Please share your experiences and/or advice…is it better to take a Level 4 or 5 of a foreign language or start a second language? What has your experience been? How do colleges look at this? If the student is interested in learning a second foreign language and you only have room in your schedule for one language, what would you do?
Is that a competency level of just years of language.? Is the student beyond AP?
If the college requires/recommends 4 years of a language in HS, then the student should complete at least level 4. Once level 4 is completed, there are no additional brownie points to be had for taking level 5. Note that, unlike other core subjects, for virtually all colleges, completion of level 4 is the same as taking 4 years, regardless of how many classes it took to get to level 4.
That said, note a couple of things:
• The college may have a foreign language requirement for graduation, and may allow exemption based on a high enough score on AP/IB/Subject Test/internal placement test. So depending on the college graduation requirements, the more one takes in HS, the potentially less that one needs to take in college.
• If the student completes level 4 as a junior and wants to start a new language as a senior, that’s fine. But if the student wants to continue the language in college, 1 year of HS, unless it’s an accelerated class, will likely place the student into second semester of the language, if that. And if the student opts not to continue in college, one year of a HS language doesn’t provide much skill for real world use.
As with so many things with admissions, the answer is “It depends.”
The student would complete level 4 as a First Year at BS…so just was wondering and appreciate your insights very much @skieurope . Thanks. Good to know consider the foreign language requirement in college.
In which case, the student, if interested, might want to consider level 5 for increased proficiency. But if not interested in continuing and wanting to switch, that’s totally OK, assuming the BS does not require X years at that school.
My son took 4 years of Spanish while in boarding school. He started off at Spanish 2, and then progressively went up. By the time he was a senior, I think his classes were all labelled 500, but they were clearly well past AP level. He is in college now, and in fact he placed into end-of-second year college Spanish.
Taking more advanced levels of the same language would be better in my opinion. Some colleges require proficiency in a single language. Students can sometimes place out of college requirements by doing well on the AP exam, or by demonstrating fluency. In the real world, having proficiency in a single language is often better than being a beginner at two languages. I agree with others, level 5 vs second language doesn’t matter much to college admissions. Doubtful that a language class will be the decision factor.
However it sounds like your child will do well with either option. Best of luck.
What are the kid’s goals re: language? I don’t think the decision should be based on the perception of college admissions officers alone. That seems short sighted.
Some people just want to be able to handle casual small talk in multiple languages. Others value being able to read great works of literature, write well, engage in complex conversations about complex subjects, and perhaps conduct business in another language. The latter requires more years of specialization and practice, way beyond four years or even your typical college level coursework.
What would the languages and the goals be?
Good question, thanks. The goals of the 14 year old are different than ours at this point …but good to discuss and appreciate what has been shared :bz
I’d show the competency to Level 4 then switch if the student would like.
Most colleges require 3 years of language, but can vary from 2-4.