I think it's less important to focus on the idea of 4 years in HS and more important to focus on the level the student reaches. My OOS DC got in this cycle having taken AP Span Lang in 11th grade and stopping after that. Very, very few kids take AP Spanish Lit.

I believe that Dean J has said many times that what they ideally want to see is that kids have taken a capstone class-- AP/IB or whatever the school offers -- for each core subject, but most important is the rigor in the context of each school. There isn't even a second AP French class offered, so kids taking French on an advanced track wouldn't have a class to take senior year.

So the issue is less whether a kid MUST take 4 years in HS (the answer seems to be clearly no) and more whether they have taken a highly/most rigorous set of classes offered by the school in all subjects. Undoubtedly, there will be kids accepted who stopped foreign language in 10th grade, well short of AP level, and get in, but that choice diminishes their chances and likely would require some countervailing strength in their application.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your child has a FL exemption due to dyslexia? My DC is only in middle school now but I’m wondering if colleges will still hold it against her for not taking FL.

Our daughter didn’t take foreign language beyond level 3 for a similar reason. If a school can’t understand the reasoning behind that, it probably isn’t the right school for kids with learning related disabilities.

+1

Anonymous wrote:What is your child has a FL exemption due to dyslexia? My DC is only in middle school now but I’m wondering if colleges will still hold it against her for not taking FL.

My DD has ADHD and they type she has makes it very difficult to learn languages. Her college counselor was basically like - too bad. Frustrating. Her only bad grades are in Spanish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your child has a FL exemption due to dyslexia? My DC is only in middle school now but I’m wondering if colleges will still hold it against her for not taking FL.

Our daughter didn’t take foreign language beyond level 3 for a similar reason. If a school can’t understand the reasoning behind that, it probably isn’t the right school for kids with learning related disabilities.

Did you explain this in the app?

Anonymous wrote:What is your child has a FL exemption due to dyslexia? My DC is only in middle school now but I’m wondering if colleges will still hold it against her for not taking FL.

Maybe she can take ASL. UVA considers ASL a foreign language (and it is one of the languages you can use to fulfill the CAS FL requirement—which is 2 years in college but many test out of all or part).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS was accepted to UVA OOS this application cycle and he did not take a language his Sr year, and he never took an AP language class. He also didn’t take multi var so we assumed he wouldn’t get accepted with this two issues so his acceptance was a surprise.

Engineering student?

No, humanities

Anonymous wrote:What is your child has a FL exemption due to dyslexia? My DC is only in middle school now but I’m wondering if colleges will still hold it against her for not taking FL.

Our daughter didn’t take foreign language beyond level 3 for a similar reason. If a school can’t understand the reasoning behind that, it probably isn’t the right school for kids with learning related disabilities.

Admitted OOS, 3.95 UW gpa, 36 ACT, stopped after AP Spanish Lang in 11th, 4 on the exam.

Anonymous wrote:What is your child has a FL exemption due to dyslexia? My DC is only in middle school now but I’m wondering if colleges will still hold it against her for not taking FL.

For plenty of schools this is not an issue. DC will be including a sentence or two in the “more info” (or whatever that space is called - I forget) section of the common app to explain the lack of FL on the transcript. However, I don’t know about UVA specifically. DC isn’t considering it.

My DS stopped at Spanish 3.Admitted to A&S. High SAT and GPA.16 AP's.Course rigor matters.

Anonymous wrote:Can't you just take a summer class a local cc for Spanish? That would go a long way to satisfying UVA's requirements, whatever they may be.

No

Can't you just take a summer class a local cc for Spanish? That would go a long way to satisfying UVA's requirements, whatever they may be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the APUSH thread:

25 pages across three years and we come to the same conclusion every single time. UVA likes to see strong courses in every subject, but there are exceptions to every rule that this forum can cook up.

Yeah “cooked up” admits that actually occurred. Eye roll. Those admits are no less deserving.

What are you talking about? The post is basically saying that for every rule this forum comes up with, there are exceptions. People here say you neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed four years of language, but then AOs themselves and other comments contradict that.

Yes. I was rolling my eyes at the word choice of “cooked up” which made those admits sound unusual or perhaps made up.

Anonymous wrote:DS was accepted to UVA OOS this application cycle and he did not take a language his Sr year, and he never took an AP language class. He also didn’t take multi var so we assumed he wouldn’t get accepted with this two issues so his acceptance was a surprise.

Engineering student?

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is graduating from UVA this month and she stopped taking Spanish in 10th grade. She believes she barely got in as in her application notes, it noted that her schedule strength dropped in later HS years. So she may be somewhat of an exception.

Her experiences applying 4 years ago are irrelevant today