Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don't look at middle school courses. You can take a language level 1 course in high school.

But in MCPS languages taken in middle school are for high school credit and show up on the kid’s transcript.

This. If your kid is college-bound, colleges want to see at least 4 years. Knocking out a couple of them out in MS frees up the HS schedule for other electives. Or maybe taking 6 years, which strengthens the college application considerably.

We decide to switch to a new language entering Grade 9. It may be overwhelming to take level 4 at 9th grade and continue for 4 years.
It looks like some top colleges expect applicants to have 4 years of FL, taken in high school. It does not seem to matter much regarding the level of chosen FL.

My personal compromise is to make my kids take at least 2 years in HS. Whenever I look at these discussions the requirements seem more and more over the top. If my kids go up to level 4 or 5 overall and a "top college" dings them because 2 or 3 of those years were in middle school (which is actually a better time to start a language!), then perhaps we don't want to consider those colleges anyway. Both kids are thinking of STEM majors for now (though they're in ES and MS, so it may well change) so I can't see this being more important than taking the Calc and Science APs anyway. If they decide they want to do humanities that's a different discussion.

yes for humanities you want 4 years of language. If doing IB in HS, you shoukd have already started a lanugauge by 9th if not before

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don't look at middle school courses. You can take a language level 1 course in high school.

But in MCPS languages taken in middle school are for high school credit and show up on the kid’s transcript.

This. If your kid is college-bound, colleges want to see at least 4 years. Knocking out a couple of them out in MS frees up the HS schedule for other electives. Or maybe taking 6 years, which strengthens the college application considerably.

We decide to switch to a new language entering Grade 9. It may be overwhelming to take level 4 at 9th grade and continue for 4 years.
It looks like some top colleges expect applicants to have 4 years of FL, taken in high school. It does not seem to matter much regarding the level of chosen FL.

My personal compromise is to make my kids take at least 2 years in HS. Whenever I look at these discussions the requirements seem more and more over the top. If my kids go up to level 4 or 5 overall and a "top college" dings them because 2 or 3 of those years were in middle school (which is actually a better time to start a language!), then perhaps we don't want to consider those colleges anyway. Both kids are thinking of STEM majors for now (though they're in ES and MS, so it may well change) so I can't see this being more important than taking the Calc and Science APs anyway. If they decide they want to do humanities that's a different discussion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking as someone whose child did a language 1, 2, and 3 in MS and is now in 4 in HS, it would be a blessing to take a lower level language Freshman and Sophomore years.

It seems starting FL in 6th grade is a mistake.

Many say start taking Language in 7th. The problem is what do you take instead of WorldLang if not DigitalLit? Limited options - either Language or DigitalL.

There are a lot of art electives to take. I don’t see a requirement that either digital literature or world language has to be taken in 6th grade.

Anonymous wrote:High schools do offer in some languages up to Level 7 should your DC start in 6th and stick with same language.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely no.

Take it in MS. If DC hates languages then they stop in 10th grade.

It is easier in MS for sure.
If they hate it and grades aren't awesome better to have that in MS.

+1. It gives them more options to have language potentially “done” mainly in MS . Yes colleges like to see it in HS but if the kid displays rigor in other ways it’s not as big of a deal.

High schools do offer in some languages up to Level 7 should your DC start in 6th and stick with same language.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don't look at middle school courses. You can take a language level 1 course in high school.

But in MCPS languages taken in middle school are for high school credit and show up on the kid’s transcript.

This. If your kid is college-bound, colleges want to see at least 4 years. Knocking out a couple of them out in MS frees up the HS schedule for other electives. Or maybe taking 6 years, which strengthens the college application considerably.

We decide to switch to a new language entering Grade 9. It may be overwhelming to take level 4 at 9th grade and continue for 4 years.
It looks like some top colleges expect applicants to have 4 years of FL, taken in high school. It does not seem to matter much regarding the level of chosen FL.

There are a ton of threads on DCUM about college expectations regarding languages (if that's something you care about).

Generally, colleges want to see 4 years of FL, actually taken in high school (not including MS courses even if on HS transcript).

Colleges claim to be agnostic as to what level the kid ends at as long as they progress through four years in HS.

The reason they care about 4 years but not level is that they don't want to penalize kids in schools that don't offer MS language, for instance. They want to see that kids took the most rigorous curriculum in HS.

What is unknown (because it is rare) is your situation. Presumably, kid would take 4 years of FL in HS, and that would max out their ability to take FL in HS. But they would end up with a much lower of FL than all of the other kids in their same school (because nearly all will take a couple of years in MS and 4 years in HS).

I don't have an answer. It seems a little risky, if you're aiming for strong colleges. But actually a better approach than starting in MS and only doing 2 years in HS. (Colleges are less likely to penalize a decision made in MS than one made jr year in HS.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don't look at middle school courses. You can take a language level 1 course in high school.

But in MCPS languages taken in middle school are for high school credit and show up on the kid’s transcript.

This. If your kid is college-bound, colleges want to see at least 4 years. Knocking out a couple of them out in MS frees up the HS schedule for other electives. Or maybe taking 6 years, which strengthens the college application considerably.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking as someone whose child did a language 1, 2, and 3 in MS and is now in 4 in HS, it would be a blessing to take a lower level language Freshman and Sophomore years.

It seems starting FL in 6th grade is a mistake.

Many say start taking Language in 7th. The problem is what do you take instead of WorldLang if not DigitalLit? Limited options - either Language or DigitalL.

Anonymous wrote:Speaking as someone whose child did a language 1, 2, and 3 in MS and is now in 4 in HS, it would be a blessing to take a lower level language Freshman and Sophomore years.

It seems starting FL in 6th grade is a mistake.

Speaking as someone whose child did a language 1, 2, and 3 in MS and is now in 4 in HS, it would be a blessing to take a lower level language Freshman and Sophomore years.

We did this. I didn’t know it was an option going into 6th, but my kid dropped it partway through the year and will start a language in HS. The only downside if you do this is that they won’t be eligible for the magnet IB programs if they don’t start a language at least in 8th grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For IB, your child should already have taken a language by the time they start IB in 11th. You can start language in 9th.

At least when my junior applied, you needed two years of FL in middle school to apply to the magnet IB programs. I think there was some wiggle room, especially with outside classes or other proficiencies, but nominally they wanted to see at least two years to be considered for the magnets. You’d want to check whether this is still the case.

As far as the IB program itself is considered, you can start a FL in 9th grade and still get the diploma—it’s just a modified track called Ab Initio. So there shouldn’t be any problem if you’re looking at an in-house IB program like Einstein or BCC, or joining a magnet program in 11th in a school you’re zoned for.

It’s not.

Anonymous wrote:To qualify for a magnet program student must be in level 1 by 8th grade.

Incorrect, except for application IB programs.