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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Pretty solid consensus that 4 years of language is a clear UVA preference.  Follow up question - is it important for your UVA prospects that the fourth year be at the AP level or would Spanish 1 - 4 for example meet the need?[/quote]

I don’t think there is a clear consensus because some people are defining four years and four years of classes in HS and others are defining it as four years of high school credits (where you could reach level IV of a language before senior year). Our school guidance counselors advise kids that 4 years of credit meats the requirement, so it’s really confusing.

Also since when did WL become a core class?  [/quote]

We were told by a college counselor that WL is a core subject She said the ideal is as to take all 5 core subjects all years of high school or until you exhaust the available classes.

[/quote]

M[b]ost families cannot afford a college counselor. Expe[/b]cting kids and families to know something that goes against high school college counselor’s advice in kind of insane. Just another example of the system favoring those with means. [/quote]

The PP never said the counselor was private.  I read it as public high school college counselor.  And we were told the same.  DS took four years of foreign language and got into UVA (also no. 1 in his class and 36 ACT)[/quote]

You call your kids public school guidance counselor a college counselor? Because for most people, a college counselor means a paid, private counselor.

Honestly, if you child was able to have an in depth conversation of this nature with their guidance counselor they are very lucky.  A LOT of guidance counselors quit over the pandemic and school are short staffed.  Kids are lucky to get 15 minutes with the counselor for college planning, and that is mostly to give out form and re-enforce important deadlines.  I think class selection is 5-10 minutes and involves a pre-completed form. [/quote]

Our FCPS has guidance counselors AND a college counselor.

Our public guidance counselor neglected to inform my kid that switching languages was a bad idea for college apps.

Our college counselor doesn’t see the app until it’s too late.
[/quote]

That’s the problem - MOST kids need to know this by sophomore or junior year when they are selecting classes fro the next year, and very few kids are even going to the school’s college counselor at that point. Heck, most kids aren’t going to Dean J’s blog sophomore year, which is when my kid had to decide whether to pursue AP Latin as a junior.

I think most kids gunning for a T20 know 4 HS foreign language credits is a good thing. But I don’t know that most kids realize UVA considers world language a core course that you need pursue through the AP level. And given the turnover in guidance counselors, I think it’s a lot to even expect them to get good advice on this topic.  [/quote]

[b]
I think advice on foreign language for college is pretty basic and I don’t think that’s too much to ask of them. Really basic.   I  pay a small fortune for a crappy house in an a great pyramid, I shouldn’t have to pay for a private counselor to prevent my kid from making such a basic mistake. My kid thought they were ok because they took “four years of language.”  Then came rejections. [/quote][/b]

So I'm guessing you didn't ask your public high school college counselor this questoin?  It is "pretty basic" and everyone here seems to know what the four year requirement is.  Or you could call UVA.  Or you could look at College Confidential or Reddit.  The info is all out there.  You don't need to hire a private counselor.[/quote]

I see you’re eager to blame me instead of the PROFESSIONALS employed to do this exact job. Ok, silly me for not helicoptering and trusting the professionals.[/quote]

But what professionals did you rely upon? It sounds like the guidance counselors. They don’t know squat about college admissions. You should have asked the college counselor at your high school or at least googled it. Even I as an out-of-it parent knew that the elite schools wanted to see four years of language back when my kid was a junior and our small private was going to stop giving a fourth year of foreign language. I sad “you can’t do that! The rising seniors have to have a fourth year of language!”. And I linked in that info from all of the schools DD was interested in where they say they want to see “most rigorous@ curriculum taken and four years (bear in mind the elite universities then have their own foreign language requirement (unless you can opt out via AP testing) on top of the high school proficiency so they are very serious about the foreign language requirement. Those graduating seniors went on to Ivies,MIT and UVA[/quote]

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