UVA & HS Foreign Language

[Anonymous]

My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

[Anonymous]

Straight from Dean Jeannine Lalonde:

“1. All of your core classes are important.
A lot of people focus on the core areas that correspond to their current academic interest. I've even had people wave off certain subjects because they aren't interested in them or they don't come "naturally" to them. I wish they'd stop this. High school is the time to get a broad foundation in several areas and college is the time to specialize. We most concerned with a student's work in four core areas (in alpha order, not order of importance): English, Math, Science, Social Science, and World Language.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Straight from Dean Jeannine Lalonde:

“1. All of your core classes are important.
A lot of people focus on the core areas that correspond to their current academic interest. I've even had people wave off certain subjects because they aren't interested in them or they don't come "naturally" to them. I wish they'd stop this. High school is the time to get a broad foundation in several areas and college is the time to specialize. We most concerned with a student's work in four core areas (in alpha order, not order of importance): English, Math, Science, Social Science, and World Language.”

The second and third items from this post are just as relevant:

2. The number of APs doesn't drive a decision.
Plenty of people want to know how many AP courses a student should take to be competitive in our process. We don't approach applications this way. First of all, not everyone goes to a school with APs as an option. Second, some schools limit how many AP courses a student may take. Third, with the number of AP courses offered these days, you can rack up a lot of APs in just one subject. There could be students with big AP numbers who also haven't take an advanced course in other core areas.

3. Doubling up in one subject at the expense of the core doesn't "look good."
There are some students who are so excited about a certain subject that they want to double or even triple up on courses in that area. I don't think it's smart to drop core subjects to load up classes in one area. Cover the core and use your electives to explore your interests.

http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2019/03/course-rigor-is-not-number.html?m=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Straight from Dean Jeannine Lalonde:

“1. All of your core classes are important.
A lot of people focus on the core areas that correspond to their current academic interest. I've even had people wave off certain subjects because they aren't interested in them or they don't come "naturally" to them. I wish they'd stop this. High school is the time to get a broad foundation in several areas and college is the time to specialize. We most concerned with a student's work in four core areas (in alpha order, not order of importance): English, Math, Science, Social Science, and World Language.”

That’s five areas, not four.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

You need four years for top schools and UVA. If you exhaust four years, you should take an AP language. Your student should be taking the most rigorous course of studies in all fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

You need four years for top schools and UVA. If you exhaust four years, you should take an AP language. Your student should be taking the most rigorous course of studies in all fields.

Is this absolute? My kid took 4 years of a less popular language (only 10 kids in the class at level 4). The teacher was the only one who taught the subject. During COVID, the teacher had a mental breakdown, to the point where admin became involved and the teacher disappeared the last few weeks of the year. Kid dropped the language after that; there was no acceptable path to continue with the teacher.

There was really no good way to explain this in an application. It’s going to look like kid didn’t pursue AP, but it’s obviously more nuanced than that.

[Anonymous]

If the school didn’t offer the class there’s limited ways to take it. You can’t take classes not offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

Mom to 3 current or very recent UVA students. If your son is applying to college of arts and sciences the answer is yes, he needs to take a language all 4 years of HS if he wants a decent chance at admission. He will also be required to take 2 more years of a foreign language at UVA unless he earns a 5 on an AP foreign language exam (don’t think a 4 satisfies but it may depend on the language) or a similarly high score on an IB language exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

You need four years for top schools and UVA. If you exhaust four years, you should take an AP language. Your student should be taking the most rigorous course of studies in all fields.

Is this absolute? My kid took 4 years of a less popular language (only 10 kids in the class at level 4). The teacher was the only one who taught the subject. During COVID, the teacher had a mental breakdown, to the point where admin became involved and the teacher disappeared the last few weeks of the year. Kid dropped the language after that; there was no acceptable path to continue with the teacher.

There was really no good way to explain this in an application. It’s going to look like kid didn’t pursue AP, but it’s obviously more nuanced than that.

My kid was in that class too. Changed languages and the counselor did not explain that 2+2 does not equal 4 in this sense. Since kid was competitive in every other way, I do think it affected the outcome of some applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

You need four years for top schools and UVA. If you exhaust four years, you should take an AP language. Your student should be taking the most rigorous course of studies in all fields.

Is this absolute? My kid took 4 years of a less popular language (only 10 kids in the class at level 4). The teacher was the only one who taught the subject. During COVID, the teacher had a mental breakdown, to the point where admin became involved and the teacher disappeared the last few weeks of the year. Kid dropped the language after that; there was no acceptable path to continue with the teacher.

There was really no good way to explain this in an application. It’s going to look like kid didn’t pursue AP, but it’s obviously more nuanced than that.

My kid was in that class too. Changed languages and the counselor did not explain that 2+2 does not equal 4 in this sense. Since kid was competitive in every other way, I do think it affected the outcome of some applications.

Sorry your kid had to deal with that as well. My kids is a senior now and replaced world language with other APs, but the situation sucked. I think a lot of really bright kids dropped a tough world language after that happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

Mom to 3 current or very recent UVA students. If your son is applying to college of arts and sciences the answer is yes, he needs to take a language all 4 years of HS if he wants a decent chance at admission. He will also be required to take 2 more years of a foreign language at UVA unless he earns a 5 on an AP foreign language exam (don’t think a 4 satisfies but it may depend on the language) or a similarly high score on an IB language exam.

What about if student is applying to engineering school at UVA? 3 years of foreign language ok then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

Honestly, yes, it will hurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is completing his third year of HS Foreign Language as a Sophomore this school year. He is thinking of stopping at three years. He will probably take some AP class of greater interest in its place.

Would only 3 years of Language hurt his chances at UVA admission and how seriously would it hurt? UVA is the most selective college he is likely to apply to. He is tracking towards a decent chance of admission in other ways - GPA, Test Score, Sport & Activities etc.

Not a big sample size but I know 6 kids who are at UVA and every single one of them had 4+ years of language. Some had 6 with middle school. My assessment is UVA is fanatical about languages. My child was off the charts with test scores and grades but only 3 years language and was denied. In my view, it matters A LOT.

[Anonymous]

My DC has a friend who didn't go for the 4th year of their language in 11th grade while my DC proceeded. This surprised me as I thought this would affect college chances. But the friend did take Year 4 in 12th grade. And has just been accepted to UVA.

My DC got accepted ED to their first choice and withdrew UVA application so we'll never know, but I do think it helps a lot.

[Anonymous]

Four years in high school or up to highest level offered. My kid was able to take AP Spanish junior year. - not taking Spanish senior year. She was admitted ti UVA ED last month.