The foreign language dilemma: need 4 years for Brown, U of Chicago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student takes first year of language in MS, does this generally count towards 4 year recommendation? So if they take language their senior year, it would be level 5, but would rather take other classes.

Most say 4 years of language IN HIGH SCHOOL. They don't care about middle school.

Correct. That year of language in MS does not count towards college foreign language recommendations/requirements.

Maybe this varies by jurisdiction, but Spanish 1 taken in Middle School counts as a high school credit and shows up on the HS transcript, so I call bull.

My DCs took three years of language in MS (two of which were HS level), then switched schools. It did not show up on the transcript. However, if you max out in a language you are fine, similarly you can add on the Common App classes that do not appear on your official HS transcript, including those taken in MS or CC.

Slightly off topic, but FWIW, our kids took 2 years of modern language in MS, 4 years modern language in HS and 3 years of Latin. Both are studying math and computer science in college, and having a lot of language learning is actually great. Languages and philosophy (also studied in HS) are great foundations for math and especially for computer science. You don't need more math in HS to study math in college. Many, perhaps most, colleges will require you to take their full sequence anyway. Learning the structures and logic of language and philosophy makes CS easy.

[Anonymous]

My son is planning on taking AP Lang as a senior next year. His grades are nowhere near what would be needed to get into a competitive school. Does it even make sense for him then to do so or just drop it and pursue something more interesting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a student takes first year of language in MS, does this generally count towards 4 year recommendation? So if they take language their senior year, it would be level 5, but would rather take other classes.

Both my kids started foreign language in MS in MCPS and took five years total, stopping after sophomore year to accommodate other AP classes. Both took the AP test at this point and scored 5s (so did not wait to take AP level class before taking the exam, instead self-studied and took after the 5th year instead). Both admitted to top 5 schools with none of the traditional hooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student takes first year of language in MS, does this generally count towards 4 year recommendation? So if they take language their senior year, it would be level 5, but would rather take other classes.

Most say 4 years of language IN HIGH SCHOOL. They don't care about middle school.

Correct. That year of language in MS does not count towards college foreign language recommendations/requirements.

Wrong. FL is HS credit regardless of if you take it in MS or HS. It is absolutely put on the HS transcript.

My kid did 3 yrs of FL in MS, and then 2 years of FL in HS. He finished the FL AP in his 10th grade. There was no other course offered higher than AP for my kid in the school and he had reached the highest level of FL in HS.

But, does it matter? There are many reasons why a college admits a student. Legacy, athletics, race, gender, SES, first gen...all of these matter sometimes more than academics. When they say "recommended" they only mean that most students would have at least 4 years of FL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meh. If your kid is majoring in a STEM area, they only need three years of foreign language (even at selective schools) as long as they replace that fourth year with something worthwhile (no Sports Marketing).

My kid is doing CS and Math. He did 5 yrs of foreign language starting in 6th grade and taking AP in Sophomore year of HS. No more foreign language after that. If your kid wants to get into a competitive major like CS, understand that the kids applying to it are performing at a higher academic level. Most CS majors can also tackle Humanities subjects easily and they are high achieving over ALL subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student takes first year of language in MS, does this generally count towards 4 year recommendation? So if they take language their senior year, it would be level 5, but would rather take other classes.

Most say 4 years of language IN HIGH SCHOOL. They don't care about middle school.

Correct. That year of language in MS does not count towards college foreign language recommendations/requirements.

Wrong. FL is HS credit regardless of if you take it in MS or HS. It is absolutely put on the HS transcript.

My kid did 3 yrs of FL in MS, and then 2 years of FL in HS. He finished the FL AP in his 10th grade. There was no other course offered higher than AP for my kid in the school and he had reached the highest level of FL in HS.

But, does it matter? There are many reasons why a college admits a student. Legacy, athletics, race, gender, SES, first gen...all of these matter sometimes more than academics. When they say "recommended" they only mean that most students would have at least 4 years of FL.

PP didn’t say the class doesn’t count for HS credit. PP said colleges want four years of language in high school; there is a difference. And high school transcripts note that the class was taken in middle school for high school credit.

[Anonymous]

I'm so curious what this looks like for the dual-language elementary kids. Totally off topic, but the level of language education is so varied. This is an interesting factor I hadn't considered (my kids are in middle school, but something to think about).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS was deferred early action at UChicago. He only took 3 years of Spanish, one of which was in MS. That must've been what tanked his EA application.

