Dropping language 12th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wil this hurt DS for college acceptances? I know UVA highly recommends language all 4 years to be competitive. DS is a full IB student and decided to take IB Anthropology instead of IB Spanish 7, he’s not interested in pursuing further.
also Looking at DS2, would it be better to repeat a language when transitioning from MS to HS - take French 3 again 9th grade instead of accelerating to French 4? DS2 doesn’t have the basics down. Will that be seen as a negative later for colleges? Thoughts?

It might hurt for the most competitive colleges if your son drops Spanish & for an easier course such as anthropology. Language fluency or proficiency is a valued skilled.

[Anonymous]

My kid did not take foreign language senior year - replaced with a second science course- and got into a top-5 slac. At the time, I sent a message to a college admissions officer on college confidential (I don’t know what college) and he/she said it would be fine because my kid was replacing with a challenging course. Also, like your kid, mine was up to Spanish 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wil this hurt DS for college acceptances? I know UVA highly recommends language all 4 years to be competitive. DS is a full IB student and decided to take IB Anthropology instead of IB Spanish 7, he’s not interested in pursuing further.
also Looking at DS2, would it be better to repeat a language when transitioning from MS to HS - take French 3 again 9th grade instead of accelerating to French 4? DS2 doesn’t have the basics down. Will that be seen as a negative later for colleges? Thoughts?

It might hurt for the most competitive colleges if your son drops Spanish & for an easier course such as anthropology. Language fluency or proficiency is a valued skilled.

This student is taking Spanish 7. Certainly, he has proficiency after six years of daily foreign language.

[Anonymous]

Older kid - I wouldn’t worry at all about not taking 7th year. Proficiency more than demonstrated with six years.

Younger kid - I would repeat 3 if you get assurance from your kid they’re still going to work hard at it.

[Anonymous]

UVA and the Ivies look for four years.

[Anonymous]

The most competitive colleges may not like dropping the language...this has been said many times in sessions over the past few years.

Your DC has to decide whether that matters to them or not - they can always take the - "if they don't like me for me, then I'll go elsewhere" stance on the front end as long as they can live with the consequences/second thoughts on the back end.

For schools that want 4 years of language - I'm certain they mean 4 courses in HS....not that getting to level 4 is enough. It's generally more acceptable to cut out of language by senior year when the student has no option to continue their language that year because of running out of courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can parents whose kids are in college now and didn't take language senior year post about admissions? Would you mind sharing where kids got in?

Notre Dame with 3 years.

[Anonymous]

My child is also dropping, a rising senior. She took the AP course for the language last year and is not planning on taking in college (palms on switching languages in college).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wil this hurt DS for college acceptances? I know UVA highly recommends language all 4 years to be competitive. DS is a full IB student and decided to take IB Anthropology instead of IB Spanish 7, he’s not interested in pursuing further.
also Looking at DS2, would it be better to repeat a language when transitioning from MS to HS - take French 3 again 9th grade instead of accelerating to French 4? DS2 doesn’t have the basics down. Will that be seen as a negative later for colleges? Thoughts?

It might hurt for the most competitive colleges if your son drops Spanish & for an easier course such as anthropology. Language fluency or proficiency is a valued skilled.

This student is taking Spanish 7. Certainly, he has proficiency after six years of daily foreign language.

Then advance toward fluency. It helps regarding employment opportunities.

Anthropology is fairly easy.

While dropping Spanish 7 may not harm one's chances for college admissions, it may affect career options & opportunities.

[Anonymous]

If a college values this thing that you don't, consider that it might not be a match for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wil this hurt DS for college acceptances? I know UVA highly recommends language all 4 years to be competitive. DS is a full IB student and decided to take IB Anthropology instead of IB Spanish 7, he’s not interested in pursuing further.
also Looking at DS2, would it be better to repeat a language when transitioning from MS to HS - take French 3 again 9th grade instead of accelerating to French 4? DS2 doesn’t have the basics down. Will that be seen as a negative later for colleges? Thoughts?

It might hurt for the most competitive colleges if your son drops Spanish & for an easier course such as anthropology. Language fluency or proficiency is a valued skilled.

This student is taking Spanish 7. Certainly, he has proficiency after six years of daily foreign language.

