I have an issue I’m currently dealing with. I’m trying to get into Ivy League schools and unfortunately I have noticed the importance of having 4 foreign language credits. I will only have 3 years of a foreign language (1 of Spanish and 2 of IB mandarin).
Because I pursued the IB DP programme at my school, I had to switch my language from Spanish to IB Mandarin for 2 years, limiting me to essentially 2 years of a foreign language.
The reason I couldn’t take Spanish as a freshman is because of a counselor scheduling mistake, but that’s a different story…
I’m worried that this could ruin my admissions chances for Ivies, and idk if there’s a single solution to this (no local college offers Mandarin credits).
Are you a junior? When your high school counselor writes the counselor letter, he or she can include the scheduling conflicts. You can also mention the information in the additional information section of the common app.
If you don’t get into an Ivy (or other highly selective schools), and chances are you won’t, you’ll never know why.
But something like this can be addressed - and if a course isn’t offered, it shouldn’t be held against you.
My daughter was in, not at top top schools, but hard admits like Washington & Lee, Florida, etc., with two years of language - as with mandarin, it’s all the school offered.
That said, you might look into a community college option for the third year - she did as well - but it was not available.
You can only control what you can. And like all kids, ensure you have a balanced list to cover all scenarios.
Not all people who have Chinese surnames are heritage speakers of Mandarin, and not all heritage speakers of Mandarin have skill higher than what may be taught in high school Mandarin as foreign language courses (IB or otherwise).
Of course, there are also different variations of IB foreign language:
ab initio SL: beginner courses, probably equivalent to level 2 after two years.
Language B SL: assumes prior study or knowledge – equivalent to level 3 or 4?
Language B HL: assumes prior study or knowledge – equivalent to level 4 or higher?
My kids took 12 years of Chinese, 3 of which were eligible credit classes. We claimed zero. They were born and raised here and first language is English.
Nope. It is a non credited school. To get credit, we will need to petition our HS to add it to transcript, which we elected not to. Since it’s non accredited, there is no option on application to report anything. If we did, it would just add 3 more years of A-G with 6 more A grades anyway.
Back to your question - you can only control what you can. Your counselor can write that there was only two years offered and/or you can do what my daughter did - write it in the other info box…not an excuses, etc. just that a 3rd year of language was not offered by the school.
I’m sure, with languages other than spanish and french, it’s fairly common.
While you’ll never know, I don’t see this as a reason a school would reject you.
Sorry. Then you are fine. Lots of kids in China take AP/IB Chinese. We didn’t want to get lumped into that cohort.
To make you feel better, my son only listed 2 years of Spanish on his app. 4 UC and Carnegie were not bothered by this. Come 3/28, we’ll know if he gets in more schools.
Do readers/AOs even see the surname? I am thinking of UCs which I have heard hide info from readers that would allow them to discern (or at least speculate) about race/ethnicity.
Son got into several top schools this year with only 2 years of foreign language, backed up by an AP 5 score in that language. But your mileage may vary.
Will you be taking Mandarin HL or SL? What major(s) are you considering?
Having three years of language likely won’t disqualify you from the vast majority of schools. But, if you really wanted to, you could take a CC Spanish class this summer (but probably not necessary.) I also agree with the others who said to ask your counselor to cover in their LoR the Spanish scheduling mistake.
Lastly, make sure to have a balanced college list. Not just Ivy League schools (which can be quite different from another, remember…it’s a sports league, there’s not much else similar between Dartmouth and Columbia, to take one example). It’s easy to identify reaches you want to attend, but spend plenty of time researching target/match schools and make sure to have at least one affordable safety school that you would be happy to attend.