Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don't care, but you're an idiot if you take a language that isn't Spanish.

Disagree with the comment above.

There might well be good valid cultural reasons to choose - or to avoid - certain languages, purely as one example.

Ours will take Spanish. If we were in Canada, ours would take French. We do not have a compelling reason to pick French or German...but we respect that other families are different from ours.

This is a USA-centered website. Not Canadian. I assumed I was addressing a USA audience. In the USA, tens of millions speak Spanish. In our hemisphere, hundreds of millions do. It's silly to take any other language in the USA.

Someone whose family fled a Latin American dictatorship and atrocity (no shortage of those in the last 100 years) to settle in the US would have every reason to avoid learning Spanish. Just like some cultural groups avoid learning German for similar reasons. Someone whose family are Swiss German might choose German so they could better communicate with family members. The best answer varies by each family's own situation.

But Swiss German isn’t usually offered in the US, and it is unintelligible to Germans anyway. It’s a totally different language than that spoken in Germany.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do colleges want to see 4 years of a language or is 3 enough for a competitive school?

4 for T30 schools

4 years in high school, or through Level IV in high school? Isn't a student who completes Level IV (assuming no AP offered at your high school) as a junior demonstrating more rigor than a student who completes Level IV as a senior? Same as taking AP Calc as a junior vs a senior. The students who finish Level IV as juniors can then choose another core subject in senior year that aligns with their intended major and is value-add to the their application "narrative", no?

There’s no definitive answer for this. Kids have gotten into schools with 3 years in HS (reaching level IV and/or AP in 11th) and kids have been rejected from schools with the same. For every person saying you have to have FL in senior year you’ll have another with an anecdote of how they got into three Ivies with only three years of FL.

The counselor conventional wisdom is to take foreign language every year for the most competitive colleges. That’s what I’ve heard.

My older kid’s experience was that many more SLACs have foreign language requirements than we expected. Because he hasn’t taken the AP level of his language (Latin) and the AP test, he had to take two semesters in college. Which was annoying for him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do colleges want to see 4 years of a language or is 3 enough for a competitive school?

4 for T30 schools

4 years in high school, or through Level IV in high school? Isn't a student who completes Level IV (assuming no AP offered at your high school) as a junior demonstrating more rigor than a student who completes Level IV as a senior? Same as taking AP Calc as a junior vs a senior. The students who finish Level IV as juniors can then choose another core subject in senior year that aligns with their intended major and is value-add to the their application "narrative", no?

Anonymous wrote:Do colleges want to see 4 years of a language or is 3 enough for a competitive school?

4 for T30 schools

My kid chose French in middle school and I wish she hadn’t because a teacher shortage in our area means she has to complete French 4 online. Apparently this is not uncommon. Spanish seems like the safest bet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD took ASL and numerous people told me that "no credible college" would take it and she is going to a great school with 4 years of ASL and wants to be an interpreter. I think this would come in handy in the medical field.

Is it a school with an interpreting major? Would you mind naming the school?

Not the pp, but look at RIT, which houses the national technical institute of the deaf.

Michigan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don't care, but you're an idiot if you take a language that isn't Spanish.

Disagree with the comment above.

There might well be good valid cultural reasons to choose - or to avoid - certain languages, purely as one example.

Ours will take Spanish. If we were in Canada, ours would take French. We do not have a compelling reason to pick French or German...but we respect that other families are different from ours.

This is a USA-centered website. Not Canadian. I assumed I was addressing a USA audience. In the USA, tens of millions speak Spanish. In our hemisphere, hundreds of millions do. It's silly to take any other language in the USA.

I take it you do not live in DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD took ASL and numerous people told me that "no credible college" would take it and she is going to a great school with 4 years of ASL and wants to be an interpreter. I think this would come in handy in the medical field.

Is it a school with an interpreting major? Would you mind naming the school?

Not the pp, but look at RIT, which houses the national technical institute of the deaf.

Thanks, but I am really interesting in students trying to become an interpreter outside of a major in interpreting, since there are so few schools that offer one. Looking for more options

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD took ASL and numerous people told me that "no credible college" would take it and she is going to a great school with 4 years of ASL and wants to be an interpreter. I think this would come in handy in the medical field.

Is it a school with an interpreting major? Would you mind naming the school?

Not the pp, but look at RIT, which houses the national technical institute of the deaf.

No.

Anonymous wrote:Do colleges want to see 4 years of a language or is 3 enough for a competitive school?

At our private, the college counselors say the top colleges look for 4 years of all academic core subjects.

Do colleges want to see 4 years of a language or is 3 enough for a competitive school?

Anonymous wrote:My DD took ASL and numerous people told me that "no credible college" would take it and she is going to a great school with 4 years of ASL and wants to be an interpreter. I think this would come in handy in the medical field.

Is it a school with an interpreting major? Would you mind naming the school?

Ask around to see which language teachers are the best at your HS. My kids did French and it just so happened that the faculty were outstanding, while the Spanish teacher was known to play favorites and be an inconsistent grader. My kids sailed through French and both loved it, participated in exchange programs and have continued it into college. I think if they had gone the Spanish route, they wouldn’t have had such a good experience and gotten such good grades. Take the language you’re interested in, with consideration of the faculty in that department