Since everyone has made their opinions known, I’ll assume at this point that if we don’t agree, that we’ll just agree to disagree. There’s no point in having further back and forth debates at the risk of a moderator shutting down the thread.
Technically even Harvard says recommend not require. But I think it depends heavily on what you plan to replace Spanish with. If you are taking an academic elective, high level fine arts, or something that makes sense with who you are no problem but if you are taking an extra study hall or something fluffy you’d probably be better off sticking with it.
@acdchai - Exactly what I received when I email the admission officer on taking 2 AP sciences instead of Spanish and she described as “typical path”…
@SculptorDad Can you provide the names of colleges who told you level 3 = 3 years of FL? I like to show DD’s GC.
I agreed with #21 from @lookingforward
I’m not SculptorDad, but I asked Harvard, Brown, Penn, Stanford, Michigan, and Duke. They all said that level completed = # of years. In my own college search and time on CC, I’ve only come across 2 colleges that explicitly state that they only counted the classes taken in HS. One was a small college in the midwest that I can’t recall, and the other was UDel, although their website seems to longer state it, but below is the link to where they did say it earlier:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19459838/#Comment_19459838
University of California says level 3 or 3 years. Explicitly.
@annamom, you will have more credibility if you personally email to the colleges and show the answers to your dd’s GC.
@SculptorDad thank you. Exactly, that’s the reason I want to find out what colleges consider level3= 3 years of FL so that it is easier for me to gather such a list…I can’t show my GC just because someone on CC said “almost all colleges” consider level 3 = 3 years of colleges…
@VickiSoCal thank you. As in #6 and #7, UC hardly represents almost all colleges for US…and as often mentioned in CC that they don’t provide much merit aid.
@skieurope thank you. I actually contacted Harvard when it was first mentioned in this thread (not that we are interested in Harvard), I asked whether it was okay if DD took Spanish 3 and 4 and for two years (as in a hypothetical situation), Harvard responded that the 4 years is recommendation and not a requirement, hence I should be fine. (as also pointed out in #24). I took it part of a holistic approach…Thank you for bringing up Udel as we are in NJ, hence UDel is a major consideration for kids who want to go OOS.
As a NJ resident, you may want to note that Rutgers only asks for at most “2 years of one language”:
http://admissions.rutgers.edu/applynow/moreforfirstyearapplicants/EntranceRequirements.aspx
If you have a student who takes the top level high school foreign language in 9th grade (i.e. only one year in high school, but level 4 or whatever), then you may want to ask the college directly to verify whether this is ok. But taking Spanish 3 and 4 will fulfill any Rutgers requirements no matter how they look at it.
@ucbalumnus thank you. I knew that… However, as I do not know where DD will go for colleges (though I knew it won’t be UC or Harvard 
), hence I want to keep the option open… The reason I am interested in gathering the information is that the GC “suggested” the kid to take Spanish instead of another course, and there is no reasonable explanation (I asked ) and given the state school only requires 2 years…
@annamom, I use the term “almost all colleges” loosely. I only have contacted a handful of colleges and got uniform answers. That, plus my logic and personal experience, and the opinions and experiences of other people, I made that conclusion. By no means it’s something that you can “show” your GC.
For your GC, I recommend that you contact 5~10 colleges that you are considering and just give that information with out broad judgement such as “almost all.”
Now the reason you didn’t the correct answer from Harvard is because the question was imprecise. Please try something like;
“Dear Admission Officer,
I understand that you have 4 years of recommendation for a foreign language. If my child took AP Spanish in 9th grade and scored 4 at the exam, would she be considered to met the recommendation? Or would you want her to pickup another foreign language or find an out-of-school source to continue foreign languages for grade 10-12?”
Please also note that I asked question on a specific and personal case. They don’t like giving a definite and broad answers because some one always try to bring up an exemption case. In that case they might just answer along the line of “it depends.”
You can contact any top 60 LAC and top 50 National University of your choice and ask precisely (as above). I’m not as certain for top regional universities (Faifiekd, Geneseo, Drake, TrinityTX…) but I believe they too follow the 'level reached ’ model for both math and foreign language (two sequential academic subjects).
They’ll tell you reaching AP level fulfills requirement, because for math and foreign language it’s level reached that matters. (in math, 2 years of remedial math, one year of business math, and one year if algebra1 does not count as “4 years”. 4 years means math up to pre-calculus or calculus - sometimes up to algebra 2plus one free math choice. )
All will understand that if you attend an underperforming school that only offers 1+2, you may not have a choice in the matter, and it won’t be held against you.
For colleges with single digit acceptance rates, the issue is a bit thornier if you are a heritage speaker - single digit colleges are okay if you take the AP for your heritage language, but prefer it if you also add a 'real’foreign language.
So, I’d modify the above letter to include something like " (foreign, not heritage language, learned through immersion elementary school)".
If, among the 150 colleges that I can think of, you email one that does not follow this rule, can you post it here?
Also, dual enrollment classes are typically counted as levels, too, so that college level 1 = 2 years in high school, college level 2= high sxhoolnlecek 3 (or 3+4 at some especially intense colleges), college level 3 = high school level 4 or AP (again, depending on the intensity ifbthe college - think Middlebury vs random cc, 3-credit vs. 4or 5 credit classes… .) So, through dual enrollment, you could complete level 4/ap in just 3 or 4 semesters.
A student who reaches AP foreign language junior year thus gets a period that can be used for anything of interest.
I see you’re mentioning this as an opportunity to take two AP sciences.
