Colleges must stop giving credits to foreign languages to students who choose their mothertonguue

I feel it is very unfair that Chinese students take credits for Mandarin and score a perfect 5 increasing their chances to get college admission.This practice must stop.There are countless children whose native language is not given as AP course. this cannot be considered a talent in any way. If an American learns Spanish or Chinese , then that is talent and stretching oneself beyond the boundaries.We MUST bring in a RULE that non native or someone whose both parents do not belong to speak that language should be given credit.PLEASE STOP THIS LOOPHOLE that the Chinese are using.
College admin PLEASE let us make it fair to all

To make it fair, you can’t get credit for AP Lang or Lit, right? :wink:

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But they must also learn English if they want to attend an American university, right?

I do agree that taking an AP course or language subject in a language you’re already fluent with is a waste of time.

:-<

Where to even begin…

Well, I guess we should separate out college credit vs. college admissions, since, despite the thread title, the OP has lumped both of them together.

For the vast majority of US colleges, AP scores carry little to no weight in the admissions process; they are primarily used for credit and/or placement. I’m also unsure why you are singling out Chinese for your rampage, as AP exams are also offered in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Japanese. Don’t those native- and/or heritage speakers deserve a shout out?

Now if you really wanted to talk about native-/heritage-speakers taking standardized tests to “bolster” their chances for admission, you’d have used the argument that they should not take the corresponding SAT Subject Tests. Well, in the grand scheme of things, relatively few colleges require/recommend these tests for admission. The ones that do tend to be the highly selective private research universities and LAC’s. But guess what, several of them do address the issue. For example, [url=https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/how-would-brown-view-sat-subject-test-my-native-language]Brown:[/url]

[url=http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/first-year/testing]Columbia:[/url]

So I think it’s safe to say that colleges are not going to put a lot of weight on a subject test taken in a native language, so your fears are unfounded.

Now, going back to the issue of college credit. As a non-American, for whom English is not my first language, why shouldn’t I get college credit for taking an AP test in my native language? It’s not like those 3-6 semester hours are going to allow me to graduate any sooner or that the university will receive less tuition from me, so what’s the harm? (Full disclosure, my native language does not have an AP test, so my AP scores were earned the hard way :slight_smile: ) Colleges that have a foreign language requirement for graduation almost always exempt those for whom English is a second language, since English is our foreign language, which we had to prove by taking an additional standardized test.

The distinction needs to be made between heritage-speakers and native-speakers. Many heritage-speakers can speak and understand the language, but are unable to read/write fluently without instruction. For these learners, many high schools offer, as an example, Spanish for heritage-speakers classes (I’ve also seen schools offer similar classes in Chinese and Korean.) To my argument above, I see no reason why these students should not get credit for something that they learned in school.

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AP or even SAT2 of a mothertongue language has no benefit for college admission. One may only get credits or better placement for that language after admitted. If one is not a native English speaker, there are far more disadvantage than the few credits that they may potentially get.

Nothing unfair is happening.

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They have mastery of another language. Why shouldn’t they be recognized for it?

There are kids that naturally score high on the regular SAT, w no prepping. Do they not deserve their high score even though some other kid needed coaching?

There should be no harm in a native or heritage speaker submitting an SAT subject or AP test in his/her native or heritage language. However, for schools that use SAT subject tests as described in #3, it is best if the one in the native or heritage language is submitted as an additional test beyond those otherwise required or recommended.

Note that if the college cares about whether a test is taken in a native or heritage language, it can usually figure that out (e.g. by the absence of US high school foreign language course work in that language, or taking only high level or heritage speaker courses rather than starting at the lower level).

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I really believe it is unfair that mandarin speaking students get a 5 in AP and show it as a talent . All great schools take foreign language speaking skills as an asset. But have you considered that criteria for selection is biased and idiotic. This is no talent.

Look I didn’t mean to single out Chinese. But I feel their scores are rigged. No other native language has such great average of students getting 5. They favor their kind.

How does a 5 on an exam make it a “talent”? I got a 5 on APUSH, that doesn’t mean I have a “talent” for history.

Stop being jealous and go do something productive.

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Once again, I’m not sure why you are focusing on Chinese speakers. 15X as many AP tests are taken in Spanish. Your post is really coming across as xenophobic, aside from being totally without merit.

Again, it’s only 10k tests. One cannot draw inference based upon a relatively small sample. Plus, relatively few high schools offer Chinese as a foreign language.

REALLY?!?! You did not just say that.

Nobody, other then you, has said that there is any criteria being applied.

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“They favor their kind.”

Wow! Where do you get that kind of nonsense? ETS/College Board may be plenty evil-minded, but it certainly is not a foreign agency.

The high rate of 5 scores on the Chinese tests is likely due to the high ratio of heritage to non-heritage speakers, since Chinese is not commonly offered as a foreign language in US high schools. There are even more heritage Spanish speakers, but almost every high school in the US offers Spanish as a foreign language, so the number of non-heritage speakers taking the Spanish tests is much higher relative to the number of heritage speakers.

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When I was in high school, the counselors knew who the native speakers were. It was documented by the language surveys filled out for the school. Yes, this was thousands of years ago but as a native Spanish speaker, I was not allowed to take AP Spanish because I needed to take a FOREIGN language-which for me was English.

I was given a choice of taking classes in French, German or Japanese. I took French. So, I’m not quite trilingual, but the French helped with my SAT vocabulary.

My children didn’t want to take AP Spanish. Their AP courses gave them ELECTIVE credits, it did nothing for their ADMISSION other than giving them good grades in AP History, Literature, Calculus, Bio, Chemistry, Art History, etc. I have spent a fortune in AP fees for 3 kids and all it did was give them advanced status to register for classes at their colleges. (3 completely different colleges in 3 completely different geographical regions, all used the AP tests for elective credits)

I want to know which schools give acceptances and admissions to kids who take AP Chinese.

Had I known that my children could take AP CHINESE and get automatic admission to their colleges, I would have forced all 3 of my children to take the classes and go to Saturday School in Chinese with their mandarin speaking friends!

This is such a foolish and racist rant, it is ridiculous!!!

Go get some sensitivity training because if you ever work for a corporation, you will be required to take some classes in it.

People can just lie that it is not their native language when it actually is…

<.There are countless children whose native language is not given as AP course.>

These kids take others tests. I have Russian friends. They take college test to prove fluency in Russian. UCLA is known to give such test, but I am sure that other colleges do the same. BTW, language proficiency tests can be arranged distantly. College sends exam package to a third party (community college, for example) that would organize proctored exam and send material back to college for grading. Is costs, probably, around $20. Cheaper than AP test.

My D’s second (first?) language is Spanish. Her third language is a Native American language of my mother. I can’t find any place in USA that could test her for proficiency in this language. Honestly, I am really puzzled how to put this language on her college application. However, such problem is rare. Most languages can be tested in colleges.

I think it’s refreshing to read a thread in which somebody is claiming that Chinese students get an unfair advantage in college admissions.

I think OP has the following fundamental question:

What is important for college admission:

  1. knowledge of a subject or
  2. ability to learn a new subject within a limited amount of time, starting at zero, no additional tutoring, same setting for all kids, no additional resources.

This complaint also assumes that admissions people are kind of dumb.