Anonymous wrote:It’s been said up thread, but UVA is pretty clear about their preference for max rigor in the 5 core subjects. Of course there are exceptions, but that’s a gamble.

This. If you have a child with their heart set on UVA, you need to encourage FL all 4 years of HS, to the highest level. Sure it may be possible to get in without it, but it is only going to HELP make a case for admission for them with all 4 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My two DCs who attended UVA did not take a foreign language in Senior year after completing the highest IB offering. They started in middle school and the classes were reflected on their high school transcript. They both got 4s on the AP exam which their school scheduled despite not offering the AP class. Couldn’t your daughter take the AP test in her language this year even if she doesn’t continue coursework?

But were they URM, first gen? Engineering? Math applicants? Extraordinary ECs? Each applicant is different. For my vanilla kid, the college advisor said the four years were a must.

No, they are none of the above. They did take the highest level of language their school offered, just finished early by starting in middle school. The AP score of 4 probably helped.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My two DCs who attended UVA did not take a foreign language in Senior year after completing the highest IB offering. They started in middle school and the classes were reflected on their high school transcript. They both got 4s on the AP exam which their school scheduled despite not offering the AP class. Couldn’t your daughter take the AP test in her language this year even if she doesn’t continue coursework?

But were they URM, first gen? Engineering? Math applicants? Extraordinary ECs? Each applicant is different. For my vanilla kid, the college advisor said the four years were a must.

quickly off top of my head, I know two vanilla OOS admits who did not take AP foreign language (nor BC calculus or beyond)

My UVA kid took all four. The admissions requirement on UVA's page is pretty clear about exhausting what the high school offers, which applies also to foreign language:

1. Take the best program available to you in your core subjects.
Make sure that your class schedule demonstrates that you are taking advantage of all that your school offers. Talk to your counselor and parents to help determine the right program for you. Colleges will want to see that you are pursuing a strong schedule, but they will also want to see good grades.

What do we mean by the core subjects? Those are English, math, foreign language, social studies, and science.

+1. Nearly 18,000 undergrads, you will of course find exceptions. Doesn’t mean you should base your decisions off of those exceptions versus what the school itself says they want you to do.

It’s been said up thread, but UVA is pretty clear about their preference for max rigor in the 5 core subjects. Of course there are exceptions, but that’s a gamble.

Anonymous wrote:Please watch Dean J's IG chats -- she addresses all of this stuff and more and will answer questions like these directly.

For A&S at least, she makes clear that they have a preference for at least one AP (or equivalent and where offered) in all core subjects, including world language. World language is definitely not required senior year if the student took an AP world language class junior year (or otherwise maxed out on what's offered; note AP Spanish Language is enough -- don't need AP Spanish Lit).

Dean J also makes clear that there are exceptions to the preference for showing max rigor in all core subjects, and OP's DC might have a case to make there. A lot will depend on what others from DC's HS are doing. But it's pretty clear that they want to see a level reached in HS (AP or whatever is most rigorous) and stopping in sophomore or junior year at Language 4 or 5 if those are below AP is not ideal.

Thank you. Much better than the “we know someone who” posts. This makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My two DCs who attended UVA did not take a foreign language in Senior year after completing the highest IB offering. They started in middle school and the classes were reflected on their high school transcript. They both got 4s on the AP exam which their school scheduled despite not offering the AP class. Couldn’t your daughter take the AP test in her language this year even if she doesn’t continue coursework?

But were they URM, first gen? Engineering? Math applicants? Extraordinary ECs? Each applicant is different. For my vanilla kid, the college advisor said the four years were a must.

quickly off top of my head, I know two vanilla OOS admits who did not take AP foreign language (nor BC calculus or beyond)

My UVA kid took all four. The admissions requirement on UVA's page is pretty clear about exhausting what the high school offers, which applies also to foreign language:

1. Take the best program available to you in your core subjects.
Make sure that your class schedule demonstrates that you are taking advantage of all that your school offers. Talk to your counselor and parents to help determine the right program for you. Colleges will want to see that you are pursuing a strong schedule, but they will also want to see good grades.

What do we mean by the core subjects? Those are English, math, foreign language, social studies, and science.

