Can I make up for a lack of foreign language credits in the rest of my application?

Applying to College
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https://admissions.utexas.edu/explore/prerequisites/general-requirements

UT allows the two years to be in computer science. At least the GC advised against it. Many GCs in Texas will just follow what the top publics want.

Summer Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 in school is a good idea.

Rice doesn’t have the same computer science as a FL commentary. They just say two years of a FL as a minimum requirement. Then say “ * Students admitted with curriculum deficiencies will be asked to complete the required work by taking high school or college-level courses during the summer before enrollment at Rice.”

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A student may have the opportunity to test out of a foreign language requirement for graduating from a college.

I don’t see a way to “test out” of an admissions requirement/strong recommendation.

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You may have an issue of not getting the Most Rigorous box checked from your GC. If that happens, that is likely a death sentence at a T20 school. If you want to be a CS major, it is likely that you will need a FL in college unless it is in the Engineering College at the University.

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They did take a level 4+ (AP level) course in high school, so that may have been looked at as “4 years” anyway.

Presumably, the counselor is less likely to mark the OP’s schedule as “most demanding” and less likely to mark the OP as “one of the top few encountered” for academic achievement in the school report sent with many college applications. This will adversely affect chance of admission to the most selective colleges.

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Pretty sure not taking foreign language is a deal breaker at any UNC system school. I would definitely take it over the summer and next year.

What schools, specifically, are you looking at?

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But what if the computer science classes were extremely demanding? Just curious.

(And for some high schoolers, computer science/languages might offer more skills and direction that taking French or Spanish.)

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If the computer science classes felt extremely demanding, the applicant likely won’t be admitted to a top 10 CS program.

My son took three years of Spanish (no AP) and two years of CS and I think he’s deficient because he didn’t develop proficiency in Spanish and didn’t ace CS.

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A rank of top 2% should get admission to UT computer science major, which is a top 10 program. That would be a great outcome

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In North Carolina two years of foreign language are required for admittance to UNC system schools. Here’s UNC-Chapel Hill’s page: https://languageplacement.unc.edu/

If you were my kid and didn’t want to go to UT I’d have you take Spanish 1 over the summer and Spanish 2 in the fall. It will open up a lot more options for you.

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I was just on another foreign language thread and did a little googling and saw that the UGA system schools overall do accept computer language as the language requirement. I’m not sure about GA Tech or any other schools specifically, but the broader system does accept it. Might be worth looking into if GA Tech is on your mind.

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