Foreign language

[Anonymous]

If a college requires three years of foreign language, does that mean in high school? What if you took two years in middle school and placed into Spanish 2 or 3?

[Anonymous]

It depends on the school, I think, and two years in high school may technically be sufficient but may not look fabulous to highly selective schools.

That said, my kid got into a top-50 SLAC with only Spanish 2 and 3 in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a college requires three years of foreign language, does that mean in high school? What if you took two years in middle school and placed into Spanish 2 or 3?

3 years of language is FINE. No need for AP!

My kid with not-so-stellar grades got into several T40 schools and T30 (S)LACs with 4 years of lang (1+3). No AP. Another (went to magnet though) got into a T20 with 3 years of lang. (1+2) in HS. No AP.

[Anonymous]

If looking at a selective college, try to take 3-4 yrs in high school. It not as selective it’s fine to include middle school years.

[Anonymous]

Take a language all 4 years. It is considered to be a "core subject" by colleges. Trust me. Do it.

[Anonymous]

I was very worried about this - my kid dropped foreign language after the minimum required by MCPS (I think 2 years)? Hasn’t hurt him, and he’s also gotten into a T50 SLAC and two competitive state schools. We are still waiting on three RD decisions (one SLAC, two T10).

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind many colleges and universities (especially LACs!) have a requirement for foreign language while you're in college. So stopping early does your student no favors.

[Anonymous]

My kid will fight through three years of foreign language in high school. He has dyslexia and it will be a battle. I hope having only three years won't be detriment. He will not be informing any future college of his LD.

[Anonymous]

I guess the question is whether you need to take three years of French in high school or just get the level of French 3 which you can usually do with two years of college and one middle school.

[Anonymous]

What about switching a language after 2 years and doing 2 years of one, and 2 years of another? Does that look bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind many colleges and universities (especially LACs!) have a requirement for foreign language while you're in college. So stopping early does your student no favors.

The flip side to this point is that if you skip Lang the last 2 years of HS and take, say AP Stats and AP Psych you get more credits out of college and take language in college to give you an easy class. Also, depending on the program (e.g. engineering) you many not have lang. requirements in college.

The language requirement in college in and of itself is so pointless and is more of a 'let's milk these kids while we have them' kinda requirement. No one comes out of 2 years of college Spanish with the ability to speak the language or otherwise use is productively. Virginia Tech has the least onerous language requirement and they are climbing the ranks with great post-grad outcomes. Clearly, their lower language requirements are not hurting their grads.

[Anonymous]

If you use middle school FL to satisfy college admissions, do you have to include the grade? My kid has done a dual language immersion program, but it's her hardest subject, and we don't want to enroll her in that AP class in 9th grade and have her start with a GPA hit when it's unnecessary. We are thinking of starting in Level 2 or 3 in 9th grade (rather than the AP class in 9th grade like the program is designed for) so that they can get the basics down better and get a relatively easy A, then maybe take the AP class junior or senior year.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you use middle school FL to satisfy college admissions, do you have to include the grade? My kid has done a dual language immersion program, but it's her hardest subject, and we don't want to enroll her in that AP class in 9th grade and have her start with a GPA hit when it's unnecessary. We are thinking of starting in Level 2 or 3 in 9th grade (rather than the AP class in 9th grade like the program is designed for) so that they can get the basics down better and get a relatively easy A, then maybe take the AP class junior or senior year.....

This is dependent on the school/school system. In FCPS the grade would be on the transcript. Where we are now in NJ, no middle school classes or grades are on the transcript, even if they are “high school” courses like Algebra or FL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess the question is whether you need to take three years of French in high school or just get the level of French 3 which you can usually do with two years of college and one middle school.

I think we have said it may depend on the college, but several of us have posted experience with successful college applications with only two years of language in HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess the question is whether you need to take three years of French in high school or just get the level of French 3 which you can usually do with two years of college and one middle school.

I think we have said it may depend on the college, but several of us have posted experience with successful college applications with only two years of language in HS.

This question about language is asked every couple of months, people show up to categorically state that you need 4 years of language, parents of kids (like us) who had good college outcomes with 2 -3 years of language pipe in to say, "mm..not really", and more 4-yearsers show up to drown us out..

YOU DON'T NEED 4 YEARS OF LANGUAGE IN HIGH SCHOOL