Students may have no experience in the foreign language they take at level 1, it doesn’t mean they don’t have any previous foreign language experience.
For instance, most HS offer Spanish. A student who wanted to study French or Korean or Norwegian or Russian or Italian or Swahili in HS… couldn’t. So, they took Spanish to fulfill their HS graduation requirement/college entrance requirement, but in college they take the language they really wanted to take all along, and take 2 or 3 semesters of French or Korean or Norwegian or Russian or Italian or Swahili. They start at level 1 because they never took it before, but they do have skills from previous language study. Then they follow the sequence till they meet their graduation requirement (vast majority) or till they’ve met other goals (such as grad school entrance recommendations or personal interest).
The college graduation FL requirement isn’t “since they have no FL HS experience” but rather to assess proficiency: you can reach level 3 by taking 1 course at level 3, 2 courses levels 2 and 3, or 3 courses levels 1, 2, 3, depending on personal choices and previous study. Students who take Level 1 typically haven’t studied that language previously. Students who take Level 2 typically have taken 2 or 3 years in HS (depending on the college and the rigor of its FL sequence) or have knowledge through other means. Since you took Level 1, you would logically know students who didn’t take that specific language previously but in Spanish 3 your observations would be different. (I did read you know students who didn’t take FL in HS.)
Considering the vast majority of US (and international) HS require FL through elementary level for a college-ready HS diploma to be awarded, I “didn’t take FL in HS” may mean lots of things, such as “took it in MS”, “was in immersion”, “am a heritage speaker”, “scored a 4 on FL AP freshman year”, “moved here from abroad”, not "I knew nothing in ‘FL’ before I got to ‘highly selective college’ ". Those who truly didn’t study any FL at the secondary level are a tiny minority at most highly selective colleges. I am sure you know an equal number who “placed out” of their FL graduation requirement to those who had no previous knowledge whatsoever (different from “started at level 1 at Dartmouth”) and in real numbers those who “place out” far, far outnumber those who had no previous knowledge whatsoever.
You should feel proud you got into Dartmouth without a FL because you are certainly exceptional.
I’ll stop here because this side discussion is derailing the thread.
(However, you should know that if I was “called@” to this thread wrt to the OP’s foreign language situation, it’s because I do know these colleges and I know a lot about FL education at the HS and college levels.)
@fishergy:
Class rank and GPA make you a slam dunk for PSU-DUS, Pitt, and Temple Honors (Pitt focuses more on test scores, PSU more on GPA/rigor). Schreyer and Smeal are too selective to predict but DO apply as you stand a chance. For Smeal, evaluate whether you’d qualify for Sapphire (if so, mention you’d be interested in Sapphire in your statement; if not , consider applying DUS.)
URichmond is a reach, so you need more matches. Consider Dickinson and Denison (“International management” and “Global Commerce” majors are their business majors). Start showing interest.
Can you consider Economics rather than Business? It’d open more possibilities but the subjects and the way the majors are structures would be quite different.