daman11

Hey havent posted in a while
so far i have taken Spanish II and III (both Honors) and i got my only C in spanish first seester spansih II but since then i have gotten straight A's even though i have struggled greatly to get them. for some reason my brain can handle taking honors physics and ap chem the same year but cant do an honors level foreign language. not only am i terrible at it, but im completely miserable in the class. its living hell, its soooo boring. I was wondering if it would significantly hurt my chances at top universities if i were to drop spanish nex tyear and in its place take an AP social studies class. Right now i plan on majoring in some form of econ/finance/accounting and im in the highest level math and science classes so engineering is stilll an option....so can i drop spanish for nxt year????? thanks

SJTH

We've been told the top tier colleges really want to see three years of foreign language at minimum, whatever the level. DS took French II, III and IV and skipped language senior senior year.

entomom

It depends on which schools you're taking about. On another recent thread, I posted information from the H & P websites where they say that they prefer a student take 4 years of a single language so that they can become proficient at a language. I've seen others that request 3 years, so check the websites call the admissions offices if necessary.

daman11

more along the lines of:
UMich
Northwestern
UofI (maybe)
UChicago
UCLA
you get the idea...

happymomof1

Not everyone finds learning a foreign language easy in a HS classroom. The questions that you have to know the answers to are these:

1) How many years of foreign language are REQUIRED in order to graduate from your high school?
2) Is it REQUIRED that all of those years are in the same foreign language?
3) How many years of foreign language are REQUIRED for admission to the colleges/universities that you are interested in?

Please note the use of the word REQUIRED. That is the word that you are looking for. Not "recommended" or "suggested", but REQUIRED.

When you carefully read what each college/university posts on its website, you will most likely find "recommended" or "suggested". That is because there are a lot of kids out there who are better at math than at languages, or better at languages than at history, or better at history than at physics, or whatever, and most colleges/universities don't want to keep someone who is good at what that kid is good at out, just because he/she is not good at what he/she is not so good at.

And, if you really stink at a subject that some college/university absolutely requires for admission, do you really truly want to go to that kind of place anyway?

Wishing you all the best.

Chedva

Rather than dropping it altogether, can you drop down to non-honors Spanish for next year? I know several kids who did that with language, math, English, etc. (depending on their interest level) and they had good results with admissions.

BIGTWIX

Yeah, you need to take another year for some of those schools, if not all (I dont know a couple's requirements right off my head)

hec2008

and you really do have three years. college usually look at what level of langauge you have achieved. Since you have gone up to spanish 3 schools like thes UC's cosnider that to be 3 years of a lanuage.

Burb Parent

When did you take Spanish I? If it was in middle school and it is on your high school transcript as a high school equivalent credit, then it seems to me that you have completed 3 years of a foreign language with high schools credit for 3 years. Perhaps you should discuss with your Dean of Academic Studies.

PRJ

My D has (almost) completed Spanish IV as a junior. Took Spanish I in middle school but couldn't get HS credit for it. SHe debated whether to take Sanish V next year and asked several colleges that she is interested in if they would consider her as having 4 years of HS Spanish. They almost all said no, take Spanish V. So my advice is to contact specific colleges for an answer.

sunshine_breeze

The requirement for my hs to graduate is 2 years of foreign language. I had a friend who did just that, despite all the college websites saying that 3 or 4 years is recommended. He wasn't majoring in anything humanities, engineering instead, and substituted CAD (computer aided drafting) classes for his language. He ended up getting into Cornell and Tufts, so obviously it didn't hurt him. If you really dislike the language, I think dropping it and taking advanced classes that you are interested in will be fine.