What do colleges think of retaking a class?

[Anonymous]

My kid struggled in Spanish 4 as a freshman this year (Cs and B so far). Retaking the class would give him a better foundation and hopefully a better grade. It's hard to imagine him doing well in Spanish 5 without a better grasp of the language than he has now. But... what would rigorous colleges think of this?
Would they assume he failed? Would just retaking a class be a black mark even if his grade ended up higher?
He's thinking of retaking it plus taking the first year of another language so he'd have 4 years of high school language in HS. Besides this class, he's mostly an A student.
It seems like some kids in other parts of the country only get to Spanish 4 as seniors, right?
The HS counselor isn't providing much guidance.

[Anonymous]

OP, I too sometimes get into this trap of thinking what looks best for colleges rather than thinking, what is best for my child's education right now -- and then someone posts something wise or my friend or spouse reminds me what's important. So I hope I am doing that for you now. Your kid should learn one other language well, not take a few years of one language and one year of another just to hit some magic box of 4 years of high school foreign language (doubt colleges would like that anyway), because that is the best thing for the development of his mind and the most useful thing for his future endeavors. Now, if the Spanish teacher is terrible or something like that, then you should rethink. But otherwise, have him retake the class, get him some tutoring, and/or put in him a Spanish language camp over the summer (Concordia Language villages -- 4 week camp test you high school credit but you could do it just for the learning experience and not worry about the credit). Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

It would seem to me they'd think more highly of the perserverance, particularly if she did well, than they would think of her abandoning Spanish.

But I wouldn't worry about what colleges think. It sounds like this year was too much too fast, and if the goal is mastery, redoing sounds like the right intellectual decision. If he takes Span 5 the following year, I'd be impressed regardless of the path. This isn't going to be the thing that closes the door at Harvard.

[Anonymous]

The only way a college would even notice would be if he is applying to be a Spanish major.

Even tippy top colleges will mostly chalk up one year of issues in Spanish as a teacher/student mismatch.