<p>The Harvard and Princeton list explicitly a requirement for 4 yrs of 1 FL. Stanford list 3 or more years, and I didn't find any explicit course list from the Yale website.</p>
<p>I have only 3 year of Spanish and was struggling to maintain A- so I didn't attempt to take AP Spanish language or Spanish IV.</p>
<p>Will this hurt my chances? I'm applying for EECS at all these Universities.</p>
<p>My Stats:
PSAT: 226 (CA) NMSF
SAT1: 2320 (800(M)/760/760)
SATII: 770(M), 780(Chem), 770(Phys)
GPA: 4.25 (W)
Rank: School doesn't rank
School: Private in LA
APs: All 4 or 5, AP National Scholar
10th: Chem, Euro History, Calc BC, Comp Sc AB
11th: English Lang, Stat, US History, Biology, Physics C, Env Sc
12th: Art History, English Lit, </p>
<p>EC's:
Research: Did 2 year of independent research in bioinformatics
JETS: 4 years (3rd, 1st, 3rd)
Model UN: 4 years, Founding member at school, best research, best delegate
Speech: 2 yrs, Mock trial 1 yr
FPS: 3 years
Book Club: Founder of the club
NHS: 300 hrs
Tae Kwon Do: Black Belt (5years) some awards in local compt.
Piano: 6 years (Advance level standing)</p>
<p>Your grades, scores, and ECs are all very good, and within the criteria for these top schools. Dropping Spanish is pretty glaring, though, and might raise some eyebrows. You seem to be clearly a science/math person, though, so you might be fine. Apply and see what happens. You never know.</p>
<p>It won’t hurt you at all my D only has two years of French and is a freshman at Harvard. It is not a requirement to have four years. The rest of your stats look good, but at these schools - you never can tell!</p>
<p>I’m aware of the complexity of admissions at these top school but I came across this only last week when one of my friend showed me the course requirements. So I became nervous, I could have taken a Spanish IV in the senior year.
I just don’t want my application to be thrown out just because I didn’t realize 4th year of FL was so important.</p>
<p>I don’t know, but from reading the Rachel Toor’s book, it states 4 years of science, 4 years of language, 4 years of math, 4 years of english and 4 years of social sciences. This is what DD followed, and she is not even applying to HYP, which I assume are more selective. But I suggest you go ahead and apply at this point you have no chances if you don’t apply.
A- is not a bad grade, it depends on the school My D has B+ in her French but she keeps on going.</p>
<p>I am a high school French teacher and mother of two high school students. Believe me when I tell you that taking 4 years of a foreign language MATTERS. Everyone knows that foreign language study gets difficult around year 3. Those who hang in there show that they are not just grade hounds and that they can endure some challenges. Your focus on GPA alone is not good - keep in mind that you must challenge yourself and grow in a subject. Enough said!</p>
<p>My daughter is a Freshman at Princeton and had 2 years of French.
You may not get in for other reasons (the strength of the applicant pool), but having “only” 3 years of a foreign language won’t matter a whit.</p>
<p>No I don’t think I can write a good explanation as I did have room to take it in the senior year but I just choose to take electives that I was more interested in ‘Electronics’ and ‘Modern Physics’ each being 1 semester. I already had 7 sciences without these so I don’t think I can come up with any good excuse.
I do complete other requirements as I’ve
8 years of science, 3 years of F. language, 6 years of math (2 years beyond Calculus), 4 years of english and 4 years of social sciences.</p>
<p>The only reason not having 4 years of an FL would matter is if the adcom reading your app is a complete moron. </p>
<p>People recognize that taking certain courses is more important than WASTING TIME w/ a foreign language because in high school you don’t learn ANYTHING USEFUL About the language and it is only in college that you actually learn anything about the language.</p>
<p>If a person didn’t take any years, then that obviously wouldn’t be good since colleges still seem to want the European, ‘cultured’ aristocratic-type person which is the only basis of the foreign language stuff.</p>
<p>I am amused by Rootbeer’s take on who is a moron or not. Look, I know of a senior with excellent grades who was rejected by Wash U and when guidance asked about it, they were told that her failure to continue to Spanish 4 or AP Spanish was a negative. Sorry, Princeton Mom, but IF you are pursuing Humanities, failing to exhaust what is offerred in foreign language is damaging to your resume. IF you are pursuing sciences, engineering, then it is not. Dear thread starter: you cannot change the past but I don’t recommend making up an explanation for not continuing your spanish studies. You said there were other courses that were more interesting and as long as those courses are challenging then you will be OK. I would not advise dropping foreign language to take up bead stringing.</p>
<p>I was convinced it was important. My daughter, at Yale, asked a bunch of her friends if they had a fourth year and many did not. Yale doesn’t state that they require it but obviously on this thread there are kids at Princeton and Harvard without it. I will not push the next kid to take that 4th year unless he wants to – it almost always means giving up something else worthwhile academically and it should be done for a better reason than what Princeton puts on their website.</p>
<p>My D began French in middle school, so she was finished after three years of HS French, taking AP junior year. I certainly hope that will be recognized as a complete sequence and as far as she could have gone at her small private school, unless she’d opted to do an independent study. And senior year there were a lot of courses she still HAD to take.</p>
<p>deuxchevaux, completely humanities oriented daughter, thank you very much.
I think you need to acknowledge information on this thread from people with first hand experience with HYP.
An admissions officer will tell a guidance counselor many things when asked about a rejection, often not truthful but politically correct. A nice neutral nugget like “didn’t take AP Spanish” isn’t apt to be the true reason for a rejection.</p>
<p>Your HS record, both academic and EC, is very strong. While 4 years of a foreign lanuage is a nice thing to have your transcript, you have loads of challenging courses. (Your transcript certainly doesn’t give the impression that you’re a slacker or that you give up when the work gets hard!) Your senior year electives demonstrate your strong interest in science. Since you’re looking for EECS I think that would be a huge plus. It’s water under the bridge now anyway so try to relax. Good luck.</p>
<p>Agree that dropping FL senior year to string beads would be a mistake; but OP has replaced FL with serious academic courses in his area of interest. My kid did exactly that, replacing language with an AP in a different area of interest (having completed AP language junior year, but not taking AP lit in senior year) and is at one of the OP’s colleges of choice. It would be nice to hear from an admissions officer on this, but it’s hard to imagine that a kid with a passion for science, who takes as much science as possible, dropping the FL, would be penalized for it.</p>
<p>Anything Harvard says about your high school program is a RECOMMENDATION, not a strict requirement. Any of the courses mentioned can be reduced in amount or waived for an applicant who has a strong application in other respects. That’s how Harvard fills out Common Data Set surveys. </p>
<p>What if I took only 2 HS years of Spanish, but got up to the 4th year level? I started my freshman year with Spanish III. It won’t look bad that I stopped after sophomore year right? I was getting A-'s in Spanish IV so I just quit and didn’t take V or VI.</p>