My son took the highest level language offered at his HS in 11th grade, due to starting language in middle school. We were told by someone knowledgeable that he needed to carry the same or more academic classes his senior year. Because he finished his language in 11th grade, it looked like he was easing off the gas and taking one less academic class. He added a second science class to fix this. Human Anatomy was the only option that fit his schedule. He was accepted and is now a 2nd year.

Another important thing: UVA likes to see an AP lab science (Bio, Chem, or Physics). When I look at my son and his friends, the kids who took an AP lab science were accepted and the kids who took AP Environmental Science or similar did not get in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My two DCs who attended UVA did not take a foreign language in Senior year after completing the highest IB offering. They started in middle school and the classes were reflected on their high school transcript. They both got 4s on the AP exam which their school scheduled despite not offering the AP class. Couldn’t your daughter take the AP test in her language this year even if she doesn’t continue coursework?

But were they URM, first gen? Engineering? Math applicants? Extraordinary ECs? Each applicant is different. For my vanilla kid, the college advisor said the four years were a must.

quickly off top of my head, I know two vanilla OOS admits who did not take AP foreign language (nor BC calculus or beyond)

Anonymous wrote:There are sooooooo many threads about this. There are definitely kids getting in without FL all four years.

+100

Anonymous wrote:My two DCs who attended UVA did not take a foreign language in Senior year after completing the highest IB offering. They started in middle school and the classes were reflected on their high school transcript. They both got 4s on the AP exam which their school scheduled despite not offering the AP class. Couldn’t your daughter take the AP test in her language this year even if she doesn’t continue coursework?

But were they URM, first gen? Engineering? Math applicants? Extraordinary ECs? Each applicant is different. For my vanilla kid, the college advisor said the four years were a must.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they have another hook?

My DD’s stats and rigor have her in range for UVA ED but she is not currently planning to take AP foreign language. She will have pretty much all the other “top” APs and 5 years of language. She would have to drop a selective independent research class in her desired field (bio) to take AP foreign language or enroll in a virtual DE class.

Thoughts? Anecdotes? We know a UVA “reader” who says there is a literal box she checks for 12th grade foreign language.

What other colleges are as language snobbish as VA? Students could be taking laguage since 7th grade, that's 5 years of same language!

Most top ones are.

5 years is hardly overkill given how little the students work on their language outside of the classroom.

This. The ivies and top SLACs want to see maximum rigor.

My two DCs who attended UVA did not take a foreign language in Senior year after completing the highest IB offering. They started in middle school and the classes were reflected on their high school transcript. They both got 4s on the AP exam which their school scheduled despite not offering the AP class. Couldn’t your daughter take the AP test in her language this year even if she doesn’t continue coursework?

Anonymous wrote:
We recently did a transcript review through the uva alumni association and the person we met with stressed they were looking for 4 years of foreign language. Common data set says it’s 2 required/ 4 recommended. It’s holistic so probably fine. Hope someone can answer your question!

So this is annecdotal from a few years back, so take it with a grain of salt.

My kid had higher stats than almost all the other kids from their school accepted to UVA, according to Naviance. There were 5 kids with higher SATs and around 12 kids with higher GPAs. Activities, essays, etc were good.

They had 4 years of foreign language, but due to the only teacher of their language getting fired, resulting in the program ending, my kid switched foreign languages between sophomore and junior year. They had all As in both languages, but was only at level 2 for each language. The counselors said at the time that it would be fine, and we didn't know any better to push for an online continuation of the original language. My kid also finished AP calc as a junior with a 5 on the exam. They were not planning to do stem, and were going for a humanities degree, so they picked Stats for their senior math class instead of BC or multivariable.

My kid was rejected from UVA, in spite of gpa and SAT being higher thank most of the kids in their class accepted. The difference between mine and kids with lower stats is those kids had calculus and either language 4 or AP language senior year, while mine had calculus junior year and had 2 different languages for 2 years each.

Based on my sample size of one, UVA very much cares about 4 consecutive years of language in high school, and an actual mathy math class senior year.

I would make your kid take their language senior year if UVA is the goal.

Rising first year engineering major here.

He took 4 years of Spanish but took 3 and 4 online pass/fail during the summers.

Took 3 AP science and 2 AP math classes senior year instead.

TY!