so I’m a sophomore and I’m taking a summer course in college, my school requires 2 years of Spanish and if I take it in college it will count as 2 years but I will only get 5 credits while in school I will get 20 credits if I take it for 2 years.
But I will get those 20 credits back in school if I take other classes those 2 years instead of Spanish. Would this matter or should I take the course in school? Are those 5 credits actually counting as extra credits?
Ask your school. No one here can answer school-specific questions.
I’d also check to see if your school will accept the summer language courses you take as equivalent to that of your home college.
Sometimes, they will determine this by mandating one take a placement test to ensure what you learned is comparable to their own courses.
This factor was the reason why a college classmate’s plan to take a summer Chinese language course at his local directional public in order to leapfrog into third year Chinese after that summer session was a non-starter.
Our college covered foreign languages at twice the rate of his local directional public.
Things are different than they were 20 years ago. Many schools will require the student to submit the summer school’s curriculum and the home school must review and approve it before the student’s summer coursework will be accepted. And most schools will have a minimum grade requirement (e.g a B or better) to credit the student with the course.
In the area of foreign languages, many departments including those at my LAC and the elite/respectable universities I know of require the student who took a summer foreign language course at another college to take a placement test upon arriving back in the fall to ensure the course is equivalent AND the student has actually learned enough to be prepared for the next level course*.
If the student fails to attain the minimum score necessary to prove s/he’s prepared for the next level foreign language course, s/he WILL NOT receive credit from the home college’s foreign language department.
- Pretty logical if one thinks about it. What's the point of granting credit for a course completed if the student can't pass his/her foreign language placement exam to prove s/he's actually learned the material to the same level as if s/he took the equivalent course at his/her home college?
Are you a sophomore in high school or college?
If you are in high school, note that college credits are not the same as high school credits.
But, @cobrat, is this recent experience or from the 90’s?
It’s still current practice at my LAC and several other elite/respectable colleges I know of.
If one takes a summer foreign language course at another institution, one must take and pass a language placement exam sufficient to demonstrate readiness for the next level course to receive credit.
Current info from Santa Clara University.
Once a student has matriculated at Santa Clara, NO courses can be taken towards their SCU degree at any other college.
So…if a student has a foreign language requirement to satisfy, the courses have to be taken at SCU.
The school does cceot CLEP tests.
But the OP posted this…just now…in the financial aid forum…this poster is a high school student.
So to the OP…ask your high school counselor what the protocol is.
One of my relatives needed 2 terms of a language to graduate from Trinity in CT. He chose to take 2 6-week summer terms of Hawaiian to satisfy his language requirement, after getting it pre-approved with Trinity.
Another got 2 6-week summer terms of German pre-approved by USCal, in the fall took and passed the 3rd term and met her language requirement.
In order for my D to take foreign language at our local CC one summer, she had to find out if the course met an equivalency requirement. Once she learned that it did, she had to get permission from her advisor and the registrar. After that, she faxed those documents down to us and H and I went over to the CC and enrolled her because visiting students couldn’t do online registration in those days. She got full credit with a C. She also took a history and an English class. For her language, she only needed one year and the summer classes fulfilled that.
She also took an online science class another winter at another school. It was the same deal except that because the school was upstate, I was able to fax the paperwork up for her.
If S17 can’t CLEP out of his math requirements, he is going to take them at the local CC next summer and work with his former tutor.
If you are enrolled in a college you should get any summer classes you take at another institution pre-approved in writing by your home college to be sure you will get the credit. For example my S went to Fordham and once enrolled Fordham would not accept credit for coursework taken at a 2 year college. When my S took a summer course at another university he met with his academic advisor and provided a course description before he could get sign off.