I would like to thank you all who took your time to respond to all my questions. Based on all the responses, at this point I think the best thing for her is to continue to do and enjoy what she likes and not try to change her mind to take a FL at 8th grade.
Looking forward for HS, it looks like my D has the following options:
A. Continue with Greek and don’t take any FL at all
Pros:
Language she already knows
Opens up more options for core/elective courses
Cons:
Need to find an accredited college/program such that it is reflected in her HS transcript
Will take extra time outside school hours
Using heritage language as FL might be risky or raise eyebrows when an AO sees this
B. Start a new FL at 9th grade
Pros:
Safest option for competitive college applications
Might be somehow useful in her career
Cons:
Might not do well if she eventually doesn’t like it
Might limit her options in HS with other core/electives
Not continuing the language up until level 4 and dropping it to double up on a core at 12th grade might also be risky and/or not acceptable by some colleges
You may want to take a look at the policies on foreign language requirements for admission to and graduation from your in-state public universities, popular-in-your-area private and out-of-state schools, and any other schools of possible interest in order to get a better idea of how the choices may affect college choices.
Also, how many periods per day does the high school have? 6-period high schools tend to leave little room for electives compared to 7-period high schools.
Wrt A/5: NOT if the course is taught by a college and considered post AP (ie., 4th semester, 5th/6th semester. ) All colleges offering courses are very selective so there should not be a problem if she goes that route. It would only be a problem if she takes 101-102/1st& 2nd semester college courses in Modern Greek.
Wrt B/5: this pushes the dilemma to 11th grade. At that point her interests and strengths will be clearer so the choice will be easier. Unless you live in CA, VA, NC, MI, stopping at level 3 should be sufficient for your state flagship.
Some things you can do over the next 3 years…
avoid discussing colleges but you&spouse set money aside or run NPCs on your flagship and on a couple other colleges with varying degrees of selectivity. It’s not uncommon in the US, if the family makes 250k+, to be admitted but not be able to afford a highly selective/meet need/dream school, and if the family makes 40-90k the state flagship may or may not be affordable with room&board. Don’t involve your daughter but be very clear wrt financial aid at meet need schools + flagship. (A merit scholarship search is very different from a need-based aid search).
Hang out around this website’s parents’ forum to learn more
if you find yourself near your state flagship campus, go walk around. Do not denigrate it ever ;-), and ask her to find ONE OR MORE thing she found cool there.
later, again if you are in the area, you can walk around a selective LAC campus(ex., Whitman, Scripps,Macalester, Grinnell, Davidson, Bates, Hamilton…) , a Tech school (Oregon Tech, MUST, WPI, Illinois tech, Olin…), a medium sized university (WWU, SCU, St Thomas, Loyola Chicago, Villanova, JMU, URI… you’ll note a lot are non flagships, located in small states, or Catholic universities), and any college you’ve never heard of that happens to be on your way or not far from where you live.
Avoid visiting any famous university to avoid the prestige factor as well as the “dream school” phenomenon which hinders a good college search. It’s cool your 12-year old likes MIT and it’s excellent you’re doing what you can to ensure she’s not blocked from it if her interests continue, but there are 3,700 universities in the US so familiarity with name means very little if there’s no state name in the college name: Stanford, Harvey Mudd, and CalTech are the 3 most (non state name) selective for STEM on the West Coat… --shoot just realized CalTech has a a state name in its name despite being private…… hope you get the idea though – they’re completely different and depending on where they live people likely know their flagship better …
Check out for yourself Princeton review’s Best colleges from the library to learn about the ~top10% options 90% of which many/most people have never heard of. It’ll give you tools to help your daughter when she’s 15.
-Make SURE you read the “applying sideways” blog from MIT.
UVA and W&M are highly selective and will expect Level 4 or higher. (In addition, because of the DC/NOVA region, quite a few kids have foreign language past level 4 and many more than usual have 2 foreign/heritage languages).
Vtech is very selective too but being a Tech school will not care about foreign language as much as long as level 3 or an equivalent has been reached. So at the end of 11th grade she can decide if her instate match should be UVA/W&M (-> take level 4) or Vtech (-> double up on a core and/or take an elective).
If her goal still is MIT level 4 will be expected for her to be competitive, as I’m sure you’ve gathered by this point.
(The high-level Modern Greek college courses would mean one less semester, rather than 1 less year. The issue really will be finding programs.)
Virginia has many topnotch universities though. Few states are as lucky when it comes to public, instate higher education choices. So no matter what happens, if you can afford one of the 3 top tier universities, she’s good to go.
This child is in 7th grade, so 12 or maybe 13. There is no point in wondering how (or if) the child can get into MIT or any other college.
After 168 posts, the OP has plenty of information to help guide their child about the topic of foreign language in school. If the OP has a different question, they are free to start a new topic, but speculating now on how to get a 12 year old into a top college in the year 2029 is pointless. Furthermore, curriculum requirements can change, rankings can change, colleges can change, finances can change, and most importantly, the 12 year old will change.
This thread will automatically close tonight, 11 p.m. EST.
Speculating was not the original intention of my post. Yes she is 12, but she is submitting her 8th grade course sheet next week and among others, I wanted to see if not selecting a FL at this point could somehow affect her future college application. Thanks to all who helped me answer my questions.
I’m not sure why there is an impression that her goal is to go to MIT. I only brought the MIT as an example. Yes she wants to aim high but of course she has no idea of what “high” can be.
… hope you get the idea though – they’re completely different and depending on where they live people likely know their flagship better 
…
90% of which many/most people have never heard of. It’ll give you tools to help your daughter when she’s 15.
So no matter what happens, if you can afford one of the 3 top tier universities, she’s good to go.