<p>What does Cornell and other Ivies think about language courses? The only language course I have taken these two years in high school is Chinese 3-4 in freshman year, which is equivalent to two years of Chinese.</p>
<p>I could’ve continued taking Chinese 5-6 and Chinese Honors but I sacrificed the class spots for math and science classes because these were the primary subjects I found riveting. </p>
<p>So will Cornell be too harsh in terms of admissions if I took only one year of language in high school?</p>
<p>Also, for undergraduates, how difficult is it to get a research job at Cornell in the biology/biomedical field?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for the other Ivies or answer your research hunting question but…</p>
<p>Language courses from HS are a definite plus. However, if you’re of Chinese descent and you’re taking Chinese, it might be hard to show on the application that you didn’t simply take it as an easy course. If you’re not, then hooray!</p>
<p>In terms of harshness, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The colleges will look for an overall student that “fits” and that “fit” does not necessarily imply a second/third/w.e language. For example, my friend applied to Arts,Architecture and Planning and didn’t take anything else other than the one required course on language. However, it was clear that she had spent a lot of time working on art throughout her HS career from the portfolio that she submitted. </p>
<p>For me, I had all sciences and maths as my electives, took design and technology for 4 semesters (one per year of HS) and applied to CoE. I had also taken 4 semesters of French so that was a plus on my application.</p>