Dropping AP Spanish

[Anonymous]

My very high achieving junior wants to drop AP Spanish and take another advanced math class instead. Says AP Spanish is too much stress on an already tough schedule and is convinced that more math will be more manageable.

Are there are implications for college applications that he should consider before making this switch? He will almost certainly be a STEM major. He has As all through to Spanish 5.

[Anonymous]

If he already has 4 years of high school language credits (including 8th grade), and thinks the math class will be easier for him, it should be fine. Especially if math comes more naturally to him and he will be a STEM.

Most colleges only require three years anyway, but he should confirm with his top choices of schools that four years of language should be enough.

[Anonymous]

I have been wondering about this for my own kid (current sophomore in Sp 4) and read through some of the old threads. They are so contradictory.

Some people say you have to take 4 years of the same language to get to the higher levels of grammar and a degree of competence. Other people say four years of language in high school no matter what - and seem to think that colleges will be more impressed with someone who took Spanish 1 in 9th through Spanish 4 in 12th than your kid or mine who achieved the same level by grade.

Everything I have read suggests that colleges want to see rigor and that the student is challenging himself. If he is taking AP Stats or some advanced Math class instead of AP Spanish, how can that not be fine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he already has 4 years of high school language credits (including 8th grade), and thinks the math class will be easier for him, it should be fine. Especially if math comes more naturally to him and he will be a STEM.

Most colleges only require three years anyway, but he should confirm with his top choices of schools that four years of language should be enough.

He has five years of high school Spanish (three of which were in middle school) all with As. He doesn’t have top choices yet but he has a 4.95 weighted GPA and got full marks in the PSAT so he could potentially be applying to very competitive schools so I want to make sure he understands whether this will have any impact on his applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been wondering about this for my own kid (current sophomore in Sp 4) and read through some of the old threads. They are so contradictory.

Some people say you have to take 4 years of the same language to get to the higher levels of grammar and a degree of competence. Other people say four years of language in high school no matter what - and seem to think that colleges will be more impressed with someone who took Spanish 1 in 9th through Spanish 4 in 12th than your kid or mine who achieved the same level by grade.

Everything I have read suggests that colleges want to see rigor and that the student is challenging himself. If he is taking AP Stats or some advanced Math class instead of AP Spanish, how can that not be fine?

It would be linear algebra and something else. Already maxed out on the math APs.

Surely it’s more impressive to get to Spanish 4 or 5 aged 15 than 18? But I have yet to get a good grasp of college selection processes!

[Anonymous]

Many colleges want to see 3 or even 4 years of world language in high school.

[Anonymous]

¡No!

[Anonymous]

We did that this year and dropped Spanish. It as the same teacher as Spanish five and they were terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many colleges want to see 3 or even 4 years of world language in high school.

That's silly if kids get to Spanish 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many colleges want to see 3 or even 4 years of world language in high school.

But what does this mean exactly? OP's kid already has finished four years. You can't be suggesting that colleges would rather take a kid who did Spanish 4 senior year over OP's kid who did Spanish 4 sophomore year and then Linear Algebra junior year. That makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

OP, is the bottom line that your kid won't take a language for his junior or senior year and will double up in math instead?

[Anonymous]

Yes, for STEM college admissions it's fine. Spanish 5 is a laudable end point.

But for intellectual growth generally, I'd rather my kids stick to their language to AP level, with their STEM APs, etc. A balanced high school experience and all that.

[Anonymous]

Both my stem kids only took 3 years of spanish (quit sophomore year). Doubled up on math and science. Got into UMD, Michigan, Pitt (with tons of merit), Case and Hopkins

[Anonymous]

Do a search on this thread from past years. This is a very, very common question and it usually rouses a heated discussion.

There is a lot of indication that many (?) top universities want 4 years of language *in high school* (not counting MS). The exception sometimes described is if the kid gets a 4 or 5 on the AP foreign language exam they can call it quits.

This typically leads to a lot of discussion of how that doesn't make sense as a policy, followed by people swearing that whether it makes sense or not, it is the policy in some schools. (Some threads will contain names of specific schools but I don't recall them.)

I don't know the answer. But this situation causes enough uncertainty that many kids bite the bullet and continue language because they aren't sure what the true situation is.

It may be that this whole pattern of discussion repeats itself in this thread. But to accelerate your decision making, search for a similar thread from last year or the year before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did that this year and dropped Spanish. It as the same teacher as Spanish five and they were terrible.

Clearly our kids are at the same school.