Current UChicago parent here. That could be the case (three years is okay, but doubt it's okay for one of those three to be in MS). So he might have not made that initial cut so they didn't even get to his "individuality" or read his essays.

But PP, even if his application made it through the "basic tickmarks," it's also likely that what tanked his application is applying EA instead of ED. (Generally speaking) UChicago is notorious for liking ED and not really liking EA or RD.

They've just got too many applicants who tick all the boxes and apply ED 1 or 2 to make exceptions for only 2 years of HS Spanish on an EA application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student takes first year of language in MS, does this generally count towards 4 year recommendation? So if they take language their senior year, it would be level 5, but would rather take other classes.

Most say 4 years of language IN HIGH SCHOOL. They don't care about middle school.

Correct. That year of language in MS does not count towards college foreign language recommendations/requirements.

Wrong. FL is HS credit regardless of if you take it in MS or HS. It is absolutely put on the HS transcript.

My kid did 3 yrs of FL in MS, and then 2 years of FL in HS. He finished the FL AP in his 10th grade. There was no other course offered higher than AP for my kid in the school and he had reached the highest level of FL in HS.

But, does it matter? There are many reasons why a college admits a student. Legacy, athletics, race, gender, SES, first gen...all of these matter sometimes more than academics. When they say "recommended" they only mean that most students would have at least 4 years of FL.

PP didn’t say the class doesn’t count for HS credit. PP said colleges want four years of language in high school; there is a difference. And high school transcripts note that the class was taken in middle school for high school credit.

Well PP is wrong about that as well. I asked this question at a number of top schools. They want/recommend four years of high school level foreign language classes. No one is going to punish a kid for terminating in an AP level foreign language class in 10th or 11th grade. Opening that slot up to other classes is how some students are able to fit so many valued AP classes into their schedule. They do not expect you to take AP French in 11th grade and then Spanish 1 in 12th to get to the 4 year mark.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been through this with 2 kids and my thoughts are this - unless your student has a hook or some major accomplishment (or unless they completed AP world language before 12th grade), it is a expected that they take world language each year of high school, just as they should take 4 years of all core courses getting to the most rigorous level possible. Stem oriented kids need to do this just like humanties oriented kids need to take ap calc and science to be strong candidates for the most competitive colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been through this with 2 kids and my thoughts are this - unless your student has a hook or some major accomplishment (or unless they completed AP world language before 12th grade), it is a expected that they take world language each year of high school, just as they should take 4 years of all core courses getting to the most rigorous level possible. Stem oriented kids need to do this just like humanties oriented kids need to take ap calc and science to be strong candidates for the most competitive colleges.

Meh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been through this with 2 kids and my thoughts are this - unless your student has a hook or some major accomplishment (or unless they completed AP world language before 12th grade), it is a expected that they take world language each year of high school, just as they should take 4 years of all core courses getting to the most rigorous level possible. Stem oriented kids need to do this just like humanties oriented kids need to take ap calc and science to be strong candidates for the most competitive colleges.

How do you think going through this with two kids gives you more insight than what college AOs are telling kids?

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student takes first year of language in MS, does this generally count towards 4 year recommendation? So if they take language their senior year, it would be level 5, but would rather take other classes.

Both my kids started foreign language in MS in MCPS and took five years total, stopping after sophomore year to accommodate other AP classes. Both took the AP test at this point and scored 5s (so did not wait to take AP level class before taking the exam, instead self-studied and took after the 5th year instead). Both admitted to top 5 schools with none of the traditional hooks.

Did their grades in MS foreign language count toward their GPA? Asking because I have a kid in DLI that does well in all subjects other than the foreign language. It's been a struggle since program started in first grade. I don't want kid to start off high school negatively affected by grades in foreign language class from MS - it probably makes more sense to drop out of the DLI program and take the foreign language class in a lower level that would be very easy at this point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if you take an AP foreign language as a Junior? Isn’t that considered maxed out in language? Do you really have to take a new level 1 language as a Senior to meet the 4 years requirement?!

Don't most schools offer both AP Language and AP Literature?

There's significant overlap in the classes to the extent that they don't recommend students to take both.