“If you want a tippy top and think the tip is val or gpa, you are way behind. It suggests you don’t have an idea what matters to those colleges. That won’t help you one bit, can be an issue.”
ok, but you keep saying this all the time, did you read the OP? He/she has researched the language requirements for the selective colleges, even to the point of knowing the difference between some of schools at Cornell. And the OP has never said the val will help get in, it’s a personal goal but it involves some gpa protection by taking an AP class over the regular Spanish class, which turns people off, as it has on this thread.
We always say don’t do things for admissions, do the things you’re really interested in, but here we’re giving the opposite advice, take the language because that’s what selective colleges want to see, even though you’re clearly not interested in a language and would prefer taking stem classes to see what you might like as a college major.
And really, here’s the thing, unless you’re hooked the chances of getting into the Stanfords of the world are lottery-esque, so I would apply without having the 3-4 years of language and take courses I like and get the val. The worst case is taking the language class(es), not getting the val, and not getting into Stanford, which guess what is probably what will happen.
The issue is the UCs where the third year could make a difference and the chances of getting in could be improved or at least not hurt with the third year of the language. For that, MYOS suggestion of taking it at a community college would be a good option.