How important is it to take a foreign language in high school?

[Anonymous]

Have him study and take the AP at the end of this year. If he does well, then he is better off for college. If he doesn’t do well, meh, NBD.

[Anonymous]

OP, you’re getting a lot of bad advice here. Check the common data sets for the colleges he wants to apply to and see if they require or recommend 4 years of a foreign language.

If not and he replaces it with courses equal or greater and rigor there will be no penalty whatsoever and quite possibly a benefit.

[Anonymous]

OP if your son wants to apply to top 20 colleges then he really should have 4 years of HS foreign languages including the AP class if its offered at the school.

Taking the MOST rigorous classes available is key, as is having FOUR years of foreign language study.

If you want to check the details on the web pages of the individual colleges that interest him, that is going to give you specific information which will include the above. Also this can be found in FISKES etc.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the school. If he is going for ivy league level he should take the last year..most other schools will be fine with 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have him study and take the AP at the end of this year. If he does well, then he is better off for college. If he doesn’t do well, meh, NBD.

+1

My son did this.

[Anonymous]

^ agree.

[Anonymous]

Not having to take it in college should be the goal ideally since he's no longer enthusiastic for the subject. If he's a STEM major in college he may not have to take FL in college. If, as the above says, he scores well in HS he may not have to take it in college. The risk, I think, is not so much re: college admission as it is being strong in the language going into college IF it turns out he has to take it. That would be pretty important.

[Anonymous]

Definitely take a look at some of the colleges he would be considering and the makings. My DS hates FL but is sticking it out through level 4. The colleges in his sights generally said 2 yrs required, 3 recommended so level 4 more than satisfies that plus gives him 2 in actual HS (his MS required levels 1-2). He also wants to Major in math and won't consider a school that would require FL. The space freed up by stopping it will be used for extra higher level math and science classes.

[Anonymous]

^^^ "majors" not "makings"!

[Anonymous]

If your child is going STEM route. Colleges will not cars. In fact, many require 2 years. That’s it.

[Anonymous]

Just keep in mind that he might be competing for a job with engineers from other countries who speak 2+ languages. Instead of focusing on getting into college, maybe focus on being prepared for the real world.

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone.
I appreciate the advice. As I mentioned earlier since he is a junior, he does not have a firm list of schools he wants to apply to but since he is interested in a liberal arts education and is likely to have a few top 20 schools on his list, I went ahead and looked at the common data set for a few of these and half recommend 4 years although I don't think any require 4 years.
I did raise the prospect of taking the AP exam in the Spring after taking Spanish 5 but he was horrified - he is finding Spanish stressful and taking an AP exam without having taken the course would add to the stress he says. He says he is now ok with taking AP Spanish next year but he is not happy about it. He is a straight A student who does not shirk from hard work so I don't think this is laziness. For some reason he finds the class stressful. I have offered to find him a tutor if necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would think that Spanish Honors 5 and AP Spanish would be redundant. That's 5 years worth of honors level Spanish. Is there any reason he didn't opt to take AP Spanish this year instead of Honors 5?

The people that are chiming in that Spanish 5 is equivalent to AP Spanish do not have kids in MCPS. My DS is in Honors Spanish 5 and it is the first year that her teacher has exclusively used Spanish in class. They haven't read any real literature yet. Many of the students could not order very well in a restaurant. DS is working very hard and will be well-prepared for AP Spanish next year, but most classmates will not be.

[Anonymous]

PP here - in our MCPS school, the first two years of foreign language instruction are a joke. They are not true high school foreign language classes like I took when I was a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you everyone.
I appreciate the advice. As I mentioned earlier since he is a junior, he does not have a firm list of schools he wants to apply to but since he is interested in a liberal arts education and is likely to have a few top 20 schools on his list, I went ahead and looked at the common data set for a few of these and half recommend 4 years although I don't think any require 4 years.
I did raise the prospect of taking the AP exam in the Spring after taking Spanish 5 but he was horrified - he is finding Spanish stressful and taking an AP exam without having taken the course would add to the stress he says. He says he is now ok with taking AP Spanish next year but he is not happy about it. He is a straight A student who does not shirk from hard work so I don't think this is laziness. For some reason he finds the class stressful. I have offered to find him a tutor if necessary.

I think what you have to understand is that the top 20 schools might list their "requirements" on the Common Data set, but those are a minimum. What they actually require is that student makes good use of the opportunities available to them, and consistently chooses to challenge themselves. They won't require more than 4 years of language because there are many districts in this country that don't offer language in middle school. But they might look down on a student who could have taken more but didn't.

This doesn't mean he needs to take AP Spanish. It just means that he will need to show that he challenged himself in another way. If he takes an additional AP social science, for example, that might demonstrate that challenge.