offerings. So all of this “should I learn Mandarin or Russian or Arabic or Japanese” is confined to specific affluent populations. Colleges know this. They know most kids don’t have wide choices.
@mathmom – Latin is the choice of all the kids who hate foreign language at my son’s high school for the very reasons you mention – no listening or speaking component, no concerns about your accent. Our school does a lot of service learning trips and local community service which require a certain level of fluency in Spanish (which is seen as the “language you might actually use” amongst the student body). Everyone takes the national exams in their language, top levels are seen as equivalent (although I’m most impressed by the kids who excel in Chinese). I’m sure the OP is no longer checking this thread, but it’s hard for me to believe that a kid is so great at Latin, but can’t spell “per se” (all the Latin I know I learned in law school, but that one is pretty basic).
A good thoughtful question to someone who obviously wants to prepare to be successful. From what I read it’s not what language but how many years you take of the language. Much success!