Are 2 Years of a Foreign Language Enough?

[skieurope]

The only school I think I will apply to that explicitly requires 3 years of a foreign language is Cornell,

Referring back to the beginning, it’s more than just Cornell:

I am planning to apply to many top colleges such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, MIT, and Cornell.

Harvard: “Four years of a single foreign language”
https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/preparing-college/choosing-courses

Yale: " Generally speaking, you should try to take courses each year in English, science, math, the social sciences, and foreign language."
https://admissions.yale.edu/advice-selecting-high-school-courses

Stanford: “three or more years of the same foreign language.”
https://admission.stanford.edu/apply/selection/prepare.html

Each of those colleges reject 95% of applicants. Most applicants will have met the colleges recommended preparation. I really struggle with why any applicant would like to put forth an application in which they tried to pull out all stops.

taking Spanish III would bring down my GPA since it is not honors or AP.

Because there is no standard rubric for weighted courses, top colleges will focus on your unweighted GPA, or will apply their own weighting standards. Regardless. The impact of one or 2 unweighted classes on a 3.5 year GPA is akin to a pimple on an elephant’s butt. You need to take a step back and focus on the larger picture.

If I were to take Spanish III, I would have to give up either AP Physics or AP Comp Sci

Depending upon where you matriculate, each class may not be seen as equivalent to the college’s intro course, and you may end up retaking anyway. So, IMO, just trying to jam in another AP is not a valid reason to choose a course.