iamchris14

Is foreign language a huge admission factor? I checked the units that is recommended/required on collegeboard. I only have 3 units, but it recommends 4 units. Will it affect my chances of getting in?

charlieschm

Most of the colleges I've looked at said the same thing - they wanted 3 years of foreign language in 9 to 14th grade, and recommended a fourth year. Unless you want to go into a field where language is particularly important, I don't think most colleges would care that you didn't take a 4th year of language, as long as your overall schedule was challenging.

In other words, if you skipped taking a language your senior year to have a 2nd study hall, that might look bad, but if you decided to take an extra AP class instead, they probably wouldn't even notice the lack of a language.

There are many students who don't like studying languages. One wise person said that you plan to attend a college with a language requirement, and you don't particularly care for studying languages, you might want to get it out of the way at high school level. Also, if you want to minimize the need to take college level language classes, be sure to study for the placement exams, which are often taken the summer before freshman enrollment.

worried_mom

It depends on the specific school you are talking about. For the very top schools (say top 50?), nearly every applicant will have 4 or more units of a foreign language so only 3 units would be viewed as somewhat of a negative (but certainly not a deal breaker), and as charlie has pointed out, a rigorous senior year schedule could compensate for that.

At lower tier schools, 3 units of FL will be just fine and not even an issue -- unless, of course, you are planning to major in a foreign language!

anotherparent

My son has a lot of problems with foreign languages. Other than that he has an excellent academic record, including impressive performances on some academic competitions. We homeschool, and I gave up on language at the end of the 9th grade. On his transcript I counted him for 2 years, including 8th grade. We were sort of assuming he would get into either Caltech or MIT, neither of which require languages. He did get into those schools EA. He also applied to UCLA, UCSD and UCB, all with entrance by exam, and he got accepted at those (though, oddly he got turned down by UCSC)

Since he got the EA acceptances, we do not know how he would have fared at some of the other schools he was planning to apply. I can tell you about a conversation I had with someone from Princeton. I explained the situation. She said that it would not keep out an otherwise qualified applicant, but he would be required to gain mastery at Princeton. When I asked what that meant, she smiled and told me he would have to pass a year of language class.

I think language might be the most flexible of the suggested requirements of a college, and you should not stop from applying to schools that you are otherwise a good match.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have had him do Latin - great alternative for someone who does not do well in languages, since usually the problem is a reluctance to speak it, and latin is more of a reading/translating experience.