Then advance toward fluency. It helps regarding employment opportunities.

Anthropology is fairly easy.

While dropping Spanish 7 may not harm one's chances for college admissions, it may affect career options & opportunities.

Barely - I’m bilingual. All of my kids are bilingual or trilingual and high school language six or seven years does not make a difference for any job. After that many years, a person who wants to keep up their language skills can do it easily. And, fwiw, most don’t bother. I am a great proponent of foreign language instruction but if the student has that many years and is taking another rigorous course, it doesn’t affect college admissions and it barely affects fluency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most competitive colleges may not like dropping the language...this has been said many times in sessions over the past few years.

Your DC has to decide whether that matters to them or not - they can always take the - "if they don't like me for me, then I'll go elsewhere" stance on the front end as long as they can live with the consequences/second thoughts on the back end.

For schools that want 4 years of language - I'm certain they mean 4 courses in HS....not that getting to level 4 is enough. It's generally more acceptable to cut out of language by senior year when the student has no option to continue their language that year because of running out of courses.

I posted above. You would be wrong. My kid was accepted at Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Vassar, UVA, Colby and Hamilton without Spanish 7 senior year because they took a second science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most competitive colleges may not like dropping the language...this has been said many times in sessions over the past few years.

Your DC has to decide whether that matters to them or not - they can always take the - "if they don't like me for me, then I'll go elsewhere" stance on the front end as long as they can live with the consequences/second thoughts on the back end.

For schools that want 4 years of language - I'm certain they mean 4 courses in HS....not that getting to level 4 is enough. It's generally more acceptable to cut out of language by senior year when the student has no option to continue their language that year because of running out of courses.

I posted above. You would be wrong. My kid was accepted at Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Vassar, UVA, Colby and Hamilton without Spanish 7 senior year because they took a second science.

Really awesome choices! Congrats to your child. If they are a first year, best wishes for a great year.

No snark or disrespect intended here (at all), but were there rejections? What were they?

You child's acceptances are an impressively competitive list (and a helpful one too). But I don't see the "pie in the sky" HYPSM, Top 10, Williams/Amherst/Pomona schools here....so I'm curious if your child applied to any of those. These "lottery" schools are what I was referring to above as "most competitive". (But not everyone wants to apply to one of those - so maybe your child didn't.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most competitive colleges may not like dropping the language...this has been said many times in sessions over the past few years.

Your DC has to decide whether that matters to them or not - they can always take the - "if they don't like me for me, then I'll go elsewhere" stance on the front end as long as they can live with the consequences/second thoughts on the back end.

For schools that want 4 years of language - I'm certain they mean 4 courses in HS....not that getting to level 4 is enough. It's generally more acceptable to cut out of language by senior year when the student has no option to continue their language that year because of running out of courses.

I posted above. You would be wrong. My kid was accepted at Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Vassar, UVA, Colby and Hamilton without Spanish 7 senior year because they took a second science.

Really awesome choices! Congrats to your child. If they are a first year, best wishes for a great year.

No snark or disrespect intended here (at all), but were there rejections? What were they?

You child's acceptances are an impressively competitive list (and a helpful one too). But I don't see the "pie in the sky" HYPSM, Top 10, Williams/Amherst/Pomona schools here....so I'm curious if your child applied to any of those. These "lottery" schools are what I was referring to above as "most competitive". (But not everyone wants to apply to one of those - so maybe your child didn't.)

Plenty of misinformation - Bowdoin is considered “most competitive” and has the exact same admissions rate (9%) as Williams (where my kid didn’t apply because it was too remote).

I suggest the OP call one of the colleges their kid is interested in. We were consistently told that with that many years of foreign language and substituting another very rigorous course, the lack of foreign language senior year was a non-issue. We found it to be true.

[Anonymous]

OP, it's not just about getting-into-college, it's about getting out. College "want to see" certain things because the college knows what is needed, at their college, to graduate. If it's foreign language proficiency, then you can guess that the more FL in high school, the better. If they are going into STEM, probably not needed.

As you probably know, U's have different colleges. The colleges have different requirements to graduate. If a student applies to The College of Arts and Sciences (anywhere), that's a liberal arts education. That would require foreign language proficiency.