I moved the summer after freshman year. At my previous school (which was a 6 through 12 public high school), one was only allowed to begin taking a foreign language in the eighth grade. I began taking French because I never liked the Spanish language. I took French levels 1 and 2 from eighth to ninth grade and was on the track to take AP French my senior year.
My parents shocked me during freshman year with a move across the country. Found out at my first counseling session that the new school no longer offered French due to lack of enrollment. Also found out that you must take classes at the local community college through the school and during the school day through the “Dual Enrollment” program. Decided to enroll in Latin 1 and take Latin levels 1 through 3 during my Sophomore to Senior years.
I ended up excelling in Latin and competed at State level competitions, winning second place in both of my categories. Come Junior year, however, we find out that our outstanding Latin teacher left the public high school for a job at the local private school. I proceeded to sign up for Latin 2 but was dismayed to find out that I was dropped from AP Psychology due to scheduling conflicts. The new Latin teacher was horrendous. It was his first time teaching, ever, and he did not major in Latin during college (where our previous teacher had a Master’s degree). Much of those first few weeks were spent with the Level 2 and up students teaching the “teacher” basic Latin rules.
After several weeks of conflict between the new teacher and the class over grading rules, tests, and homework policies (all of which we found unreasonable, even compared to our very strict previous teacher), I found myself stressed out of my mind over one class and promptly went to the guidance office to switch out. I had dearly wanted to take AP Psychology in my Junior year in order to free an elective in my Senior year for two AP History courses, so I made the decision to switch from Latin 2 to AP Psychology.
Now, I find myself a semester later extremely concerned that I will not be accepted into any top-level college due to only having two years of a consecutive foreign language.
Too Long, Didn’t Read: I am a Junior with only two years of French consecutively and one year of Latin under her belt due to a cross-country move and a new teacher. Will this destroy my chances at any top-level college (and I’m not whining about Harvard or anything, I mean schools like Bowdoin College or University of Virginia)? What are my options at this point of my high school career?
"Your academic program is very important to us; we need to see you challenging yourself in the classroom. In general, this means that you should take one of the toughest (if not the toughest) academic programs offered by your high school. In other words, if the toughest program normally taken by a college-bound senior at your school consists of four AP or dual-enrollment courses plus another honors-level academic “solid,” such a schedule would look good to us if we saw it on your transcript. On the other hand, if the best program for a senior at your school is two honors-level courses plus three academic “solids,” that would look good to us, too. Because terrific students come to us from many different kinds of high schools and because, in fact, most students don’t have any say-so in where they go to high school, we try to evaluate each applicant’s academic program within the context of his or her school.
We fully understand that students’ course selection may be affected by circumstances that are beyond their control. Some schools place strict limits on the number of advanced or honors courses that any individual student can take. Other schools have severe scheduling conflicts that keep students from enrolling in courses they might otherwise have sought out. In these cases we still would like to see students taking the strongest courses available to them. And we would like to hear why the schedule turned out as it did; for example, a student might discuss his or her course selection in the “Additional Information” section of the Common Application, or the counselor might explain the circumstances to us on the School and Transcript Report."
-University of Virginia
“Of the credentials Bowdoin evaluates, a student’s overall academic record is by far the most important. Although Bowdoin does not require a prescribed high school program or number of courses, the typical entering first-year student will have had four years each of English, foreign language, mathematics, social science and three to four years of laboratory sciences.”
-Bowdoin
This type of question depends on the school, which means that the standard advice of look on their webpages to determine this applies here. You’re probably fine with University of Virginia, but Bowdoin is likely far more of a reach. But hey, reach out to them. Only way to guarantee not getting in is not to apply in the first place.
@observeraffect Ah, you’re totally right that it is a school by school basis. I suppose I just freaked myself out by reading one too many comments and articles that told me that I would have zero chances at any “good” school. Thank you for taking your time to find Bowdoin and UVa’s specific statements!
That still leaves one question, is there anything I can do to partially remedy my lack of consecutive languages at this point in my career?
I think colleges are mostly forgiving on this. One of my kids did something sort of like this (swapped schedules around to escape a terrible teacher in a different subject, and had drop her language jr year to do it). However, she did pick it back up senior year. She explained to colleges in the additional info section that she had dropped language jr year due to a schedule conflict – you could explain your school change and mention a schedule conflict. You don’t need to go into detail. But… it would be good to get in another year of Latin somehow. Can you take an online course or CC course this summer (although I am guessing Latin isn’t a common CC course). Or maybe this teacher will leave?
Perhaps you could take the SAT subject tests in French and Latin to show proficiency.
The OP would have to be proficient enough to do so…, more coursework is likely required.
@awesomepolyglot I was thinking of self-studying French and try to take a CC course for French 2 (at the college level) over the summer and then taking the SAT subject test in French in the fall, however I don’t know if I will be proficient enough even after that.
@intparent thank you for sharing that, it definitely helped ease some of my stress! My state (Florida) has a pretty well established online school but they only offer up to French 2. Many of my friends switched out of Latin due to the teacher and are taking it online and they are all struggling immensely, which deterred me slightly. Though taking it currently and finishing it before senior year would allow me to take Latin 3 as a senior. Would that be worth the added stress?
I can’t say, but maybe your friends ahead of you can help you if you struggle with Latin 2. Are you thinking online Latin 3, or is there a different teacher at your school? Is there any way to take 2 or 3 at a local college?
@intparent I just checked my local community college’s course catalog and they do not offer Latin. Would I then be better off trying to take French through the community college because online courses aren’t preferable for foreign language. The CC offers French 3 after school hours so perhaps I could take French 2 over summer and French 3 after school first semester my senior year. Do colleges count the number of years in high school and CC courses the same? Thank you again for all of your help!
I know at a 4 year college 1 semester = 1 year of HS. I don’t know about CC
If you can complete French at the community college then take the SAT Subject in it, I think you’d show you have a good grasp of it (as long as you get a good score). You could of course register for one more semester at the community college if your score is too low to send colleges.
Completing French 2 over the summer and French 3 in the Fall at a community college would roughly bring you to the level of HS French 4, so you’d actually be ahead ;
@MYOS1634 Okay, thank you! That is currently my main plan of attack. Thank you again for verifying.