Benefit of being bilingual

[Anonymous]

DH and I are both American (going back generations) but I was a Spanish major in college and somehow convinced DH to raise our kids bilingual in Spanish and English. They only speak Spanish with me and English with DH. And they attend a Spanish language school which, upon graduation, will confer the equivalent of a high school diploma such that they could attend university in much of Latin American. I’ve never thought about this from a college applicant perspective (they will go to college in the states) but as my oldest is starting high school next year, I’m now curious.

[Anonymous]

What are you curious about?
You've already determined they won't take advantage of the opportunity to go to college in Latin America.
Your kids opportunity to become bilingual was a privilege of having educated parents, not a disadvantage they could use as leverage for college admission.
This isn't the same situation as kids who group up with parents who don't speak English, and have to act as translators for their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both American (going back generations) but I was a Spanish major in college and somehow convinced DH to raise our kids bilingual in Spanish and English. They only speak Spanish with me and English with DH. And they attend a Spanish language school which, upon graduation, will confer the equivalent of a high school diploma such that they could attend university in much of Latin American. I’ve never thought about this from a college applicant perspective (they will go to college in the states) but as my oldest is starting high school next year, I’m now curious.

I don’t think being bilingual, by itself, helps much at T10 schools. My son had decent stats and was bilingual in an unusual language, and Yale and UChicago both rejected him.

The other U.S. schools he applied to were at the level of Catholic University or, say, Goucher, and he got into all of those with merit aid that that got the net price down to less than $45,000. So, it’s possible being bilingual helps with merit aid to some fine schools below the tippy top.

On the other hand, if your son speaks Spanish well enough to take classes in Spanish, maybe he should consider putting universities in Spain on his list:

https://www.study.eu/country/spain

One thing he could do is focus more on English-language bachelor’s programs but enjoy the benefits of being able to socialize in Spanish.

If he does this, he ought to talk to U.S. law, medical or other programs here that interest them and make sure they would be OK with applicants from his target schools.

Note that a lot of European schools have less handholding than U.S. schools. So, your son has to understand that the experience would be a lot different from UVa. And I’d strongly prefer universities that have international student dorms or otherwise try to give international students extra support.

Also, some EU universities might expect the students to manage their own education a lot more than a U.S. university would. There might be more classes where the final grade depended solely on one paper or one test.

But I think going to Spain could be a great option for your son if he’s a fairly high-stats self-starter without the spectacular activities now needed to get into places like, say, Northwestern or Vanderbilt, who doesn’t yearn for tailgate parties.

[Anonymous]

The best thing you can do is find programs for him to spend the summer in a spanish speaking country. it's one thing to go a bilingual school, but being fully immersed overseas will be wonderful and may help him figure out how spanish will fit into his life post-high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you curious about?
You've already determined they won't take advantage of the opportunity to go to college in Latin America.
Your kids opportunity to become bilingual was a privilege of having educated parents, not a disadvantage they could use as leverage for college admission.
This isn't the same situation as kids who group up with parents who don't speak English, and have to act as translators for their parents.

I’m wondering whether or something like this rises to the level of a kid being super committed to a sport, or some other very time-consuming extra curricular.

[Anonymous]

It might help if they are interested in foreign service and wanted to major in it.

[Anonymous]

Of course it is a great advantage in life to be bilingual. There are people you can talk to who will never learn English. Countries you can visit independently. Literature you can read in its original version. It also helps you think differently. Employers who will find your children more appealing. Congratulations.

Now, whether it helps in college, I don’t know. My DC discussed (in her application essay) how her heritage has been woven into her life and helped shape her. It might add to your child’s appeal if the school values diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you curious about?
You've already determined they won't take advantage of the opportunity to go to college in Latin America.
Your kids opportunity to become bilingual was a privilege of having educated parents, not a disadvantage they could use as leverage for college admission.
This isn't the same situation as kids who group up with parents who don't speak English, and have to act as translators for their parents.

I’m wondering whether or something like this rises to the level of a kid being super committed to a sport, or some other very time-consuming extra curricular.

I know a couple of kids that went to a language immersion program, continued the language through HS, spent every year in the country of that language (Asian language) and still ended up at so-so schools. Not an advantage to the school so no incentive for the school to celebrate it. Sports on the other hand enhances their prestige and brings in money.

[Anonymous]

DS is multilingual, a wonderful cellist and a good soccer player. Somehow none of these attributes impressed his reach schools. Being an underrepresented minority, he seems to be disadvantaged as his classmates with lower GPA got into their first or second choice of school.
So yeah, I agree with a former poster stating that colleges don't care much about the student's achievement unless he or she is brilliant in one of the sports that makes money.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it matters much. And it will matter even less as time goes on and things like Google Translate make it even easier to communicate with others in a different language.