Be careful as some combinations are deadly :
AP bio and AP chemistry
AP physics C (especially the complete course) with any other AP science
Possible (non insanely hard to survive) choices include
AP chemistry + AP physics 1 or 2
AP bio + AP physics 1
Either chemistry or bio + apes
Either chemistry or bio + CS principles
AP physics 1 + CS programming
You could conceivably, if you’d taken AP calculus the year previous, take AP physics C and AP CS principles together.
What do you think about taking an SATII in your heritage language to show that the one you took an AP course is your ‘real’ foreign language?
Showing an AP or SAT subject score in a heritage language (or other languages learned outside of high school course work) is always fine. (However, if the college wants N SAT subject tests, the heritage language one is best used as the N+1st one, not part of the N that the college requires or recommends.)
But some of the most selective colleges may prefer to see such a student in an English speaking K-12 environment to take courses in a non-heritage non-English language in addition to showing proficiency in the heritage language.
@ucbalumnus , Exactly. That’s a reason many Asian heritage speakers take a European language as a foreign language throughout their high school years, in addition to the obvious benefits from learning the language itself.
But it is sometimes a concern for them, I mean us, if it is better or worse to take an SAT II or AP exam on their heritage language which can be scored high without much study, in addition to the real foreign language. Because there is the concern of looked as score grabbing or even worse, too Asian. After all, Asian are ORM.
IMO, I really think one needs to be careful with these blanket statements. Obviously if a kid came to the US from Mexico the summer after the 8th grade and then went to a HS in the US, then s/he should obviously study a different language in HS. However, if the student was born in the US to parents who came from another country, I think the answer needs to be “It depends.” Being a heritage learner covers a very wide continuum. Being Latin@ does not always mean proficiency. As an example, listen to JLo speaking Spanish. 
The student may understand Spanish, but not speak it. Or s/he may speak it, although not always grammatically correctly, but cannot read/write it. Or s/he may be fully proficient speaking grammatically correctly on an informal level, but cannot communicate in a formal situation. So in many of these instances, it may be advantageous for a students to gain closer to proficiency in the heritage language first. Just because Spanish is spoken in the home does not mean that the student does not need formal instruction in the language. If that were the case, US students would not need to take 12 years of English.
Now Asian heritage learners may be a different case, since many attend Saturday Chinese (or Korean. etc. ) school from a young age, so it might me more advantageous to pick a different language in HS, since they’ve received some formal instruction along the way. In all instances, however, I think we need to give the HS’s some credit for knowing what they are doing. At my HS, if you scored too high on the placement test, you were strongly advised to pick a different language to study. Now all HS’s may not be that diligent, and some students may be gaming the system for the easy A.
In terms of the Subject Tests, you can follow @ucbalumnus ’ advice above - feel free to submit it as an N+1. Personally, I think this is a waste of time and money, since the Subject Test tests at a relatively low level, but YMMV. I have no issue with heritage speakers taking an AP exam for college credit. However, AO’s are not going to care if you submit an AP score, since AP scores really don’t mean much in the admissions process; they are primarily used for credit and/or placement.
@SculptorDad I was not saying that you wrote the “almost all college” and in your posts, you already said that it was based on your own experience…
I do not see the difference between how you wrote and my email, as they already came back to say it is not necessary to have any more FL. (BTW, in my case, DD only finished Spanish 3 and I used a hypothetical scenario to ask Harvard.) BTW, based on my experience, it is sometimes true that colleges do not like to give a definite and broad answer as I found out from Wellesley…
However, IMO, the general suggestion should really be for the posters to contact the colleges for their specific scenarios.
@MYOS1634 I did not bring up AP FL in junior year.
@SculptorDad : Yes, sat 2 in heritage language (indicated on common app as 'spoken at home ’ vs… Understand/speak I think) + level 4 or AP in a real foreign language is the "ideal " combination for a highly selective school. (sat2 in heritage language is fine for very selective but not highly selective schools.)
Anything above that is extremely rare (among us educated students) - such as students accelerating in two foreign languages.
@annamom : this is an example as the issue is most common for juniors who took foreign language in middle or elementary school and/or language camp.
Typically, completion of level 4/ap junior year is common. At top 50/60 universities it’s a no brainer, students can use the period to orient senior year choices toward more stem, more humanities, art, etc. (but if you email one of these 150 or so that I know about, and they say they no longer consider level reached, but number of actual years regardless of Carnegie units achieved, please post here as a public service announcement.)
Completion of AP foreign language in 9th grade may indicate a heritage language or immersion so it’s trickier, ou’d have to give the exact situation to the college.
Completion of level 3 is not competitive for highly selective colleges but can be sufficient, depending on major, for state flagships or colleges ranked 50+.
Completing FL level 4 is important, but completing FL AP is up to the student (in the same way a student may or may not have calculus, or may orient his/her senior year differently than the standard formula of 5 core courses in each of the academic fields.)
Please note that 'minimal ’ is different from ‘competitive’.
But I still believe it anyway. And I indirectly said it by supporting others who did.
But I do, even though I didn’t see your email. You need to specify that you are trying to meet “recommendation” as well and not just “requirement.” The former will make you a competitive applicant, while the latter will merely let your file not discard too easily.
That’s how it is done often. But if that is how it is ALWAYS done, then we don’t need this forum. General and unconfirmed information is often useful as either primary research or guidance where a definite answer cannot be obtained from the colleges.
Don’t know where some of these ideas come from. Who says “college level 1 = 2 years in high school?” Maybe you can name the college or what sort. Maybe someone’s referring to UC again or to the less selective tiers. Not how it is where I am, much more complicated and context matters. The tippy tops are so competitive it’s risky to generalize.