Foreign language for college bound
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Anonymous
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Do not expect teachers to push students, OP. Schools are full of kids who aren't even considering attending college. Your kid's teachers have hundreds of students and don't care so much that they're going to say: "You're doing well in my class and it would be a shame for you to stop your language".
That's YOUR job, OP. Yes, I would, and have required, that my teens pursue their school language until end of senior year. They were taking plenty of other APs plus their native language classes on weekends. We worked out before 9th grade what could and couldn't fit into their schedule. My oldest wasn't interested in double periods of science, but my second is, and we worked out a schedule such that she could do that, plus various other APs, language, music, etc. |
Anonymous
No, AP is regarded as the most rigorous level, and the top colleges (Ivy League) generally want to see that in every single subject. |
Anonymous
Yes, AP is the highest. But if a student takes 4 years while in high school, that is rigorous enough. (Taking a total of 4 years, some in middle school, is not considered as strong.) |
Anonymous
It's not remotely "rigorous" to just take 4 yrs of a language. It's only the "most rigorous" if that is the highest level offered in the school. You know this. |
Anonymous
| Seriously consider of your child is likely to apply to or be accepted by an ivy or other school that expects this. Decide accordingly. |
Anonymous
| Depends on the school and major. MIT only recommends two years of foreign language. |
Anonymous
But with language classes, the ship has sailed on the AP question before HS begins. Yes, take AP over the non-AP version of the course if you have the option (if you want the most rigorous path). But you have to have begun language in a certain year (in MS) to be ready for AP by junior or senior year. |
Anonymous
Other than Ivys, my understanding is that locally, UVA also requires. -parent of senior who isn't taking language, & did take language in 11th grade which was a mistake for GPA reasons. |
Anonymous
I find this comment about speaking at home funny. It may be school-specific. All of my kids friends stay in spanish all the way through, and none of them have families that speak Spanish. The course is intended for non native speakers. But I could imagine that at some schools it is full of native speakers, and that would make it pretty frustrating! |
Anonymous
This is a MCPS concept. Lots of schools in the hinterlands offer AP as the 4th year. (Not saying that those students do remarkably well on the tests by comparison, but that's the situation) |
Anonymous
Haha. This is funny, but also very true! It is also true regarding the need to go on to AP Lit. A few years ago, I tried to convince my kid that stopping at AP Lang (after junior year) would be fine as long as she aced the AP test. She insisted that colleges want 4 years even if it means going on to AP Lit. She took AP spanish Lit and *hated* it. They were reading literature that those kids had no business trying to read in Spanish (e.g. medieval Spanish poetry, which is kind of the equivalent of reading in Middle English). She learned little and made it through because it was the Covid online year and all of the kids were struggling so much they really lowered the bar on an A. It was a wasted semester and the kids were stressed out. On the other hand, she was admitted to her dream school, so perhaps she was correct. (Would she have been admitted without AP spanish lit? We'll never know...) I really wish MCPS would start an "Advanced Spanish Conversation" course to take after AP Lang. It would fulfill the need for a fourth year in HS and, frankly, conversational spanish is the only language skill I actually want my kids to learn! |
Anonymous
Thank you. I feel like the number of parents and kids that obsess over this vs its actual likely impact is way disproportionate. You need to be a truly unique kid to stand out in an ivy. If you do three years FL instead of five that is not likely to make or break it, particularly if you use that time wisely to do other cool things. If you uniquely want an incredibly narrow range of schools, then don’t rock the boat from what they expect. If you are open to the hundreds of other great schools and your kid doesn’t love foreign language, allow them to enjoy life and do something else. |
Anonymous
What about Spanish 5/6/7? They aren't all AP |
Anonymous
Yes everyone knows that Spanish 5 is more rigorous than AP Physics C and AP European History and Linear Algebra and AP Music Theory. It's so obvious. |