Dropping AP Spanish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But what does Spanish 5 really mean? If AP Spanish is above that, then it is no different from another school's Spanish 3 or 4, whichever is the step below AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t they need to take a foreign language credit in college without the AP? Is that preferable?

Depends on the college. My DC did not take AP FL as it was not offered the year he would have taken it, but he took the college's FL placement test and tested into 3rd year. They said this satisfied the FL requirement, and he could either continue starting at level 3 or just not take FL anymore. So while he didn't get a physical credit, he did get 'credit' for his skill level and did not have to take a FL if he didn't want to. He chose to continue with the language as grad school is a possibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this passes the smell test. Not one of the selective college websites I’ve looked at have said that a kid must have culminated their language study at AP level to be considered for admission. None of them say that if you max out at Spanish 5 in sophomore year you’ll be considered less suitable for admission than someone who stopped at Spanish 4 in senior year.

None of them indicate that foregoing AP language to take very advanced math or science classes instead, of the type that the vast majority of high school students will never have the opportunity to take, let alone be prepared for, could be considered to be a bad thing.

And a student that starts high school in Spanish 3 or 4 and successfully completes it with good grades has clearly demonstrated that their middle school language instruction was up to par and directly comparable with classes taken in high school (after so those Spanish 3 or 4 classes in high school are full of older students who started that path later).

There’s no actual facts in this discussion. It’s lacking in links to specific college admissions pages where they say you MUST have four years of language in high school to be considered. It’s missing specifics about schools that kids couldn’t apply for because their middle school language credits were discounted out because they had two rather than three years in high school out because they stopped at Spanish 4 or 5 instead of AP.

I call BS. I encouraged my child to continue with foreign language but they are considering stopping after junior year. This thread is convincing me that it’s fine.

I posted UPenn’s criteria on page 2 of this thread and it said that they expect you to take 4 years of English, math, history, science & world language in high school if your school offers them. That was the only school I looked at, so it’s a sample size of 1, but your kid should check the requirements for the schools they’re interested in.

I missed that, thanks. But it’s still not very definitive. The way some folks have stated it here, it implies that you won’t even be considered without 4y in high school, and it also doesn’t address the issue of what if you max out earlier than four years or almost max out. It is odd that there is no one here warning that that their kid didn’t take FL all four years and they wish they’d known that because it hurt their chances and they didn’t get in to their dream school. If it’s really essential to maximize your chances then why aren’t there multiple people sharing how it impacted them?

Totally agree. There are only anecdotes to the contrary. PPs are taking a very rigid view that lacks all common sense.

[Anonymous]

I don't want to necessarily hijack this thread, but I think I am going to encourage my senior DD to drop from AP Spanish to Spanish 4 this year. I think the jump to AP was too much as she already has a C in the class. I think there are many in the class who have completed up to Spanish 4 and likely some native/fluent speakers. This puts her at a disadvantage clearly. She is aiming for a T20 and has 4 other APs right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But what does Spanish 5 really mean? If AP Spanish is above that, then it is no different from another school's Spanish 3 or 4, whichever is the step below AP.

My understanding is that it’s pretty much equivalent to AP in MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is silly. It’s really college dependent. Pitt waives their language requirement if you’ve taken three years of the same language in high school. DC did not ask if the middle school years counted toward that since she had 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But what does Spanish 5 really mean? If AP Spanish is above that, then it is no different from another school's Spanish 3 or 4, whichever is the step below AP.

My understanding is that it’s pretty much equivalent to AP in MCPS

Wrong. It is covering some of the basics for a little longer BEFORE being ready for the AP. Too many people were getting A grades and then flunking the AP exam, so they started adding in FL 4 and FL 5 to give them more time to achieve the AP level understanding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think he needs to take Spanish his junior yr, definitely. Whatever level would be appropriate. Colleges do not care or count what one has done/taken in middle school, even if received HS credit for it. It doesn’t matter. You need at least 3 yrs of foreign language, in high school, or through AP.

Would you say this applies to students who took the world languages exam in middle school and received 3 high school credits for it? Do kids like this still need to take a (assuming) different FL throughout hig school?