Also, there are tons of bilingual/multilingual kids in this country and around the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you curious about?
You've already determined they won't take advantage of the opportunity to go to college in Latin America.
Your kids opportunity to become bilingual was a privilege of having educated parents, not a disadvantage they could use as leverage for college admission.
This isn't the same situation as kids who group up with parents who don't speak English, and have to act as translators for their parents.

I’m wondering whether or something like this rises to the level of a kid being super committed to a sport, or some other very time-consuming extra curricular.

I think it’s more about what your kid can do with the language.

We are very much in the same boat as you - Anglo, Spanish-speaking parents who raised a bilingual kid (attended bilingual school, spent lots of time in Spanish speaking countries, spent a lot of time with friends in situations where everyone was speaking Spanish). Where this came into play for DS’s application was in describing his extra curricular activities:

- working at a job during high school where speaking Spanish was required
- being an assistant coach for a youth team coached in Spanish
- spending weeks over the summer volunteering at a research facility in Latin America, and doing some English tutoring and translating for program staff while there.

Not sure if a T-10 school would have cared, but it definitely helped him get into his extreme reach T-25 school.

[Anonymous]

I don’t see an advantage to going to a foreign university unless your child wants to live and/or work in that country.

For US universities, I think there are many highly qualified bilingual applicants, including many whose parents are native Spanish speakers, so not sure your child is unique unless they have made extra efforts like summer immersion programs or study abroad programs to achieve that language level. Just attending bilingual school and growing up speaking two languages is not that unique.

It could be an advantage if presented as extracurricular (see above para) or if your child intends to pursue as a major and/or career such as wanting to study medicine or law and then work with underserved populations, immigration law, etc. or double major in business and Spanish to work internationally, foreign service, etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it matters much. And it will matter even less as time goes on and things like Google Translate make it even easier to communicate with others in a different language.

Also, there are tons of bilingual/multilingual kids in this country and around the world.

Technologies like Google Translate are wonderful for enabling extremely basic, practical communication. They don’t help much, for example, with getting the host’s joke at a party with 50 people talking and loud music playing. Or with being able to form relationships with people you meet while traveling. Or with being able to socialize generally with non-English speakers.

I’m always surprised at people for whom the value of not sticking out as the monolingual foreigner is not obvious. It’s like the idea that it might be worthwhile to fit in socially in a non-English environment doesn’t even occur to them. This is not just about language - it’s about behavioral norms and being respectful. I’ve been in situations where my language skills were primitive, but I accomplished much more than other Americans just by listening, watching how people behaved, and working hard to not be rude. Google translate will never help with this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both American (going back generations) but I was a Spanish major in college and somehow convinced DH to raise our kids bilingual in Spanish and English. They only speak Spanish with me and English with DH. And they attend a Spanish language school which, upon graduation, will confer the equivalent of a high school diploma such that they could attend university in much of Latin American. I’ve never thought about this from a college applicant perspective (they will go to college in the states) but as my oldest is starting high school next year, I’m now curious.

Pretty much zilch. I know a LOT of bilingual kids, nearly all having at least one parent, maybe both, who are native speakers and it has made ZILCH difference in their college admissions. In fact, in the most recent group, a mix of legacies and not, had kids dinged at T10, T20 schools. All the parents are college educated, nearly all of them have post grad degrees, academic and professional. Perhaps, as another poster mentioned, if your kids were first gen then someone would care, but not when the kid is growing up in a home with highly educated parents (which still means a BA in the US).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it matters much. And it will matter even less as time goes on and things like Google Translate make it even easier to communicate with others in a different language.

Also, there are tons of bilingual/multilingual kids in this country and around the world.

Technologies like Google Translate are wonderful for enabling extremely basic, practical communication. They don’t help much, for example, with getting the host’s joke at a party with 50 people talking and loud music playing. Or with being able to form relationships with people you meet while traveling. Or with being able to socialize generally with non-English speakers.

I’m always surprised at people for whom the value of not sticking out as the monolingual foreigner is not obvious. It’s like the idea that it might be worthwhile to fit in socially in a non-English environment doesn’t even occur to them. This is not just about language - it’s about behavioral norms and being respectful. I’ve been in situations where my language skills were primitive, but I accomplished much more than other Americans just by listening, watching how people behaved, and working hard to not be rude. Google translate will never help with this stuff.

This is likely an unconscious elitist view. If you are White, doesn't matter where you go, people treat you well, try to talk to you in your language, assume you are rich, etc. If you are Brown or Black, doesn't matter how many languages you know (unless maybe if it's your home country) or how much money you have, you are a second-class tourist.

Also, you can't really be fluent in the languages of all the countries you plan on traveling to, unless of course, you will only travel to Spanish (or the language you are fluent in) speaking countries.. No way it's going to help you in France or China or Japan.