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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DH and I are both American (going back generations) but I was a Spanish major in college and somehow convinced DH to raise our kids bilingual in Spanish and English. They only speak Spanish with me and English with DH. And they attend a Spanish language school which, upon graduation, will confer the equivalent of a high school diploma such that they could attend university in much of Latin American. I’ve never thought about this from a college applicant perspective (they will go to college in the states) but as my oldest is starting high school next year, I’m now curious. [/quote]

Pretty much zilch. I know a LOT of bilingual kids, nearly all having at least one parent, maybe both, who are native speakers and it has made ZILCH difference in their college admissions. In fact, in the most recent group, a mix of legacies and not, had kids dinged at T10, T20 schools. All the parents are college educated, nearly all of them have post grad degrees, academic and professional. Perhaps, as another poster mentioned, if your kids were first gen then someone would care, but not when the kid is growing up in a home with highly educated parents (which still means a BA in the US). [/quote]

+ 1.  In how many white collar professions out there is being multilingual an advantage, especially in the US?  I understand that you may go into banking and a job in Zurich may be easier to get if you knew French/German/Swiss.  But thousands of grads get jobs in Zurich, learn the local languages over time and are perfectly successful.

I really don't get college's obsession with 4 years of a language that 99% of the kids are likely never going to use.  Most can't even hold a basic conversation even after AP!  Why not teach language speaking skills, along the lines of what you learn through duolingo or other instead of grammar and all the boring nonsense?[/quote]
Reading this forum, you learn that no top college will accept your child if they don't have 4 years of a language in high school. From reading this thread, being bilingual in a language has no impact on gaining admission to a top school.

So what is the point of taking 4 years of a language in high school as opposed to doubling up on science classes or other academic classes?[/quote]

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